The Boros Collection, also called the Bunker of Berlin, Bananas’ Bunker or the “Hardest Club in the World” (The New York Time, 1994) is a private art collection with an incomparable way of showing contemporary art. The multiple nicknames of this building testified of the rich history behind it. If you are passionate with architecture, Second World’s War’s history, Berlin’s night life’s history or even…contemporary art, this is the place you need to visit.

The Bunker was built in 1941, by forced labor, under Nazi’s Germany as a bomb shelter for the visitors and workers of the Friedrichstrasse’s train station. Although it was constructed in a rush – because in the middle of the war – you can discover, along your visit, a lot of architectural decorative details inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces. These details are explained by the fact that the bunker was supposed to represent the whole power of Germania and celebrate Nazi’s victory after the war, creating a very unusual decoration’s contrast.
As you know, the Second World’s War did not finish the way the Nazis expected it, and the Bunker was used by the Soviet’s army as a prison, then it became a storage place under the German Democratic Republic where they kept imported food, such as bananas.

Time passes, the wall is down, it’s 1992, it’s the rise of berlin club scene’s culture and this historical construction becomes one of the wildest techno clubs in the world. People are partying in every of the five floors on Gabber, Trans, or Hardcore music. If you are not convinced of the intensity of these nights, please take a look at the wall of the dark rooms on your visit, you will be able to notice the degradation of the paint due to the condensation of the partygoers’ sweat. The closing of the club in 1996 is also an event of great importance for techno’s culture as the manifestation against it became the first techno parade.

When Karen and Christian Boros visit this building in the mi-2000’s looking for a place to exhibit their contemporary art collection, they fell in love with the it and, fortunately for us, decide to keep as many marks of its past as possible. They still did a lot of renovation, which participates to make the exhibition unique as every room is different and all the artworks are carefully place in the one that will highlight it the most.
The current collection, which will still be expose for two years, present a large panel of artwork, exploring almost every medium and technique possible, from artists mostly based in Berlin. To see the collection, you must book a tour and be sure to do it at least two weeks in advance. As so, a guide will give you precious information about the works and their meaning – usually socially engaged, but not always explicitly – which will really allow you to get into the artwork and will, for sure, amaze even the most contemporary art’s skeptical.

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