WORDS
CHRISTIAN KOCH
PHOTOS
CORBIS, REX
this must be germany’s
answer toThai ping-pong shows –
or at least a less kinky, but no less kooky version. At
Düsseldorf’s Salon des Amateurs (
salondesamateurs.de
),
a hipster-clogged café-lounge in the Kunsthalle art
gallery, table tennis balls are flying thick and fast from
the piano strings played by local musician Hauschka.
These scenes are a taster of the pianist’s experiments in
“
prepared piano”, where sound is altered by the insertion
of alien objects. They’re also a fun example of the cultural
renaissance that’s afoot in what was once considered
Germany’s most dour region.
Düsseldorf and its Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr Valley) area
used to be all about commerce, coal and steel.
Nowadays, art students are colonising tunnels
under the Rhine promenade (
kunst-im-
tunnel.de
),
there are supper-club
literary readings, and even a Kraftwerk
revival – the Düsseldorf-bred electro
pioneers recently sold out London’s
Tate Modern. “It’s a creative community – we’re all doing
art and exchanging ideas,” says Martin Sonnensberger,
guitarist with Stabil Elite, a trio of young pretenders to
Kraftwerk’s crown.
The popularity of Salon des Amateurs is integral to the
current scene, its avant-garde happenings drawing
comparisons to the 1960s antics of Düsseldorf-based artist
Joseph Beuys – aman so bonkers that he once imprisoned
himself in a gallerywith a coyote. Yet art has always been
big here.The city spawnedGerhard Richter,Thomas
Schütte and Katharina Fritsch, and today has more than
100
galleries. “There are somany great artists – there’s a
gallery opening everyweekend,” enthuses Kunst Im
Tunnel’s Dorothee Mosters.
Photography is particularly strong here.
In 2011,
Rhein II
,
a drab image of the
Rhine river by local artist Andreas
Gursky, became the most expensive
snap ever sold (€3.3m). Local
There are
so many great
artists – there’s a
different gallery opening
every weekend
Ruhr revival
Germany’s former industrial region
is enjoying a creative reboot, with art,
architecture and ping-pong piano
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