A WORLD OF REIMAGINATION

In the wake of the pandemic, Berghain, Berlin’s notoriously selective nightclub, has reinvented itself as an art gallery

It’s infamously tricky to get into Berghain — or, at least, it used to be. Like many venues across the world, Berlin’s leading techno club — a preserve of the patient and persevering — was forced to close in March due to coronavirus restrictions, but the venue has since reopened as an arts space.

A former power station, the almost 40,000sq ft club is currently hosting Studio Berlin, an exhibition of 115 Berlin-based artists, including Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson and Wolfgang Tillmans — but given how exclusive Berghain was in the past, its hallowed halls are likely to be as much of a headline spectacle as the works adorning them. It’s currently emblazoned with a banner created by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija that reads, ‘Morgen ist die frage’ (‘Tomorrow is the question’).

Visitors can book timed tickets for guided, socially distanced tours of the contemporary art show that takes in both the club’s dance floor and the legendary Panorama Bar. This is the venue’s latest instalment of an unexpected artistic programme for 2020, following DJ events in its adjacent beer garden this summer.

It’s a savvy move from the clubbing colossus, and one that other venues might be wise to copy. The recent report ‘Global Nighttime Recovery Plan’, by nightlife consultancy VibeLab and an international panel of night mayors, academics and music promoters, suggests that venues will have to find ‘creative business model pivots’ in order to survive during the pandemic. Berghain’s innovation may lead the dance into a new night-time normal.

Studio Berlin runs until December 2020, with permanent installations and further exhibitions ongoing. studio.berlin

SARAH BARRELL