IT’S NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE FALL OF THE WALL GAVE RISE TO THE BIRTH OF TECHNO. IT FELL TO EAST BERLIN TO SET THE SCENE FOR THE CHANGES THAT CAME SHORTLY AFTER AND HAVE LASTED DECADES. A CULTURAL PARADISE OF UNTAPPED POTENTIAL. BERLIN IS NO STRANGER TO SUBCULTURES. THE HISTORY IS RICH AND RENOWNED. THEY STOOPED TO CONQUER AND GAMBLED EVERYTHING ON WHAT THEY HAD AND BELIEVED IN. THE COLLAPSE OF THE WALL AND THE EXPLOSION OF ECSTASY FUELLED BY WHAT BECAME A GLOBAL CUTTING EDGE IN MUSIC HELPED UNITE EAST AND WEST. IN MANY WAYS IT WAS A CO PRODUCTION WHICH ONLY A HANDFUL ANTICIPATED AT THE TIME. POST WALL BERLIN NEEDS DOCUMENTING AND IN COLLABORATION WITH RED GALLERY THIS EXHIBITION SEEKS TO DO JUSTICE TO THIS MICROCOSM OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC. AN ANOMALY IN TIME. WHEN THE SEEDS WERE SOWN. THE HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THIS ARCHIVE GOES SOME WAY TO INFORMING AND PRESERVING THE CONCEPTION OF THE SUBCULTURE BUT THE EVIDENCE THAT HAS BEEN GATHERED AND PUT TOGETHER FOR YOU SHOULD GIVE THE VIEWER AT LEAST A GLIMPSE IF NOT THE BLUEPRINT TO WHAT THOSE FORMATIVE YEARS MEANT TO SO MANY PEOPLE. TECHNO NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION OR BREAKDOWN. THE MOVEMENT HAS NOT SLOWED OR FRACTURED. WHAT WAS BUILT BACK THEN REMAINS INTACT. THE PHOTO, FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES THAT HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TOGETHER FOR THIS EXHIBITION NOT ONLY CAPTURE BUT ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE WITH WHAT CAN ONLY BE DESCRIBED AS A MONUMENTAL CULTURAL SHIFT. A CONSIDERED AND TRUTHFUL RAW POWER MOVE BY THE ARTISTIC COMMUNITIES OF BERLIN. THE EDGE CREATED BY THE PIONEERS OF YESTERYEAR HAS SURVIVED AND WITHOUT EVER GIVING IN TO MASS CONSUMERIST CULTURE. FROM MONIKA DIETL PLAYING TECHNO FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE RADIO AND THROUGH THE WALL, THE MOVEMENT HAS ALWAYS HAD A RHYTHM OF ITS OWN AND IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT RED GALLERY SHOULD WANT TO BE A PART OF THAT HISTORY. THEIR WORK IS CO-OPERATIVELY MALIGNED TO THOSE ARTISTS INVOLVED IN AFTER THE FALL. WORD HAS SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE CREATIVE COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE GLOBE. TECHNO HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO OUR LIVES. BERLIN STILL REMAINS THE FOCAL POINT FOR THE CULTURE AND MOVEMENT SPAWNED OUT OF THOSE EARLY YEARS BUT WHAT IS WORTH REMEMBERING IS THAT LIKE MINDED INDIVIDUALS AND COHORTS HAVE JOINED THE RESISTANCE AND FORGED STRONG BONDS GIVING THE MOVEMENT A DEPTH AND STRENGTH THAT OTHER SUBCULTURES HAVE FAILED TO INSPIRE US WITH. CITIES LIKE DETROIT AND PLACES LIKE EAST LONDON HAVE NOTABLY KEPT THINGS ALIVE AND MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. THESE ALLIANCES RUN DEEP AND AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE COLLABORATIONS AND VISION IN THESE PLACES THE CULTURE WE LIVE IN IS STRONGER THAN EVER. THE CULTURAL ECHOES THAT RESONATE AROUND THESE AREAS IS PRECISELY WHAT RED GALLERY SEEKS TO DOCUMENT AND PRESERVE. THE OTHER REASON THEY HAVE SOUGHT TO BRING YOU THIS EXHIBITION IS THAT INSPIRATION IS A MYSTERIOUS AND FLEETING THING AT BEST. THEY KNOW THIS. THE ARTISTS EXHIBITING IN AFTER THE FALL KNOW THIS. WE ALL KNOW THIS. THE MARGINS AND MEASURE OF WHAT IS TRULY INSPIRING THESE DAYS CANNOT BE CONDENSED OR DEFINED BY HISTORY OFTEN. THE FACT THAT ECONOMICALLY FRAUGHT CITIES OFTEN CREATE THE MOST VIBRANT AND INVENTIVE SCENES IS TRUE OF BERLIN. WHAT WAS ONCE DESOLATE WAREHOUSES IN A WASTELAND BECAME THE PLAYGROUND OF THOSE WHO BLAZED A TRAIL FROM THE BEGINNINGS OF A SUBCULTURE RIGHT THROUGH TO TODAY WHERE SOMEHOW THOSE ROOTS ARE NOW HAILED AS THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES. SIDE BY SIDE AND GUIDED BY THE MUSIC, THE URGE TO EXPERIMENT AND STEP AWAY FROM THE FLAWS IN SOCIETY WAS TOO STRONG TO GO UNNOTICED. THIS EXHIBITION URGES YOU TO REMEMBER HOW IT BEGAN AND HOPEFULLY WHY ITS MOMENTUM IS STILL REAL TODAY. YOU MIGHT SAY THAT ITS RISE ACCELERATED THE CULTURAL STATUS QUO TO FAVOR THOSE WITH SOMETHING TO SAY BUT THE TRUTH IS WE ARE STILL REELING FROM THE SIDE EFFECTS OF TECHNO EXPRESSING ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD.
“AN EXHIBITION THAT CAPTURES THE TIME WHEN EAST BERLIN FELT LIKE A TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE AND EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BE POSSIBLE.” AFTER THE FALL CAPTURES A SINGULAR PERIOD, WHEN ONE OF THE BIGGEST POLITICAL CHANGES IN RECENT HISTORY COINCIDED WITH THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW MUSICAL MOVEMENT. POST-WALL BERLIN WAS THE PERFECT BREEDING GROUND FOR THE YOUTH CULTURE THAT WOULD DOMINATE THE 90S AND CHANGE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE CITY FOREVER — TECHNO. THE ARCHIVE INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS BY GERMAN ARTISTS BEN DE BIEL AND TILMAN BREMBS, EAST BERLIN WAS FULL OF DISUSED SPACES AND ABANDONED BUILDINGS, JUST WAITING TO COME TO LIFE AGAIN. IT WASN’T CLEAR WHO OWNED THESE WAREHOUSES AND DESERTED OFFICE BLOCKS, WHICH LED THE TECHNO PIONEERS TO TAKE OVER AND SET UP SHOP. CLUBS, GALLERIES, SQUATS, STUDIOS AND WORKSHOPS SOON SPRUNG UP — ONLY TO DISAPPEAR AGAIN A FEW WEEKS LATER. WITHIN A SHORT SPACE OF TIME BERLIN HAD BECOME THE FOCAL POINT OF A NEW CULTURE, ATTRACTING ENTHUSIASTIC FOLLOWERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO CLUBS SUCH AS ‘TRESOR’ AND ‘E-WERK’. AMONG THOSE EARLY TECHNO AFICIONADOS WERE WRITERS, ARTISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, MUSICIANS AND FASHION DESIGNERS. TECHNO QUICKLY DEVELOPED INTO A LIFESTYLE AND MASS MOVEMENT, FINDING ITS MOST EXHILARATING EXPRESSION IN THE LOVE PARADE.
