End of 2019, spring 2020, autumn 2021: For the opening of the Museum of Modern Electronic Music, MOMEM for short, several dates were already in discussion.
But first there was a dispute about the city's contribution to the financing of the planned museum, then the pandemic thwarted the plans.
But now it's getting concrete: on April 6, 2022, the museum, in which the history of electronic music, from techno, house and EBM, is to be told, is finally due to open at the Hauptwache.
With an exhibition about a man from Frankfurt who is one of the most influential figures in club culture: the DJ and label owner Sven Väth.
Alexander Juergs
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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On Thursday, the organizers of the planned museum, who founded an association for their project, presented their plans and the rooms in which they want to show their exhibitions to the new city government and press representatives.
Frankfurt's Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) and his party colleagues Ina Hartwig, who heads the cultural department, and planning departmental director Mike Josef were there as well as city treasurer Bastian Bergerhoff (The Greens) and digitization department head Eileen O'Sullivan (Volt).
Dancing to states of intoxication
The new Roman alliance signals that it is behind the project that has also been criticized in the past. Ina Hartwig said that she was full of anticipation for a museum that would thematize the unusual, which would be about "the physical, about dancing, about states of intoxication".
The future director Alex Azary, who works as a music producer himself, also emphasizes that MOMEN is not supposed to become a classic museum.
He prefers to speak of a "social space".
Film evenings, talks and workshops are planned in the museum, DJs and music producers should be able to present their new music and talk to the guests about it.
In a library you will be able to immerse yourself in the history of the techno movement.
A large collection of magazines and flyers has already been put together.
In the MOMEM, Azary also wants to work with universities and initiate research projects; an initial collaboration with the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is already planned.
Professorship for sculpture plan show with Väth
And he wants to expand the MOMEM into the urban space: As soon as the exhibition house opens, there should also be a regular cultural program in the area in front of the museum, the exit to the Hauptwache station. An interactive media facade should also come into play there. Passers-by should be able to control this facade with their cell phones or with movements. DJ performances from clubs outside Frankfurt could also be broadcast via the facade: The area in front of the museum would then become an open-air dance floor.
The exhibition about the techno DJ Sven Väth, with which the MOMEM wants to open, is planning an artist: Tobias Rehberger, who has a professorship for sculpture at the Frankfurt Städelschule.
He promises a "very personal exhibition" about the most important head of the Frankfurt techno scene.
Rehberger gets help from Tobias Giese, who runs the StadtPalais Museum in Stuttgart.
In Stuttgart, the exhibition organizer demonstrated how innovative concepts can be used to attract new target groups to the museum, and how to put together a lively program.
This spirit will soon also rule in the MOMEM.