Art and politics in Frankfurt am Main - What has happened?

2000

• Art Frankfurt (3/21/00)

  
  Wonder, o, wonder, there's still an art fair in Frankfurt. Same procedure as every year. Seems that they still think they can sell art.
  Well, and it gives other people the opportunity to show their living room as a gallery. This should be stopped!
  Frankfurt: no inhabitants, just tourists.
  
  

• Station Rose Webcasting (3/1/00)

  
  Still active from their studio. Check out for current schedule More activities are planned for art frankfurt.
  Their last <playing now world tour> included:
  
  • 12.10: Frankfurt, U60311
  • 28.10: Berlin, Transmediale
  • 31.10: Luzern, Viper Festival
  • 11/99: San Francisco, Blasthaus
  • 11/99: Los Angeles, Rico Gallery
  • 04.12: München, Ultraschall

1999

• Frankfurter Kunstverein

  (Art Society of Frankfurt) (9/1/99)
  It is now certain that a certain Schipanski, owner of record label Force Inc., has secretly taken control of Kunstverein by installing a series of evening events, where old analogue(!) vinyl disks are treated with thin needles. "Certainly an interesting phenomenon", says Kunstverein director Nicolaus Schafhausen (33), "they call it >Party<."
  
  

• Frankfurter Kunstverein

  (Art Society of Frankfurt) (5/28/99)
  Officially open now with new show "Wunderkammern". This is a kind of art by artists who proclaim:"I'm totally unable, but look, how much I can do by that."
  
  

• Bill Viola Exhibition (2/25/99)

  
  Certainly the highlight of shows at the moment. The 25 year survey exhibition will be shown at Museum of Modern Art, Schirn Kunsthalle and three other places. Till 25th April.
  More information at the webpage of Museum of Modern Art.
  
  

1998

• Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Bookfair)

  (9/2/98)
  The annual Frankfurt bookfair will happen from 10/7-10/12, one of the bigger events in town. This year's special topic is "Switzerland". Don't expect only fine literature, but all other kinds of happenings, too. Since a lot of artists publish books, there're lot of artists from abroad in town. For this the clublife is busy, too.
  
  

• Frankfurter Kunstverein (Art Society of Frankfurt) (9/2/98)

  
  With longterm director Peter Weiermair finally leaving for Salzburg, there has a long awaited change on top of the house happened. 32 year old curator Nicolaus Schafhausen will take over from 1999. He is well-known for his work at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, which he has directed for three years after Ute Meta-Baur.
  While leaving part of the Kunstverein still to Weiermair Schafhausen opens the groundfloor on Mon., 7th of Sept. with an evening with several artists. 
   

• Offenbach special (9/2/98)

  
  Over the years a remarkable boom has happened in the sister town of Frankfurt. On Sunday, 6th of Sept., eleven institutions of the off-art scene will be open for public. You may check out for Fahrradhalle, Luisenstr. 51, 63067 Offenbach, Tel. +4969-83 837 447
  
  

• Art Frankfurt Special (3/3/98)

  
  There will be a special Art Frankfurt art-fair special with 14 off-scene locations, which will offer a special program during the local art-fair. 3/19-3/22/98
  Preliminary you may check the following locations:
  • Galerie Fruchtig (closed since 11/98)
  • Fahrradhalle Offenbach
  • Bahnhofstr. 20
  • multi.trudi
  • Phantombureau

1997

• Summer is over! (8/25/97)

  
  Now that the summer is over, there seems to be an exceptional boom in new activities, mainly located within the east harbour area, far too much to give in full explanation.
  multi.trudi has finally opened and is ready for public service.

  On weekends there may be either " Stupid Deep Industries " and/or " Schauraum ", both located within an streetcar depot near Kaiserlei-Bruecke. Watch out for flyers?
  Unnoticed to me, the awful Nordisk-Club has been established on Hanauer, but seems to be temporarily closed now. My number one recommendation for the most acid doormen you can get into in Frankfurt. Really an experience!!!!
   

• Summer Vacations

  
  The Thing is on summer vacation till 8/25 There'll be a lot of parties around, but I have no way to inform you about that. So watch out for flyers. Good location for this. Freebase Record Shop, Jordanstr., Frankfurt-Bockenheim.
  Next event: multi.trudi!!!!!!
   

