Opening: 23.5.2025 Non-stop music from 7 pm: Kompakt Allstars DJs and live acts in the Riphahn-Saal, 1st floor Pop Ambient Floor in the Studio, 2nd floor
This exhibition is dedicated to a company based in Cologne. It is one that stands, like carnival and Kölsch beer, for tradition and continuity. It is a well-established business, albeit one that keeps its walls porous and its doors wide open. Expansion and reinvention are as essential to it as a regular bass drumbeat and the exhilarating joie de vivre of Hildegard Knef’s vocals. The principle of ‘no more than is needed’ resonates down the decades, with a simple dot as a trademark. A manifesto of autonomy and aesthetic minimalism. As a rule, techno is catalogued not by stars big and small, but by sober numerals. The number 500 represents not an anniversary but the number of catalogued records the firm has produced, a milestone which this exhibition celebrates. For over thirty years, Kompakt’s work has been influencing and nurturing the worlds both of music and art. Its headquarters in Cologne’s Werderstrasse is a space of free creativity, modelled on Andy Warhol’s Factory. There, in a rejection of the traditional division of labour, records are sold in its shop, music is produced in its studios, while accounts are kept, applications prepared and projects administered in its offices. At the same time, people live in the building, cooking meals and throwing parties in disdain for alienated life. Kompakt is not least the story of something that emerged organically from a group of friends with a shared craze for electronic music. However, by aiming to keep everything in its own hands, Kompakt also embodies a political idea of autonomy, even though it all began as a bit of a laugh. To this day, the indie label has successfully avoided both falling under the economic control of large corporations, and producing its tracks under alienating conditions.
