After postponement and cost increase: The Berlin Modern remains “a high risk factor”

And this despite the fact that the really bad news has already been known since the last half-yearly report: moisture damage in the basement, additional costs of 7 million euros for damage analysis and repairs and, above all, a postponement of completion by a further nine months to 2030. At the groundbreaking ceremony in 2019, 2026 was still mentioned, at the topping-out ceremony last autumn it was said to be three years later.

The extension of the New National Gallery is not in good shape, no matter how much the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation wants to turn history around. What began with an estimated cost of 200 million euros and now stands at 489 million euros cannot be glossed over, especially when the building, often derogatorily called the “barn,” is still unpopular.

There is no specific opening date

Herzog & de Meuron’s house, with its huge gable roof, has pushed itself too dominantly between the two architectural icons, the Mies van der Rohe Building and the Philharmonic Hall, blocking the view to be forgiven. Things were different with the Swiss architecture firm’s unique Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg’s Hafencity, another controversial project that also caused a scandal due to delays and cost increases.

The New York Times put it on the list of the most historically controversial buildings, along with the Tower of Babel, Boston’s brutalist City Hall and Donald Trump’s planned ballroom in the White House. Today the Elbphilharmonie is one of the most important attractions in the Hanseatic city, a landmark. This would also be the case for Berlin Modern when it opens.

When asked by the Tagesspiegel, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation did not want to give a specific date; the exhibition would probably last until 2031.

In order not to let the mood sink any further and to put an end to the strangeness between the audience and the museum, the Neue Nationalgalerie is using the shell of the building as an intermezzo with art. Berlin Art Week began with five videos by the almost mythical artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), projected onto the bare walls of one of the largest halls of the future museum.

The tickets were taken within a very short time and 5,000 visitors saw the American as he used a cap, chainsaw and sledgehammer to remove geometric structures from demolished buildings, thereby revealing surprising views into the interior and the surrounding area. The video “Conical Intersect” from 1975 was particularly spectacular – projected meter-sized onto the largest wall. At that time, Matta-Clark’s team cut a spiral-shaped opening in an abandoned old building at a dizzying height in Paris, right next to the growing Center Pompidou.

For the beleaguered Neue Nationalgalerie, the interlude with Gordon Matta-Clark may represent a punchline. Addressing the artistic dissection of architecture in a building that is currently under construction has a certain humor, but it wouldn’t be so frightening what is happening all around at the same time. The current half-yearly report on the construction status of the Berlin Modern warns that “a high risk potential” still exists.

It sounds like we should be warned in advance. Changes in building law, additional requirements for the protection of the converted plane tree and the “finding of obstacles/boulders” – all of this has been avoided so far, the report praises. But woe betide you if there is heavy rain again, problems arise with the state of Berlin’s outdoor facilities, the approval authorities impose new requirements or construction companies file for bankruptcy. A lot can still happen between now and 2030.