GERMAN PHOTOGRAPHERS BEN DE BIEL (FORMER OWNER OF RENOWNED BERLIN-BASED CLUB MARIA) AND TILMAN BREMBS (CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND ZEITMASCHINE, HIS ONLINE ARCHIVE OF ANALOGUE PHOTOS OF THE EARLY RAVE DAYS) HAVE BOTH WITNESSED BERLIN’S SLOW TRANSFORMATION FROM DIVIDED CITY INTO THE BUSTLING NIGHTLIFE CAPITAL IT IS TODAY. AS PHOTOGRAPHERS AS WELL AS RAVERS AND ACTIVISTS THEY LIVED AT THE CENTRE OF THIS CULTURAL EXPLOSION. WHILE BEN DE BIEL’S GRAINY BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS CAPTURE THE CITY’S OFTEN INTERCHANGEABLE SQUAT AND ART SCENE, TILMAN BREMBS’ WORKS ON THE OTHER HAND FEATURE THE OPTIMISTIC MADNESS OF THE EARLY RAVE AND CLUB SCENE IN HIS COLOURFUL PHOTOS.
IN 1983 MY FATHER (HE WAS AN ARCHITECT) GAVE ME ONE OF HIS CAMERAS FORM MY FREE USE. SO FROM TIME TO TIME I WAS HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS CREATING FOTO SESSIONS JUST TO HAD FUN. FROM 1985 TO 1988 I TOOK A 3 YEARS TEACHING IN A PROFESSIONAL FOTO LAB IN DARMSTADT NEAR FRANKFURT AM MAIN. DURING THIS TEACHING I REALISED THAT I WANT TO BECOME A PHOTOGRAFER BUT NOT WHAT KIND OF. SO 1989 I MOVED TO HAMBURG AND GOT A 6 MONTH TEACHING AT RUDI MEISEL PHOTO AGENCY „VISUM“. VISUM REPRESENTS 7 PHOTOGRAPHERS BESIDE RUDI MEISEL AND THE MOST OF THEM WERE AS WELL PART OF THE VISUM PICTURE ARCHIVE, WHICH HELD PICTURES FROM OVER 20 YEARS AT THAT TIME. WITHIN THAT TEACHING I REALISED THAT I WILL BECOME A REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAFER AND NOTHING ELSE. IN THE MEANWHILE THE MOST OF MY OTHER FRIENDS MOVED TO WEST-BERLIN TO AVOID THE MILITARY SERVICES. FROM 1988 TO 1990 I WAS TWICE A YEAR IN WEST-BERLIN TO TAKE THE PICTURES FOR THE BERLIN UNDERGROUND THEATER COMPANY R.A..M.M. TEATHER WHICH SOME OF MY CLOSEST FRIENDS BECAME PART OF. WHEN THE WALL FELL DOWN I SAW THAT IN TV, BUT I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THAT CAN MEAN FORM ME AND MY FRIENDS. THE FRIST TIME I CAME TO BERLIN IN 1990 WAS IN FEBUARY TO GOT SOME SHOOTS FOR R.A.M.M. THEATER. BUT THIS TIME IT HAPPEND IN KARLSHORST IN THE FAR EAST OF EAST-BERLIN. I WAS DARK EVERYWHERE, JUST HALF OF THE STREELTIGHTS WERE IN FUNCTION AND IT WAS SO COLD. IT WAS SPOOKY AND I LEFT AS QUICK AS I CAN.
