BERLIN.- A pattern of blue and violet brush marks that has overlooked the entrance of Hamburger Bahnhof for nearly four decades is receiving a major restoration as the Berlin museum prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Created by Swiss artist Niele Toroni in 1988, the large-scale mural stretches across the open arcade on the façade of the former railway station. Although its repeated marks may appear simple from a distance, the work is closely tied to a decisive moment in Berlin’s cultural and political history.

Toroni produced the mural for Zeitlos, Harald Szeemann’s influential exhibition organized when West Berlin was named European City of Culture. At the time, Hamburger Bahnhof had not yet been renovated or transformed into a museum. The Berlin Wall was still standing, although its fall was little more than a year away.

The exhibition was among the first events to reveal the abandoned railway building’s potential as a setting for contemporary art. It also helped prepare the way for Hamburger Bahnhof’s eventual opening as the Nationalgalerie’s museum of contemporary art in 1996.





For the museum, Toroni’s mural is therefore more than a decorative work on a historic façade. It is a surviving trace of the building’s transition from transportation hub to cultural institution and a reminder of the atmosphere of artistic possibility that surrounded West Berlin during the late 1980s.

Titled Omaggio alla loggia dello spedale degli innocenti, the mural covers approximately 85.8 square meters and extends across six architectural niches, each measuring about 2.20 by 6.50 meters.

Hundreds of marks appear along the arcade. Seen from the plaza below, they resemble evenly spaced dots. At close range, however, each one reveals the physical impression of a paintbrush loaded with blue or violet acrylic paint.

Toroni, who was born in Muralto, Switzerland, in 1937 and has long lived in Paris, has used this method for more than five decades. His works are created with impressions from the same type of brush, placed at regular intervals of 30 centimeters. The repeated gesture allows the architecture and conditions of each location to shape the final appearance of the work.

The mural’s title refers to the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, a 15th-century building designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Its celebrated loggia, with its long sequence of rounded arches, finds an architectural echo in the arcade of Hamburger Bahnhof.

The restoration, which begins during the summer of 2026, will give conservators the opportunity to address the effects of almost 40 years of exposure on the museum’s exterior. It will also allow visitors to see a familiar work from a perspective that is normally inaccessible.

In September and October, Hamburger Bahnhof will offer public tours on the balcony and passageway along its façade, which is also illuminated by Dan Flavin’s well-known light installation. Curator Alice Koegel will join conservators Eva Rieß, Anika Basemann and Anna-Sara Buchheim to discuss the history of Toroni’s work and explain the restoration process.

The first tours will take place on September 13 as part of Germany’s Open Monument Day. A German-language tour will begin at 11 a.m., followed by an English-language tour at noon. A second series will be held on October 15, with tours in German at 5 p.m. and English at 6 p.m.

Participation is free with a valid museum admission ticket, although space is limited and advance registration is required.

Toroni’s mural is also part of Hamburger Bahnhof’s Endless Exhibition, an ongoing project that places 22 works from the museum’s collection throughout its galleries, exterior spaces, garden and surrounding neighborhood.

The self-guided route brings together contemporary art and traces of Berlin’s history. It includes Dan Flavin’s 1996 light installation, the former Invalidenstraße border crossing and Christian Boltanski’s The Missing House, an intervention marking a wartime gap in a row of buildings on Große Hamburger Straße.

Since 2023, the project has also added a new site-specific commission each year by a woman artist living in Berlin. Works by Judith Hopf, Claudia Wieser and Susan Philipsz have already joined the route, while Ayşe Erkmen is contributing a new commission for the museum’s anniversary year.

The mural restoration forms part of Hamburger Bahnhof’s wider 30th-anniversary program, which includes eight special exhibitions, a new collection presentation, performances and concerts.

Celebrations will culminate from November 13 to 15 with an international conference examining the future of museums devoted to contemporary art collections. During the anniversary weekend, Hamburger Bahnhof will remain open continuously for 30 hours.

The restoration is supported by the German Foundation for Monument Protection and the Berlin State Monuments Office. The accompanying educational program is being organized in cooperation with the foundation.