• Gallery dates

  •  
  • Katja Bette - Frauen der Häuser
    Fahrradhalle Offenbach, Luisenstr. 51, 63067 Offenbach, 069-82362625
    Private view: 6/29/97, 11am; 6/29 - 7/13
  • Jan Gelhaar und Reiner Matysik - Neben Medusa
    Gutleutstr. 15, 60329 Frankfurt, 069-232574
    P V: 7/3/97, 8pm; 7/4 - 7/18 (only Fri-Sun, 1-6pm)
  • Manfred Peckl
    Galerie Voges und Deisen, Weberstr. 23, 60318 FFM, 069-557454
    P V: 7/10/97, 8pm
    
    

• Nachtexpress reader

  
  For the last night-dance-demo and for the coming there are both newspapers in German available covering all topics of (political) night life issues about Frankfurt and beyond.
  Please refer to: Nachtexpress c/o DFG-VK, Vogelsbergstr. 17, 60316 Frankfurt
  
  

• New Night-Dance-Demo on 3d of July!

  
  As a reaction to the bruatal police action on the 6th of June there's going to happen a new - this time strictly legal - night demo. It has been achieved to get a permission to let this thing happen from 11pm to 3am, which is quite unusaual for normal demos. It will start from Kaisersack (where Kaiserstr. meets Hauptbahnhof) and goes through the inner city towards Zeil.
  
  

• Night-Dance-Demo failed!

  
  That this year's Night-Dance-Demo (Nachttanzdemo) failed due to unnormal and oversized police countermeasurements may now already be known . More than 800 policemen were in action during this night using tear-gar and randomly clubbing at people. At Konstablerwache around 150 people became encircled and circa 25 got arrested.
  Once again this night shows that violence against cultural events and people engaged in cultural activities is possible and will be tolerated if the expected outcome of an event doesn't fit into the framework the city of Frankfurt's idea of neat, sober and limited culture. Which means not at night, no noise, no drugs.
  There should be pretty nice pictures available which we're going to publish here soon. For example special force policemen clubbing at Technics turntables, throwing them from the trucks. Surprisingly the turntables survived it with only minor damages.
  
  

• Party Weekend (5/16/97)

  
  The

  Nordiskclub

  has been closed by the authorities. I don´t mind because the doorpolicy had been absolutely awful, even to friends and DJs of the club. The whole scene is upset about that behaviour, and the Nordisk people are not very likely to be welcomed anywhere in the city.
  But there are much better things to tell. The warm weather brought a big boom of fancy locations. Last Saturday I`ve been at

  Stupid Deep

  with DJ Meat who stayed at a shed nearby the streetcar deposit in the East Harbour Area (Osthafen). The surrounding was quite industrial with piles of wrecked stuff around. No entry fee but for the drinks was also a friendly gesture. It would be nice if that place would hold for a little while. I went on for another place some streets away where there already happened some events in March (featured by

  Sascha and Steve

  ). It is a very big and devasted area where inmidst of it stays this big hall full of some sort of chemical gear. With springtime all the small trees and bushes had blosomed and gave the place the delicious atmosphere of a garden party. Inside the building they played Drum`n Bass (I'd call it "intelligent" D&B) and outside they had another DJ with small equipment playing House. This was one of the best (illegal) places we had here in Frankfurt, and I hope that there will be repititions.
  
  On Sunday there was a complete change, this time in the western industrial area. A very big cellar beneath a wrecked industrial building discovered by the group " Space Place " who check out different locations each time. This was a little bit like the slaughterhouse parties some months ago with a little scent of torture and horrorshow. No better surrounding for D&B which is in my opinion a legitime offspring of Industrial.
  
  So people once again showed that there are very interesting locations and events around in Frankfurt despite the law and order politicx of the authorities. (A friend told me that big chief Corts made a goodwill tour with journalists around the East Harbour to show the "flowers" of his one year period, which is really cynical because really nothing has changed.) For me each events showed the devotion to let something happen and even understand a way of critizing the events which had happend before and around. There is a road to Klubkritik (clubcritics), may be.
  
  The Parkhausbar (Junghofstr.) has managed to open again, but not as frequently as in former times. Watch out for flyers or check out the site.
  
