Club collective and autonomous cultural space
About:
The collectively run music club and cultural space ://about blank (alternative spelling “About Blank”) arose in the mid- to late 1990s as an underground club in the context of the Autonomist squatters movement,¹ opening within an official legal framework in 2010. ://about blank hosts regular event series as well as one-time cultural and solidarity events.
According to the German language Wikipedia article, ://about blank is a Techno club. Where as the term “Techno club” suggests any night spot with electronic music, as such ://about blank stands in the Left Autonomist tradition of self-organized and grass-roots “cultural spaces” that saw its Berlin heyday from the mid-1980s to the late 2010s.
The collective describes itself on its Instagram page as:
technoclub and cultural space in berlin | autonomist disco for hedonistic insurrectionalist dialectics.
– Instagram: about.blank.berlin. On: instagram.com. URL: https://www.instagram.com/about.blank.berlin/. Last viewed: 05 Nov 2023. (Translation into English by blog’s author)
The on-line platform for electronic music Resident Advisor has the following summary:
://about blank is a formerly illegal, multi-room club by Ostrkeuz S-Bahnhof in Friedrichshain. It’s a short walk from Salon Zur Wilde Renate, and like that club, it’s a lightly renovated re-purposed building with seemingly endless nooks and crannies. There are two main dance floors inside, and in the summer DJs play out in the garden (this is open in the winter too, often with a bonfire going).
The music policy is open-ended but mostly focused on house and techno, with occasional bass or disco nights. The overall atmosphere is gritty, and the parties often go well into the following afternoon or evening.
– Resident Advisor: ://about blank. On: https://ra.co (clubs > 28354). URL: https://ra.co/clubs/28354. Last viewed: 05 Nov 2023.
In spite of its standing among Berlin’s more popular clubs, ranking with 11.772 followers on Resident Advisor among Berlin’s top five clubs², ://about blank’s continuation at its current location is called into question by controversial A100 free-way extension project, while at the same time being subject to challenges arising from contemporary social, economic and cultural change such as the virtualization of social interaction, privatization / gentrification of public space, and the increasing predominance of ordo-liberal, nationalist and militarist sentiment (often referred to as the “swing to the right” – See “Rightist Populism“).
://about blank’s event schedule can be found on the ://about blank website.
1) Blomber, Viola: About Blank: Was du über den Berliner Club wissen solltest. On: quiz.de . URL: https://www.qiez.de/about-blank-techno-club-berlin/. Last viewed: 05 Nov 2023.
2) Resident Advisor: Beliebte Clubs in Berlin. On: https://ra.co . URL: https://ra.co. Last viewed: 05 Nov 2023.
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