Thank you for the music

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC is a photographic and documentary project devoted to Cologne’s club scene: a scene brought to an abrupt standstill by the coronavirus pandemic and still fighting for its existence today. The project starts on 14 March 2020, the day clubs and bars in Cologne had to close. Places that for decades had been spaces for music, art, encounter and freedom suddenly fell silent.

At its centre is a photo magazine portraying 26 Cologne clubs and bars. The photographs offer glimpses behind closed doors and show empty dance floors, deserted stages and silent bars. The pictures are accompanied by personal statements from club owners, musicians and cultural workers who talk about their experiences, fears and hopes. The result is an emotional document of its time that makes visible what these places mean to the city and its people.

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC was initiated by Philipp Treudt together with Klubkomm e.V., which has represented the interests of Cologne’s club scene towards politics and the public for more than ten years. An exhibition had originally been planned for the association’s tenth anniversary, but the pandemic changed everything. Out of this situation came the idea of putting the clubs themselves in the spotlight and recording their stories.

The project was realised through a successful crowdfunding campaign on Startnext. Support from the community made it possible to produce the magazine and to stage several exhibitions in Cologne where the photographs were shown publicly. The aim was and is to raise awareness of the precarious situation of the clubs, to emphasise their cultural weight and to remind politics and society how essential these places are to urban life.

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC is at once a tribute, a warning and a declaration of love: to a scene that shapes Cologne, even when it has at times become invisible.