  

• Andreas Exner at Konstantin Adamopoulos

  
  Sculptor and photographer Andreas Exner gives a broad overview of his latest products (skirt objects) in this one man show. Till June. Schulstr. 48
  
  

• Thomas Sharpe at Voges and Deisen

  
  Gallery Voges and Deisen shows in collaboration with the well known London Gallery The Agency the London artist Thomas Sharpe. I like his very inspiring pencil drawings and the conceptual approach of his paintings. He also told me that he is into House, Noise and Industrial, what I find very comfortable. He confirmed my view that there are not many artists in London familiar with the club scene there (well, but London is big, there should be at least some of them. Or is Goldsmiths that exhausting that people wont have time to go out?)
  After all one of the better shows at V&D; is it because it'S no their artist?
  
  

• Party Weekend (4/20/97)

  
  The last weekend I found quite uninspiring. I've been to the Nordisk Club and Lissania on Saturday night. Nordisk began several months ago as a promising new location in the freightrailway area of Frankfurts west, but has steadily mutated to a "everybody goes there" place, where you will find the suburbian weekend crowd: platinum blonde! I won't go there any more.
  
  Lissania , a former very hot place withing a language learning institute, seems to have cooled down a little bit. The people inside were still a little better than Nordisk, but in the music I missed the energy I've already experienced in some illegal drum'n bass sessions. Last but least; DM 10 for the door is a little bit exaggerated.
  
  There were still some other parties I've missed. Frankfurt is not to bad at the moment.
  
  

• Crimes of the Wehrmacht

  
  The infamous exhibition about crimes of the former Nazi Wehrmacht organized by the renowned Hamburg Institute for Social Science has been opened on Sunday, April 14th, at Frankfurt Paulskirche (St. Paul's Cathetral).
  While only invited guests had acess to the opening festivities, people in front of the cathetral were confronted by rightist activists (Die Republikaner, NPD) who still denie that any crimes in connection with the Nazi warfare especially in Russia and Eastern Europe in WW II had ever happened.
  As this is a very important in event for Frankfurt I'll soon write an article about that in inter.zin
   
   

• ART FRANKFURT

  
  The Frankfurt art fair, Art Frankurt, will be held from April 26 till May 1.
  >The official opening party will take place at the Parkhausbar, which will (fortunately) be reopened after severe interventions by Thomas Erdelmeier, Junghofstr. 14-16, Frankfurt Downtown, Friday, April 25th, 22:00.

  • Das Seminar

    ( a Frankfurt based artclub) will prepare a special wall newapaper with information about the political and cultural situation of people living in Frankfurt.

  • Concert by Freundschaft

    
    In connection with the Art Fair the Frankfurt based industrial/techno/avantagrde group Freundschaft will again give one of their rare concerts.
    Backyard of Gutleutstr. 15 (Downtown), Tuesday, April 29th, 21:00
     
     

• Party Times (4/97)

  I've been out of town for a while been to Berlin, where House is still predominant over Drum & Bass. In Berlin I heard Drum & Bass only at the Panasonic. It is unquestionable that Berlin-Mitte has more fanzy clubs than Frankfurt, but for my impression the scene is not as concentrated as in Frankfurt. Here, every event can be the last event. So people put much more energy in their happenings. The scene in Berlin also looked much more mixed, more different people, whereas in Frankfurt it's more like guerilla warfare, and people are looking like and are prepared for that.
  
  Nevertheless, in Berlin I strongly recommend the Sniper Bar (Hackesche Hoefe), ask for the Video Cookies!, the Club Forschung , Rosenthaler Str., the HTC , U-Bahn Weinmeister Str., the Panasonic , Invalidenstr., and the Kartoffelclub , end of Oderberger Str.. The last one was the most clubbiest I encounterd. Felt pretty much at home.
  
  

• Parkhausbar but closed

  
  The ambitious while illegal bar project by artist Thomas Erdelmeier has been closed. As he told me, the manager of nearby techno temple OMEN, has told the landlord about Thomas' parties and denounced them as "commercial" because he had got into trouble because of drunken kids in the parking lot nearby. (The OMEN is mainly visited by teenagers, whereas the Parkhausbar is favoured by a riper art scene). It's really a pity, but I'm afraid the location will be shut down temporarily. Another loss for Frankfurt.
  Letzte Warnung ans OMEN. beim naechsten Mal werden Namen und Begriffe genannt.
  