IN MARCH 1990 I GOT A CALL FROM BERLIN AND MY FRIENDS SAID THAT THEY SQUATED A HOUSE IN BERLIN-MITTE AND I SHOULD COME AND TAKE A LOOK AT. IN FACT I HAD THE ORDER TO PRODUCE 2 REPORTAGES FOR VISUM AT THAT TIME, ONE WAS A GIVEN THEME ONE I COULD CREATE FREE. SO WHEN I CAME BACK TO BERLIN IN EARLY APRIL 1990 THE SUN WAS SHINING BRIGHT, AND THE AREA AROUND THE SQUAT HOUSE WHERE I STAYED LOOKED LIKE THE WAR HAD ENDED ONLY A FEW WEEKS AGO. THE CITY A WAS A THRILL AND A TRIP AT THE SAME TIME. BETWEEN THE SOUTH PART OF PRENZLAUER BERG AND THE OLD CENTER OF BERLIN AT UNTER DEN LINDEN, WERE HALF OF THE HOUSES BOMBED AWAY OR GOT DECONTRUCTED IN DDR TIMES. THERE WERE NO CARS ON THE STREETS, NO TRAFFIC, NEAR BY NO PEOPLE, NO SHOPS AT LEAST NOTHING THAN EMPTY SPACES. BUT EVERY DAY SOME MORE STRANGE DRESSED PEOPLE CAME TO DISCOVER THE MORBID CHARME OF THIS AREA. VERY HELPFUL WAS THE FACT, THAT ALL PROPERTIES IN DDR BELONGING TO THE GOUVERMENT, OR LETS SAY TO THE PEOPLE, AND IF YOU OWN EVERYTHING SAME AS YOUR NEIGHBOUR THERE IS NO REASON TO LOCK IT UP LIKE IT IS IN CAPITALISM. SO FOR THE FIRST TWO YEARS WE HAD THE CHANCE TO TAKE A LOOK AT EVERY HOUSE, BACKYARD, BASEMENT, OR ROOF WE GET KEEN ON. SO I SPEND MY DAYS BY DISCOVERING THE CITY, TAKING PICTURES FOR MY REPORTAGE, AND SPEND MY NIGHTS ON TECHNO PARTIES, USING DRUGS, AND GET IN TOUCH WITH BEAUTIFUL GIRLS. OF COURSE I REALISED THE HISTORIC SITUATION OF THIS DAYS BUT I WAS YOUNG AND FOR SURE TOO NAIVE TO REALISE THE DIMENSION OF THIS CHANGE. BEN DE BIEL
1984 TILMAN BREMBS MOVED FROM FRANKFURT/ MAIN TO BERLIN. HE STARTED WORKING AT TRESOR IN 1991 AND WAS IN AND ABOUT THE TECHNO SCENE SINCE IT’S BEGINNINGS. 1992 BREMBS STARTED WORKING AT “FRONTPAGE” AS AN THE IN-HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER - THE TECHNO MAGAZINE OF THE TIME. HE WAS IN ALL THE TECHNO CLUBS AROUND THE GLOBE, HIS CAMERA ALWAYS AT HAND, ALL THE WHILE BEING A WELCOME GUEST WHO KNEW HOW TO PARTY. AS THE PHOTOGRAPHER OF “FRONTPAGE” HE WAS ALWAYS UP CLOSE, BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE WHOLE PICTURE, BUT ALSO DIRECTLY BEING A PART OF THE MUSIC SCENE AND PARTY CULTURE. RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE, INSTEAD ON THE PERIPHERY. HIS PHOTOS ARE A KIND OF “VISUALIZED CONFIRMATION OF EXISTENCE“. THE “I WAS THERE” EFFECT SETS IN AND THE CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN CAN SEE WHAT THE “OLDIES” WERE UP TO. NOSTALGIA DOESN’T ARISE, RATHER A KIND OF RECOGNITION, IT’S THE SAME WITH CHILDHOOD PICTURES, WHERE YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT COLOR THE WALLPAPER HAD OR WHICH TOY DID WHAT. ZEITMASCHINE IS A CHRONICLE OF IT’S TIME, SHOWCASING PEOPLE BRINGING THIS ERA TO LIFE, EXHIBITING THE FASHION, THE LIFESTYLE AND THE ARTISTS. TILMAN BREMBS WORKS AS A CASTING PHOTOGRAPHER IN A NOTED CASTING AGENCY IN BERLIN. HE LIVES IN BERLIN WITH HIS WIFE AND PARSON RUSSEL “ANDRA”. TAUL TILMAN
