Exhibition tip: Science Underground Tour

HU Berlin/Matthias Heyde

24.03.2022
Exhibition Tip: Science Underground Tour

Brain City Berlin

Decipher research via hidden object pictures and experience Brain City Berlin up close: Since March, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has been offering guided tours through the “Bahnhof der Wissenschaften” (“Station of Science”). Once a month, students and visitors get together to explore the "Hintergleis (Behind the Platform) Exhibition" by Berlin illustrator Nele Brönner in the Unter den Linden underground station. Visiting this unusual presentation isn’t just fun - it’ll really make you think. It’s free to join the tour.

Underground stations usually aren’t a place you want to hang around in. They’re places of transit, of boarding and transferring. But the underground station at Unter den Linden is different. Because the underground station, opened in December 2020, is a “Station of Science”. Six hidden object images are located behind the platform of the U5, and show scenarios from our geological age that are also core research projects for scientists at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin). Illustrator Nele Brönner’s pictures tackle topics like global warming, escape, or cross-border networking. And above all, they show how people’s decisions affect nature. Derived from the ancient Greek word “anthropos” (human) and “cene” (epoch), our current era has been called the “Anthropocene”.

Just like with all hidden object images, there are lots of details to discover when viewing the exhibition. More specifically: 669 terms and 258 image elements. It would be impossible to find them all. If you don’t want to explore the six scientific worlds alone, now you can do it as part of a one-hour tour group. Since the 20th of March, HU Berlin has been offering monthly tours where students and visitors can get together to go on a journey of discovery through the Station of Science, decoding the Anthropocene world and the research topics hidden in the images.

The exhibition on the U5 platform edge at the Unter den Linden/Friedrichstrasse station is a joint project of the HU Berlin, the Schiel project company, the exhibition agency TheGreenEyl, and the Büro für prekäre Konzepte, as well as Berlin artist Nele Brönner. It’s also pat of the “Open Humboldt” initiative that HU Berlin hopes will promote exchange between science and society.

Exhibition tours take place every third Sunday of the month. Participation is free of charge. However, please register online.

What’s more: If you’re interested, you can also use an app to go on a journey of discovery through the "Station of Science" and even "chat" with motifs from the exhibition and architectural details. The “Sciencely” app is available for free in the App Store as well as in the Play Store. (vdo)