  

• Marie Sacconi at Adamopoulos

  
  People who love kool and minimalistic paintings will be satisfied with the show at Konstantin Adamopoulos' I found it superfluous aestheticsm.
  Schulstr. 48, every day - till April
  
  

• Fahrradhalle Offenbach

  
  Sunday evening in Offenbach seems now to be a steady date and place to be - despite quite the distance. The sunday evenening at OSTKLUB seems to be in retreat (maybe because Maya quit her famous "What is ambient?").
  Anyway, this evening was crowned by a live performance by DJ/Electronic Artist ATOM HEART (Uwe Schmidt) who is quite well know within the scene. For me I see no future of this kind of ambient trance electronic music. It's the same with drum'n bass. There's no development in the music because it has no concern. It is pure experiment and enough for itself. Ambient/Electronics is similiar for the ears what drum'n bass is for the feet.
  •  
  • Fahrradhalle acoustic atmosphere samples: one ( two )
  • Atom Heart One RealAudio Sample
    Atom Heart One RealAudio Sample
  • Attention: The RealAudio files need RealAudio Codec 2.0. By using RealAudio Player 8 you'll be asked to download this old codec. Allow this to listen to these files.
    
    

• X-MIX over

  
  The one week probabtion for the local radio station Radio X-MIX is over.This week there is another initiative (Dachverband freier Radios) on-air (on 96,0 MHz FM) trying to be as competitive as possible. There may be a head-to-head race for the license (sadly there'll be only one for Frankfurt...)
  Personnally I found X-MIX almost unbearable this time. Whenever I switched in for a while I heard endless enumerations of what is going to happen, the whole week long. But nothing really happend beside that. I didn' t hear all the DJ sets late into the night, but I found that there was too much stress on drum'n bass, and altogether not enough experiment. Maybe Peter Weiss (DJames Dean Brown) had to show something with his "Lanuiteletempletropique" (or something like that). The last time it was very interesting.
  
  

• X-MIX again onair

  
  Check out for 97,1 FM for another presentation of how a local self-governed radio station can sound like. Lots of differnt projects for the whole week.
  •  
  • X-MIX RealAudio Sample
  • Attention: The RealAudio file needs RealAudio Codec 2.0. By using RealAudio Player 8 you'll be asked to download this old codec. Allow this to listen to this file.
    
    

• Party Weekend (3/1/97)

  
  The party of this weekend was definitely at a secret place within the Osthafen (east harbour) area of Frankfurt. An old shed with lots of installation from an unknown production facility within. Bar and music system within. And its no secret that Drum & Bass was the style of this location. Panacea from Wuerzburg gave his best to impress.
  There are no flyers around, but a repetion of this event can be expected, listen in to 95,1 Porno FM!
  
  

• Dmitri @ Funcadelic (Wed, 2/19/97

  
  Still unbelievable definition of house . a aks ddf aj 66666 d sd.........f...e..t......r.....:%:%:%:%:...34.. ..,,3,,34,5,,s,,,,\\\s d f
  100010101001100101010100f0f 00f0f0 0f00f0f0f0f0f0f00010100 11111g1gg1ggg1gg
  ,1,1,,,,,1,,,,,1,,,0,,0,0))))))9) )))//////%F~~~ [[1 .......................
  .....................
  .....................................................
  ...........................1........ .......0. .......0...... ............ t t
  t t g e i i i i i i a a a aa .........................................0.1.,,
  
  

• Augst & Beck Speechradio (Sprechradio)

  
  One pure speech delivery on Wednesday, 2/12, from 10-11PM on 95,1 FM
  • Here is the first attempt to give an audio impression. Listen to these RealAudio Files:
     

    • Augst & Beck One
    • Augst & Beck Two
    • Attention: The RealAudio files need RealAudio Codec 2.0. By using RealAudio Player 8 you'll be asked to download this old codec. Allow this to listen to these files.
      
      

• Party Weekend (2/8/97)

  There was a convention about the future of radio organized by Radio X-Mix with people from Holland (Radio Patapoe, Amsterdam) and England (Eastman from Kool FM, London) about which I will give a review later on. Eastman was on the turntables at a phony place called Club in Progress (Wallstr. 22), but was expected to show up at the Parkhausbar (Junghofstr. 14). At around 3:30 AM I left this place for Lissania which had one of its rare events with Shantel and DJ Haaksman Drum & Bass now seems to be everywhere.
  
