Famed Berlin nightclub Berghain is reopening on September 9th, 2020 for an art exhibition spanning photography, sculpture, painting, video, sound, performance, and installations.
All ticket fees will fund Berghain amidst lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left live music venues all over the world struggling to stay afloat.
Influential local art collectors Christian and Karen Boros are organizing the event, dubbed Studio Berlin, through the Boros Foundation. Wolfgang Tillmans, Sandra Mujinga, Tacita Dean, Christine Sun Kim, Shirin Sabahi, and Olafur Eliasson are among the 85 Berlin artists set to feature their work in the exhibition. Art historians will offer guided tours through Berghain’s 3,500-square-meter grounds, with those unable to make the pilgrimage in person having the option to attend virtually as well.
Entry for all at Berghain
Anyone over the age of 16 can attend the art exhibition at Berghain, a far cry from the typical throngs of revelers vying to get into the nightclub’s famously strict bouncers (notorious enough to inspire a website that trains people on how to get past them).
“For the first time, even grandmas with zimmer frames and children will be able to get in,” Christian Boros said to The Art Newspaper.
However, the venue will forbid photos and videos during the exhibition, as it does on club nights.
Adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic
Studio Berlin follows Berghain’s recent socially distanced sound art installation as the venue finds new ways to pay its employees and keep running while live music events remain a public health concern due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other Berlin nightclubs with outdoor spaces have found footing reopening as beer gardens, hosting quiz nights, or accommodating flea markets.
Apart from providing relief to Berghain, Studio Berlin serves as a crucial space for local artists who have struggled as art exhibitions have been canceled or postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For three months during the confinement period we were speaking to artists on the phone every day,” Boros elaborated. “Suddenly everyone had time. I spoke to [the artist] Olafur Eliasson for three hours on Facetime—the only limit was that the phone battery ran down. The artists were all in their studios instead of on aeroplanes. We wanted to show this incredible artistic production. Berlin was frozen, so why not think differently? Why not work together?”
At the time of this writing, opening hours and entry fees for Studio Berlin have yet to be announced. Keep up to date with the exhibition here.
