our story.

1. 2005

   a dead horse?

   “A dead horse, a dead cow, a dead pig, that’s what should go in there”, said Andreas, who was sitting next to me on the terrace of the Alter Wartesaal, looking across at the large windows of the newly built premises opposite. I looked at him in disbelief and wondered whether Andreas had perhaps had one beer too many by now. “Yes, like Damien Hirst, that barmy English artist”, Andreas mused on, “he made millions with his preserved dead animals. Rented a warehouse and hung them from the ceiling. It was hugely controversial in the art world of the nineties, but it got him an awful lot of international attention. And Hirst made millions. MILLIONS!” Andreas repeated. That caught my interest, and I quickly ordered two more beers from the friendly waitress. Since 1983, Andreas and I had been running the Alter Wartesaal, a multicultural venue at the foot of Cologne Cathedral, right next to the central station.

   

2. 1983 to 2001

   the hall opposite

   The “Saal”, as we fondly called it, was known far beyond Cologne for countless concerts by German and international bands, for wild parties and club nights, for its glamorous restaurant, where endless celebrities came to dine, and not least for TV legend Alfred Biolek, who was also one of our partners. In 2001 I learnt that, directly opposite the Alter Wartesaal, a large section of the Domplatte was to be demolished and the entire station forecourt, along with the steps up to Cologne Cathedral, rebuilt from scratch. And as part of this, the new premises I have just described were to be built too. We feared that whoever rented the place might, sooner or later, get in the way of our activities as new neighbours, or even take action against us over late-night noise from our concerts and parties at the Alter Wartesaal. So we applied to the City of Cologne’s property office to rent the premises ourselves.

   

3. 2004 to 2005

   from sushi to art

   Being big sushi fans, we initially planned to open a sushi bar there. With that concept we were awarded the lease in 2004, and a tenancy agreement was signed. Over time, though, we dropped the sushi idea again, and so, once the building work was finished in 2005, Andreas and I found ourselves sitting on the terrace of the Alter Wartesaal that one summer afternoon, drinking beer and pondering what to do with the place. It didn’t have to be Damien Hirst, exactly, but a bar full of art seemed tempting. “What if we opened a pub there that gets completely redesigned by a different artist every year?” I asked Andreas.

   

4. 2008

   until the opening

   He jumped at the idea straight away and pointed out that he was a member of the Kölnischer Kunstverein. He could ask whether they’d be interested in working with us. The Kölnischer Kunstverein would choose an artist every year to design the bar as they saw fit, and we would sell drinks in the ever-changing surroundings. That very afternoon Andreas went over to the Kölnischer Kunstverein and pitched our idea, which was received with great enthusiasm. The kunstbar project was born. For structural reasons, however, the landlord kept postponing the completion of the bar. And so it was not until the summer of 2008 that Arne Quinze, a renowned Belgian artist and designer, began the bar’s first design. The opening took place in November 2008.

   

Paolo Campi