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In the home of electronic music: the world’s first techno museum will soon be opening here
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Frankfurt am Main – Not Berlin, but Frankfurt am Main is regarded by connoisseurs as the birthplace of electronic music. Clubs like the Dorian Gray or the Omen turned the Main metropolis into a techno stronghold in the 90s. The music and attitude towards life of this time are now ripe for the museum.
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The first exhibition of the soon to open Museum of Modern Electronic Music will deal with cult DJ Sven Väth (57). (Archive photo) © dpa/Thomas Frey
After years of delay, there is finally an opening date for the Museum of Modern Electronic Music, kurz “Momem”, namely April 6, 2022.
That a museum for fast beats is progressing so slowly is almost strange. In 2015, the city announced at the Musikmesse that Frankfurt wanted to found the world’s first museum for electronic music and the associated club culture.
At that time it was said that Momem would open “mid-2017”. Since then, the new Historical Museum, the new Jewish Museum and the new Romantic Museum have opened on the Main. But the momem didn’t make much headway.
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At least a place was found at the beginning of 2018: the former children’s museum in the inner-city traffic junction. The organizers of Momem wanted to set up a museum within a year with the financial help of sponsors.
But then financial difficulties put the brakes on the idea again. In 2019, the city secured start-up financing by granting Momem a loan of half a million euros. Then Corona came and the opening was postponed again and again.
“What takes a long time will finally be good,” summed up Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (63, SPD) the stand together when he inspected the still empty rooms accompanied by four heads of department.
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In April the time has come: After several postponements, the “Momem” opens
For the past seven years, museum director Alex Azary has been the driving force behind the Momem project. © dpa/Frank Rumpenhorst
“This is going to be big.” Head of Culture Ina Hartwig (58, SPD) emphasized that the legendary “Tunnelraves” are also part of the city’s history: “Electronic music is coming home with Momem.”
Here “music history can be experienced”. The city leaders find it particularly good that “a new cultural area” is being created by the Momen. Because the museum should not only take place in the interior, but also use the square in front of it – the people of Frankfurt call the lower-lying square lined with stairways “the hole”.
Momen wants to turn the filthy building sin into a party arena. “We see the museum as a social space,” says Alex Azary, who has been the driving force behind the project for the past seven years.
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An “interactive media façade” is to emerge from the glazed exterior of the Momem, as the design offices involved have announced. A “soundwave” reacts to passers-by – 24 hours a day.
There is a game for remixing songs controlled by your own smartphone. At parties, live streams are played by DJs from all over the world – then the “Loch” should become Frankfurt’s largest dance floor – if the Corona-pandemic because it’s finally over.
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The first exhibition in “Momem” revolves around the cult DJ Sven Väth
The “Momem” will be located directly at the Hauptwache in the Main metropolis of Frankfurt. © dpa/Boris Rössler
The first exhibition is dedicated to DJ icon Sven Väth (57). Born in Offenbach, he is now 57 years old and bears the Goethe badge from the city of Frankfurt.
“One of the most important protagonists of electronic music worldwide”, says Tobias Rehberger (55), “a man from the very beginning”. The exhibition he designed is intended to “celebrate Väth in his celebrations”. The Momen, he believes, shouldn’t be in a museum.
“It must attempt to portray the vibrancy of what it is exhibiting.” What that should look like is not yet known – there are no exhibits to see yet.
“In seven areas, the Momem gives insights into the places, the social structure, the instruments and the influences of electronic music and illuminates the numerous genres and subgenres,” says the homepage.
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Cover photo: Montage: DPA/Frank Rumpenhorst, DPA/Boris Rössler
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