C/O Berlin will be presenting the exhibition »No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 — Today« from 13 September to 30 November 2019. The opening will take place on Thursday, 12 September 2019, at 07:00 p.m. at C/O Berlin in the Amerika Haus at Hardenbergstrasse 22–24, 10623 Berlin.

“For me, a club is a big abstraction machine that constantly produces pictures. They’re often on the edge of the visible, when the fog rises and you look up toward the ceiling and watch the lights. Intangible things shimmer and flicker through there.”
—Wolfgang Tillmans

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, young squatters, artists, gallery owners, and DJs from East and West took over the city, filling empty buildings, factories, and vacant lots with life. Clubs, bars, galleries, and studios began popping up everywhere. The club and cultural scene became the driving force behind the city’s rejuvenation, pointing the way for a new generation of young creatives. And while techno was not invented in Berlin, what was happening in the city during this period at events like Tekknozid and in clubs like Ufo, Tresor, and Planet can be seen as a kind of “big bang”—the inception of the last major youth culture movement in Europe to date. The visual effects and new artistic approaches of Berlin’s club life occupied a boundary zone at the intersection of video, film, projections, and music. For many aspiring artists, the connection with art offered diverse possibilities for collaboration and new perspectives and spaces for communication, interaction, and celebration— outside the confines of reason and everyday life.

The Berlin club scene gained new momentum at the turn of the millennium. Cheap flights in Europe, together with a new wave of clubs like Bar 25, Watergate, and Berghain and parties that never seemed to stop drew increasing numbers of techno fans to the capital city. Artists, party promoters, and record labels from around the world moved to Berlin, bringing new influences to the city’s sound—a process that continues to this day. But today the spaces of seemingly infinite possibilities are narrowing, and the party appears to be coming to an end.

The exhibition project »No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 — Today« documents the history of Berlin’s club scene since the fall of the Wall and at the same time brings that history to life. During the day the exhibition will showcase photographs, videos, films, and documentary material that offer insights into the evolution of Berlin’s club culture over the past thirty years. At night part of the C/O Berlin exhibition space will be transformed into a club. Surrounded by the pictures in the exhibition, visitors can dance the night away to a series of live performances by acclaimed DJs and sound and visual artists from Berlin’s club scene, both past and present, transforming the experience into art.

The title of the exhibition, No Photos on the Dance Floor, refers to a unique feature of Berlin’s club scene. While photography is a central part of nightlife in other cities, in Berlin, most clubs have strict rules against taking pictures. There are two reasons for this rule: to allow dancers to lose themselves in the music without distraction from cameras and to protect clubgoers’ freedom and privacy.

The exhibition was curated by Felix Hoffmann (Chief Curator . C/O Berlin Foundation) and Heiko Hoffmann (Guest Curator), and includes works by Camille Blake, Tilman Brembs, Ben de Biel, Salvatore Di Gregorio, Martin Eberle, Matthias Fritsch, Dan Halter, Honey-Suckle Company, Erez Israeli, Romuald Karmakar, Steffen Köhn & Phillip Kaminiak, Anna-Lena Krause, Tilmann Künzel, Sven Marquardt, Marco Microbi, George Nebieridze, Alva Noto, Daniel Pflumm, Mike Riemel Collection, Carolin Saage, Giovanna Silva, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lisa Wassmann and Michael Wesely.

A catalog of the same name is published by Prestel Verlag, Munich and edited by Felix Hoffmann and Heiko Hoffmann, including texts by Laura Aha, Christoph Cadenbach, Felix Denk, Martin Eberle, Jan Kedves, Kito Nedo, Jan Rohlf, Thilo Schneider, Philip Sherburne, Wolfgang Tillmans and Alexis Waltz.

Framework program

Thursday, Sep 12, 2019, 7 pm
Opening Reception
Speakers:
Stephan Erfurt . CEO . C/O Berlin Foundation
Felix Hoffmann . Chief Curator . C/O Berlin Foundation
Heiko Hoffmann . Guest Curator
LABLAND 2019 . DJ-Sets von Modeselektor, Krsn, Skate . Visuals von Pfadfinderei

Guided Tours: every Saturday & Sunday at 2 & 4 pm (in German), 6 pm (in English)
Details

For the entire framework program please visit the C/O Berlin website!

Sep 13 — Nov 30, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sep 12, 7 pm
Framework program: please see above

C/O Berlin Foundation

Amerika Haus, Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin
[District: Charlottenburg | Borough: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf]

Opening hours: Daily 11 am – 8 pm

Admission: 10 € / reduced 6 € | Online Ticket