In latest metamorphosis, Berlin Nazi bunker becomes private museum
May 15, 2008BERLIN - When Adolf Hitler ordered his favourite architect Albert Speer to plan a public bunker for downtown Berlin, he probably never imagined the same building would one day house a collection of contemporary art.
But history has its own unpredictable ways and, starting next month, art lovers will be able to see pieces by hot artists like Olafur Eliasson and Rirkrit Tiravanija in the remodelled bunker that once sheltered up to 3,000 people during air raids at the end of the Second World War.
Collector Christian Boros, who runs an advertising company in the western city of Wuppertal, bought the property in 2003. For several years, he had been looking for an adequate space for his 500-piece collection and the bunker seemed a perfect match for his private museum.
"Berlin is a city that constantly reshuffles and recreates itself," Boros, 43, told reporters during a recent tour of the five-storey-high bunker in Berlin's Mitte neighbourhood. "So what would be a better place for my collection than this bunker."
Built in 1942, the edifice has undergone several metamorphoses during the last few decades.
When the Red Army occupied Berlin in 1945, the Soviets turned the building into a prison for Nazi war criminals. During Communist times, the grey, concrete structure was used as storage for exotic fruits because its three-metre-thick walls provided cool temperatures year round.
"East Germany used it to store the bananas that Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent them," said Boros - which also explains why Berliners dubbed the 16-metre-tall building the "banana bunker."
After East Germany collapsed in 1989, the party crowd used the bunker as a notorious sex and techno club.
In order to turn the bunker into an exhibition space, Boros asked a team of architects to reduce the number of rooms from 120 to 80, with galleries now measuring between 2.3 metres and 13 metres in height. He declined to say how much he paid for the bunker and its reconstruction.
"We made sure to preserve the marks of the times," explained Boros and, indeed, bullet holes on the outside bear witness of the house-to-house fighting at the end of the war, while bright graffiti inside are reminders of the 1990s party scene.
The only new addition was a 1,000-square-metre glass-walled penthouse on the roof, with a garden and a wraparound balcony, for Boros and his family.
Starting in June, Boros will open his collection to the public on Saturdays. For a ten-euro ($15) fee visitors can sign up online for guided tours.
While Boros is planning to show different works from his collection every year, he decided to first highlight Danish artist Eliasson and other big names in the contemporary scene.
One major Eliasson installation is a ventilator swinging like a pendulum from the ceiling. There are also several Eliasson light and colour installations spread out over five floors on the maze-like, 3,000-square-metre exhibition space.
"All works engage with room and light," said Boros, adding that he will be presenting 90 works, mostly sculptures, by 57 artists, among them Anselm Reyle, Elizabeth Peyton and Tobias Rehberger.
Installations by Rirkrit Tiravanija include leftovers from a meal cooking performance during a recent party at the bunker, crates of green beer bottles and portable water fountains.
"I like to buy art that irritates me, that I don't understand," explained Boros, adding that he bought his first piece of art, by German artist Joseph Beuys, when he was 18 years old. "My parents gave me money to buy a car and instead I bought art."
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On the Net: http://www.sammlung-boros.de
