Boros Foundation — Attraction in Berlin

The bunker itself is beautiful, really a perfect venue for sculpture and contemporary art and an aesthetically charged brutalist alternative to a sterile white wall gallery space. However, much of the art inside didn’t impress me. I know this is supposed to be an alternative to the larger institutions, so I set my expectations knowing I would see some fairly amateur work. But really almost every room was underwhelming. A lot of very unoriginal unskilled concept art that looks like an imitation of an imitation of something that may have been conceptually groundbreaking 75 years ago, some large scale aluminum abstract scratch paintings that made me mourn for the wasted material, some found object sculptures, some kinetic sculptures of body parts in motion that look like they could be built with a Lego kit. At least two rooms with toys and characters from children’s franchises presented as commentary about digital cultural artifacts or whatever other tired buzzword. I lean towards the philosophy that good art should be impactful even void of an explanation. My tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, and while lengthy tours and explanations can add meaning and context to work that already has merit, they can’t create value where there is little. I really only enjoyed the Olafur Elliason, which is disappointing as I had hoped to discover young emerging talent. I often found myself transfixed by the building itself, imagining the history of these rooms and meditating on the architectural forms and the textures and bits of color left behind from decades of layers of scrubbed away paint. I always thought that the tradition of the plain white gallery room exists so that the art inside can be viewed and interpreted in a neutral context. I never considered that it may also be so that the room doesn’t outshine the art. This place could use some fresh...

magnificent art exhibition. you have to book a place on the website ~1,5 months in advance. also, you can choose the language of the excursion - german or english. ticket costs 18€. we did not expect to get there free of charge, it just turned out that this is the option for Ukrainians now. the whole tour was 1,5 hours long. i think it’s not enough. we moved a bit too fast to get into all details, but the leader of the group was very good at explaining meanings, details, and the whole introduction to artworks. a lot of installations resonated with me. this exhibition changes once in 4 years and it is a private collection. this one was updated in may 2022, which means you still have plenty of time to see these installations for the next 3,5 years. i would definitely come one more time.

it is not allowed to take photos of art. so please, respect this rule and keep your camera away. there is always that one person who breaks the rule. make sure, that it won’t be you.

it was a great experience! a historical place with insane history and beautiful present. grateful to have this opportunity seeing private collections, and this one is one of the best in Berlin i saw so far.

*remember, contemporary art is...

A rather anticlimactic and disappointing experience. The guided tour spoon feeds you information about the artists and the context of their work, all of which can easily be found on the internet without too much digging. I was hoping to see the work of several specific artists that are part of the exhibition, but were not included in the tour, because the tour guide decided so. Many of the installation pieces simply did not work - due to technical issues or because they were not turned on. All of this makes the Bunker feel more like a trap for tourists rather than a serious gallery.

On the plus side - the building itself is well worth seeing and walking around in.

Fun fact: Boros purchased the artworks of renowned British artist Adrian Morris without knowing who he was and that he was long passed away. Things like this make me question the integrity of their enterprise altogether.

If you are not familiar with contemporary art at all, you might use exhibitions at the bunker as a starting point to get some rudimentary knowledge. If you already have an opinion, however, do not...