  

• Fahrradhalle Offenbach

  
  At suburbean art spot Fahrradhalle there is an ambient bar (Peak Club) every Sunday afternoon from 5pm till 11pm. I've been there for the first time and my impression was The first Circle of Hell. I've met nearly everyone who's around here in the scene, so it's a good place for a good deal.....
  
  

• Augst & Beck Speechradio (Sprechradio)

  
  One pure speech delivery on Wednesday, 1/22/97, from 10-11PM on 95,1 FM
  
  

• Party Weekend (1/11/97)

  
  This was one of the clear moments where you could see the very best and the worst of Frankfurt. Leaving a pretty boring party at University's KOZ, rather mainstrean drum & bass by DJ Alex, I made my way to the other side of the city, to the former slaughterhouse area. The guys have relocated their illegal club to a small (but much warmer) barraque where they played House and a excellent drum & bass in two small compartments. Although there was no sound escaping in this devasted area, the police suddenly showed up and demanded a stop of the party on the reason that it was "too dangerous" to party in the building. The struggle which evolved around the demand on the electric generator brought no success. The police didn't get the device but the party was definitely over.
  
  

• Porno FM on 95,1

  still going on - listen!
  Occasionally you'll here a pirate radio station here at 95,1 Mhz FM (on air - of course). They are playing House and Drum'n Base extensively till late into the night. I found it very good, and the idea makes sense, because although a liberalization of our state's telecomunicationlaws has already happened and the first free radio station for Frankfurt, hopefully Radio X-Mix , is on its way there's still plenty of space for transmissions which won't fit in the design of a so called "free" radio. As with the most music centered acts the station on 95,1 is weak on words, they show some funny sides if the DJs suddenly mention some familiar person everyone knows here in town. I think they should bring more politics on air. Maybe I can influence them.....
  
  

• Convention on Security and Inner City Developments (1/11-12/97)

  
  Organized by some left wing groups there will be a weekend's convention about the topic of "security" and "inner city development policies". The convention follows a former meeting at Berlin last October called "minus 96" on the same topics with the aim on a more thorough discussion on various phenomenons within German cities as well as an attempt to bring several groups working on this field together. More information will hopefully follow. New: See Inter.zin

1996

• Party - Weekend (11/29 - 12/1/96)

  
  This weekend saw some very good parties.
  •  
  • Friday night at Parkhausbar "Die Party nach der letzten Party" (The PARTY after the last Party), not as big as expected (in spite of DJ Eric D. Clark from Cologne) but more private and cosy for such an event.
    
  • Saturday night at a very unusual location, the former slaughterhouse area, which is now in total demolition with only a few blocks remaining. Because of the cold they have moved from a big hall to the second floor of a shed. Music between House and Drum'n Bass. Not exactly my taste, but a big success for the DJ group around DJ SWish. You can expect futher activities, but only through flyers.
    
  • At Ausstellungsraum Adamopoulos (Schulstr. 48) a reception with Manfred Stumpf on occasion of the first Christmas Sunday. Atmospheric, with spiced hot wine (Gluehwein) and cookies.
    
  • I could't go for Fahrradhalle at Offenbach and an other event at Apfelwein Kneipe Stalburg
    
    

• Schmidl and Haas new plans for FFM art scene

  The Frankfurt based artists and eventmakers Martin Schmidl and Florian Haas have several ideas for changing the structures of the local art scene. First the want to open their showroom (Alte Mainzer Gasse 4) for a broader range of participants for the next year which could commision shows on their own behalf. Second they indent to change the course of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (Society for the Art) by advocating for artists to become members in the society. With around 30 artists it might be possible to bring forward their own ideas about exhibitions and events. For more information call at 069/8003436.

• Station Rose feature Howard Rheingolds new web-site

  Howard Rheingold has founded a new website, Electic Minds. Parts of it are based on worldwide correspondends communicating news from their cities and acting as talk masters for people particpating in the boards open for general public. The Frankfurt multimedia duo Station Rose are now the representatives for the Frankfurt spot within Electric Minds.

 

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Mehr über Frankfurt lesen und erfahren:

• Mitteilungen vor 1996: Thing Mailbox
• Austausch und Diskussion: die Thing Mailingliste
• Kunsträume der Vergangenheit: Homeless Artspaces