THE LIFE AND SOUND OF A GENERATION BEGAN IN THE FORGOTTEN CITY SPACES OF PLACES LIKE BERLIN, DETROIT, LONDON, MILAN, MADRID, TOKYO AND BEYOND. SPACES DEDICATED TO INCLUSIVITY, COMMUNITY, AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS THAT CONTINUE TO TAKE PLACE IN THESE SPACES UNDERPIN THE COMPLEX FABRIC OF URBAN LIFE; DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN POLITICS, ART AND PHILOSOPHY, THEY REPRESENT THE BREATHING ESSENCE OF THESE SUBCULTURES. AMIDST THE SMOKE AND LIGHTS, THE LATE NIGHTS AND THE ROAR OF A SOUNDSYSTEM, MEMORIES WERE HAD, AND LIVES WERE LIVED. CLUB CULTURE TELLS THESE UNTOLD STORIES IN RAW, VIVID DETAIL, A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY TO DIVE INTO ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING CULTURAL MOVEMENTS TO HAVE EXISTED. CLUB CULTURE AND OURHISTORY ARCHIVE: CLUB CULTURE CELEBRATES AND DOCUMENTS THE UNITY OF DIVERSE COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES WITHIN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT. SHARING MATERIAL FROM THE OURHISTORY ARCHIVES, THE EXHIBITION IS CURATED BY ERNESTO LEAL WITH A SPECIFIC FOCUS ON THE HISTORY OF BRITISH DANCE CULTURE. TODAY IN 2019, BRITAIN IS AT A CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CROSSROADS, AND THE RIFT BETWEEN SENTIMENTS GROWS WIDER. WITHIN UK DANCE CULTURE MANY ARE WORKING AND BUILDING ON PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS, AND EVENTS THAT ARE FOUNDED ON AN OUT-DATED, ELITIST AND INSULAR NARRATIVE. CLUB CULTURE ARRIVES AS A STATEMENT MADE IN OPPOSITION TO THE CURRENT ALL-PERVASIVE VIEW THAT IS BOTH IGNORANT AND CYNICAL TOWARDS THE ETHICS, DIVERSITY AND RICHNESS OF COLLECTIVE HISTORIES – MARGINALISED CULTURES THAT COULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT THE EUROPEAN COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE. THIS EXHIBITION IS ABOUT SHARING THOSE RICH HISTORIES WHICH HAVE BEEN IGNORED OR FORGOTTEN AND ESTABLISHING THIS SUBCULTURE AS COLLECTIVE, INCLUSIVE FORCE. THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY CLUB CULTURE HAS OPERATED ON THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY. IT RE-INTERPRETS THE DIALOGUE AND HISTORY GENERATED BY THOSE NOMADIC MICRO-COMMUNITIES THAT EXIST PURELY OUT OF DIFFERENCE AND RESISTANCE TO THE MAINSTREAM PERSPECTIVE. FROM PUNK, TO RAVE, SUBCULTURES REMAIN AT THE FOREFRONT OF COLLECTIVE SOCIAL EVOLUTION, EMBRACED FOR THEIR SUBVERSIVE TENDENCIES. THE FACT THAT SUBCULTURES FORM THE BASIS, IF NOT THE SOURCE, OF OUR WIDER CULTURE AND SOCIETY AT LARGE HAS NOT ESCAPED OBSERVERS AND CRITICS ALIKE. THE EXHIBITIONS: EACH ARCHIVE IN THE EXHIBITION BRINGS YOU TO A UNIQUE POINT IN TIME AND PLACE TO EXPLORE SOME OF THE MOVEMENTS THAT SPREAD ACROSS THE CONTINENT IN THE PAST 30 YEARS. STEP BACK INTO LATE 1970S SPAIN, FOR EXAMPLE. AS FRANCO’S DICTATORSHIP DISSOLVED, A NEW COUNTERCULTURAL MOVEMENT EXPLODED OUT OF MADRID. WHILST LA MOVIDA, (A HEDONISTIC, CROSS-DISCIPLINARY