Updated: 16.10.202020:25
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fromEast Tinç
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shut down
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The leases in the Zollamt studios in Offenbach will expire in April 2022. A move “would be hell”.
Since July the artists of the Zollamt studios have been meeting regularly to exchange ideas. Canceled trade fairs, almost all virtual exhibitions and closed nightclubs have hit the freelancers hard. In addition to worries about one’s own existence, there is also uncertainty about the future. “The customs office is being forgotten a bit,” says Lukas Sünder, who met five colleagues in his studio on the sixth floor and reported on the current situation.
In April 2022, the artists’ contracts with the non-profit construction company Offenbach (GBO) expire. This in turn only rents out the rooms itself, the owner is the federal government. “We don’t know whether the contracts will be extended. If not, there must be alternatives, ”demands Sünder.
Since 2014, the former procurement office of the Federal Customs Administration has housed 50 studios. It stood empty for ten years before the city made it available to creative people. Andrea Blumör points out that the city government’s current coalition agreement stipulates that a connection solution will be found for the users of the customs office studios. The coalition agreement will expire, however, as local elections are due in March 2021. “It’s not that easy to just find new rooms,” says the visual artist. The sooner you know what to do next, the better.
Of course, they would all like to stay in their current rooms. “We feel very comfortable here. The location in the middle of the city is perfect, ”says Karl-Heinz Thiel. Most rooms are between 20 and 22 square meters in size. Tooth designer Melanie Balthasar only has twelve square meters, but finds it “cozy” there. And Lukas Sünder has the largest in the entire building with around 40 square meters, where the concept artist, who works a lot with fabrics, has enough space to unfold.
Karl-Heinz Thiel, Melanie Balthasar, Philipp Lenz, Alwin Dorok, Andrea Blumör and Lukas Sünder (from left) want to keep their studios in the Zollamt studios.
© Monika Müller
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Because of gentrification, says Alwin Dorok, there are fewer and fewer buildings being scrapped. At the market square recently the studios had to move over a fast food restaurant because the building was being demolished. “One problem is that the other alternatives are being flattened,” adds Sünder.
For Philipp Lenz it would be “hell” if he had to look for something new. “We remodeled and soundproofed the room. In the current real estate situation it is impossible to find something better, ”says the sound designer. As a musician in the electronic field, it is difficult anyway to earn money and find a place where you can make noise. If something was rented somewhere, 200 people would apply for a few rooms.
The creative minds actually wanted to hold an open day in March to draw attention to their situation. But it had to be canceled due to Corona. “The last open day was a few years ago,” reports Sünder. A workshop and an online offer will replace it. The artists are planning to set up their own Instagram presence. The individual tenants will each take over the management of the canal for one week.
In addition, several working groups were set up to campaign for the maintenance of the customs office studios. “The politicians all let themselves be celebrated back then,” says Karl-Heinz Thiel of the handover of the building to the art scene. In the meantime, the people involved are no longer there, neither with the city of Offenbach nor with the GBO. “Now we need new people who can be celebrated,” says Thiel. If you call yourself a creative location, you also have to do something for the artists. And Offenbach has plenty of it.
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