With MOMEN, Frankfurt Authorities Give Techno a Mark of Approval


FRANKFURT — Nowadays, this German city is known as a regular financial capital and is home to the European Central Bank. But in the 1980s, it made another, more discreet distinction, as a hub for Europe’s budding techno scene. While the electronic music genre has its origins largely in Detroit, Frankfurt’s clubs were among the first to bring the sound to Europeans.

Among the most influential venues was Dorian Gray, a club with a decadent reputation. “It was a place for all the freaks of the night: transvestites, hardcore leathermen, the cocaine crowd,” said Alex Azary, founder and director of Frankfurt’s new Museum of Modern Electronic Music. “When the subwoofer was turned on, your heartbeat was in rhythm.”

Now Azary has taken on the task of educating the mainstream public about the legacy and culture of electronic music, and Frankfurt city authorities are supporting him. The new museum, known as MOMEM and opening Wednesday, is a $1.3 million initiative to transform the experience of going to a club into a corporate setting. MOMEM will host live events as well as rotating and permanent exhibitions featuring videos, music and interactive elements.

The museum is also the highest-profile example of German policymakers’ growing efforts to embrace clubbing as an economic and cultural force and as part of the country’s heritage.

Local and federal leaders have recently taken several measures to protect and promote clubbing. Last year, the German Parliament changed zoning rules to reclassify clubs as equal to concert halls and better protect them from gentrification. The Free Democrats, a pro-business party that is a member of the ruling coalition, also supported UNESCO’s attempt to declare techno music an “intangible heritage.” In many cities, including Berlin and Leipzig, politicians have taken action to protect clubs at the local level.

However, MOMEM appears to be the first time a German municipality has financed the construction of such an institution. Housed in Frankfurt’s former Children’s Museum, MOMEM is the newest member of the city’s renowned Museumsufer, a series of high-profile cultural institutions near the River Main, including the Städel Museum and Goethe’s birthplace. In addition to providing the place for free, the city financed the project with an initial loan of €500,000, about $550,000, and allowed the museum to hold its opening party at one of the country’s most historically important churches, the Paulskirche.

The city’s head of cultural affairs, Ina Hartwig, said in an email that the city supports MOMEM in the hope that it will become a “cultural magnet” that will attract international visitors to Frankfurt.

For its inaugural exhibition, MOMEM devotes its entire space to an exhibition about one of Germany’s most well-known DJs, Sven Väth. The exhibition, curated by artist Tobias Turistger, who won the Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, features the Väth’s collection, virtual reality recordings of DJ sets, and dangling headphones where visitors can listen to their original music. One area includes a DJ booth set up as outlined in Väth’s tour rider, where visitors can play their chosen recording.

“This is the beginning,” Azary said. “The first museum dedicated to modern art appeared in 1908, and now they are in every small town. I think that will happen soon, but for that matter.”

While Frankfurt played a key role in the early days of Germany’s techno scene, the center of gravity shifted to Berlin in the 1990s after German reunification. The German capital has since become known worldwide for its open club culture. The scene pumped nearly $1.66 billion into the city’s economy in 2018, according to a study by the Club Commission, a group dedicated to promoting and protecting Berlin’s nightlife.

Musicologist Matthias Pasdzierny from the Berlin University of the Arts, who has written about electronic music in Germany, said in a phone call that the German authorities’ support for clubs and projects like MOMEM was largely due to marketing concerns. “There is a global competition between cities for a certain class of well-educated youth,” he said. “It’s a way of saying, ‘We have interesting jobs and you can have fun here,'” he said, highlighting a city’s club culture.

Such concerns became evident in business-focused Frankfurt, which hoped to attract but struggled to attract bank finance workers who moved from London after Brexit. Aspect Writer at HandelsblattA German business newspaper wrote: “Many London-based bankers are unwilling to leave one of the world’s most culturally-rich metropolises and move to sleepy little Frankfurt.”

Pasdzierny explained that in recent years German leaders have begun to see techno as a form of “soft power” to help improve the country’s international reputation. He added that officials aim to maintain the image of a kinder Germany by emphasizing the country’s inclusive club culture.

But he added that the coronavirus pandemic has shown the limits of German politicians’ willingness to offer tangible support for nightlife, as nightclubs were often the first venues to be closed when cases escalated, despite strict security measures. “I think politicians only care about their image when it helps them economically,” he said. “There’s still the view that clubs are dangerous and dirty.”

One of Azary’s goals is to dismantle the simplistic views of clubbing and explore the ideas and values ​​of electronic music. The 40-year veteran of the Frankfurt club scene has said he has long believed that clubbing can be a utopian force that can foster open-mindedness, love and egalitarianism. “It was a revolutionary feeling – we sincerely thought we could change the world,” he said. Still, given the current state of the world, he added, “we have to admit that it didn’t turn out exactly the way we wanted.”

He said he even doubted whether it was appropriate for the museum to hold an opening party while Russia was fighting in Ukraine. “But then we decided that we needed to turn what we were doing into a symbol,” he said. “Club culture is about mutual respect and being allowed to be yourself.”



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