MOVEMENT) BECAME RESPONSIBLE FOR SPAIN’S BURGEONING ARTS SCENE, THEY DIRECTLY INFLUENCED THE HIPPIE-LED CREATIVE COMMUNITIES OPERATING ON THE ISLAND OF IBIZA. THEIR STORIES WOULD SOON BE TOLD. A VIBRANT AND UNIQUE SOUND WAS EMANATING FROM THE WHITE ISLE, CONGEALING INFLUENCES FROM US FUNK AND DISCO, LATIN, ITALO AND LOCAL INFLUENCES. IT BEARS REMEMBERING THAT WHAT WAS SO TRAGICALLY COINED AND REPOSSESSED BY THE BRITISH AS ‘BALEARIC BEAT’ WAS, IN FACT, THE MUSIC OF LA MOVIDA. BALEARIC WAS NEVER “FOUND”, DESPITE WHATEVER ‘EXPLORERS’ MAY PROTEST, AND THE MYTH OF ITS DISCOVERY UNDERPINS THE IMPORTANCE OF LEAL’S WORK IN DISMANTLING THESE HISTORIES, EMANCIPATING THEM AND STRIPPING THEM DOWN FOR THE PEOPLE THAT ORIGINALLY FORGED THEM. WHETHER THROUGH THE LENS OF ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHERS: OUKA LEE AND MIGUEL TRILLO WHICH CAPTURED “LA MOVIDA” OR CURATORS KIWA AND TERJE TOOMITSU DOCUMENTING THE PARALLEL WORLD OF ESTONIAN HIPPIES, OR CHRIS LOW’S DIY ETHIC AND REBEL ATTITUDE IN PHOTOGRAPHING TOKYO’S PUNK SCENES, LEAL PRESENTS AN ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE OR USE OF FORMS TO DEPICT HOW, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SEXUAL LIBERATION, DRUGS, ALCOHOL, MUSIC, POLITICS AND LITERATURE, THESE DISPARATE ENTITIES HOMOGENISED THE THOUGHTS AND DREAMS OF THE FEW, INTO A POWERFUL AND SUBVERSIVE SUB-TEXT TO THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. EACH SHOW SEEKS TO HIGHLIGHT THE PERSONAL MEMORIES AND EPIC JOURNEYS THAT ARE BORN OUT OF THESE SUBCULTURES, AND CELEBRATES THE ECHO OF THESE CITIES THAT CAN BE HEARD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. THE CLUB CULTURE ARCHIVES SEEK TO GIVE A PLATFORM TO THE PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES THAT CONTINUE TO SHAPE OUR WORLD AND ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF CULTURAL SANITISATION THAT IS UBIQUITOUS IN SUBCULTURE HISTORY OF LATE. OUR PROJECTS PROVIDE A SPACE FOR A MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE AND CONTINUE TO HIGHLIGHT THE CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE MOVEMENTS AND THEIR RELATION TO EACH OTHER.
THE ONLY CERTAINTY IS THE EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU RED GALLERY WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE ALL THE SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS OF THIS PROJECT, JAMES GOFF AND THE STIRLING ACKOYD TEAM FOR THEIR UNQUESTIONABLE FINANCIAL SUPPORT, STUART WAPLINGTON AND LEO SCOTT AT PRINTSPACE/HUB FOR THE PRINTS AND THE TEAM AT BLOOP. ONLINE RADIO STATION, KIRSTY ALLISON, MAYUR KALITA & THE PANEL; DANIELLE DE PICCIOTTO, KEITH REILLY, FIONA CARTLEDGE & FELIX DENK. ©1999 MFS/MARK REEDER & CORVIN DALEK/NARODNIPODNIK. TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM: ASSORTED STADTANSICHTEN
ART DIRECTION BY ERNESTO LEAL DESIGN BY JASON KEDGLEY PRINTED BY NICK WINTER AND CAROLINE O’CONNOR AT KTP PRINTERS