Area Revisited

"AREA REVISITED" was initiated by Dr. Henriette Väth-Hinz and curated by Nina Venus in collaboration with Cindy Hennes, staged in 2015 as a satellite show and official contribution to the 6th Triennial of Photography Hamburg. It was produced by Deichtorhallen Hamburg, with Krzysztof Candrowicz serving as the Triennial's artistic director.

Realized by a group of fellow artists and friends, the exhibition was staged in a 700 sqm warehouse in Hamburg's Oberhafenquartier, its raw industrial architecture absorbed into the show's conceptual framework. Large-format photo banners hung from the 10-meter ceiling alongside a 28-work series of large-scale portraits, "LGBTQ+," selected and installed by Volker Hinz together with Nina Venus. A video loop by Cindy Hennes, drawn from Hinz's extensive AREA archive, was shown for the first time.

Between 1983 and 1987, a former warehouse in New York's Lower Manhattan became AREA, a legendary nightclub that dissolved the boundaries between high and low across art, installation, music, fashion, gender, and performance, giving rise to a new transgressive form: nightclubbing. Founded by Eric and Christopher Goode, Shawn Hausman, Darius Azari, and Zwi Wasserstein, the club became known for its elaborate invitations — capsules, hollowed-out eggs, black handkerchiefs — and for decors that changed every six weeks around themes like Art, Confinement, Suburbia, and Science Fiction. Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Chuck Close, Grace Jones, Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, David LaChapelle, Laurie Anderson, and Madonna were among the regulars, creating an exceptional, experimental atmosphere. Volker Hinz was there with his camera, in the midst of it all, portraying the place, the people, and a bygone era. AREA was a cosmos unto itself, a site of artistic experiment and social transgression that mirrored, and outran, the zeitgeist of the '80s — where the social establishment mixed with artists of every discipline, the culture-curious from the suburbs, and the party crowd.

As a playful, experimental nod to the original AREA — the fabled New York nightclub — Nina Venus founded "AREA HAMBURG" together with fellow artist Cindy Hennes, conceived as a transgressive platform for the arts in Hamburg. The project proved shorter-lived than its namesake, breaking apart before it could fully evolve.

For the opening night of the 6. International Triennale of Photography, which was also the opening night of AREA HAMBURG, a long table was installed in the midst of the exhibition, inviting 100 selected guests to a festive gala dinner.

Later in the evening the dance floor opened for the performing artists who mingled with the public. Thanks to Cindy Hennes' connections as musician, an exceptional DJ set by Björn Beton, member of the renown German hip-hop band “Fettes Brot” inspired a party that lasted all night: “AREA REVISITED”.