In our final day of programming, we toured the Boros Collection of contemporary art in central Berlin. The collection is housed in a truly unique space that had formerly been an air-raid bunker during the second world war. It later served as a warehouse for perishable fruits and vegetables.

As designers, it’s important that we are aware of what is happening in the contemporary art scene, since the political atmosphere that shapes (and is shaped by) art is entangled with issues of space, agency and cultural values. If we, as a group with the Landscape Studies Initiative, are to understand the context of past cultural landscapes, we must also understand the context of those landscapes’ present(s). This is done, in part, by learning about art and the artists who make it. Although this learning can partially be done remotely, seeing curated exhibits like the Boros Collection in person provide us, as students of design, with cultural touchstones that are germane to the immediate present and which are not accessible through other means. 

I’m glad that we had the opportunity to tour the collection, as well as have a thoroughly competent tour guide to lead us through the unusual spaces in the bunker. It provided me with time to imagine the layered history of the bunker’s spatial sequence while gaining new knowledge about contemporary ‘post-internet’ artists.