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From: PRESS RELEASE Category: Art Date: 03 June 2009 Time: 05:40 AM Review: Fondazione Prada Carsten Höller The Double Club A Bar, Restaurant and Dance Club where the Congo Meets the West A Bar, Restaurant and Dance Club where the West Meets the Congo from 21 November 2008 7 Torrens Street London EC1V 1NQ The Fondazione Prada is pleased to announce The Double Club project, conceived by the German artist Carsten Höller and supported by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria. Located in London, in an old Victorian warehouse just beside the Angel tube station, The Double Club will be inaugurated on 21 November, offering a unique approach to entertainment and hospitality, as well as creating a dialogue between Congolese and Western contemporary music, lifestyle, arts and design. The Double Club will not only be a vibrant new public space in London but also an alliance of two cultures in real life that will facilitate the cross-pollination without any attempt of fusion. The club consists of three spaces: bar, restaurant and dance club. The artist has divided each area into equally sized Western and Congolese parts on a decorative and functional level, generating an inspiring perspective on double identity as well as on cultural coexistence. Moreover, the different sections have been conceived and designed to represent the most challenging elements of both cultures, encompassing music, food and visual aesthetics. In the restaurant Congolese and Western food is served on Congolese tablecloths or on Kram and Weisshaar’s acclaimed Breeding Tables, each of which is unique. The restaurant also includes outstanding art works from the West (paintings by Carla Accardi and Olle Baertling, a relief by Louise Nevelson, an embroidered map by Alighiero Boetti and a silkscreen on paper by Andy Warhol) and from Congo (the stage dress of the guitarist Luambo Makiadi, a.k.a. Franco, a painting by Mosengwo Kejwamfi, a.k.a. Moke the Painter, Kinshasa, a Cheri Samba painting). The Double Club is the only place in London where you can choose between a Liboke na mbisi (fresh fish wrapped and stewed in large leaves) and a range of extraordinary Western dishes, all made of special ingredients combined in an original yet simple way. In the central courtyard bar area, there are two Western portions and two Congolese: a large tile garden with Portuguese azulejos (depicting a flying city originally drawn by Russian architect Georgi Krutikow in 1928) and a copper bar with a pink neon sign saying Two Horses Riders Club; another bar with coloured plastic chairs, parasols, and wall paintings of beer advertisements, where Congolese beer can be enjoyed and a reproduction of Cheri Samba’s J’aime les Couleurs enlarged to a surface of 7 x 4 m. In the dance club, the DJ plays alternately Congolese and Western music on a circular dance floor which slowly revolves at about one turn per hour. When the DJ is in the Western part of the room, ‘Western’ music is played, while as coming into the Congolese part it will switch into Congolese Rumba, Wenge or Ndombolo. Furthermore, once a week the Club will present the best of contemporary Western and Congolese music live, showcasing both local and international bands. The tradition of fashion-led, transient clubs in London is strong and the city’s nightclubbing pedigree, its cosmopolitan attitude and its rich musical heritage will make it a compelling location for The Double Club. Carsten Höller (b. Brussels, 1961) is an artist working and living in Stockholm, Sweden, whose recent installations include Test Site, the giant slides at Tate Modern in London (2006-07) as well as Revolving Hotel Room at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2008). Höller’s artistic practice focuses mainly on researching altered forms of existence through the use of methods where the interaction between work and public becomes fundamental. His intention is to make the viewer receptive to an individual transformation that occurs the moment one comes into contact with and experiences the artwork. It is with these precedents in mind that Höller has developed The Double Club project, which originated from his passion for the Congo. With The Double Club, the artist confirms his belief in art’s capacity to subvert reality, as well as his interest into what he calls ‘influential environments’, where duality is favoured against the unilateral. Starting from the idea of creating a place where two very different cultures, Western and Congolese, will interact, and keeping a balance between these two aesthetic polarities, it will offer a unique modus operandi. The project, which is fundamentally experimental in character and with profits donated to City of Joy/UNICEF, challenges the artistic content and its positive contribution to the understanding and dialogue with contemporary expressions of African culture, which is of critical relevance in this moment. The coexistence of individualised identities that in the club remain faithful to themselves, with the presentation of their sounds, their tastes and their aesthetics, is an invitation by the artist to consider a new history, self-knowledge and knowledge of others, rejecting a centric vision and offering a dual perspective where the Double - West and Congo - is a variant of the perception of the world, no longer the single perspective unique where one predominates over the other. The realisation of such a multifaceted project as The Double Club has been possible thanks to a pool of experts of various fields, such as: - Jan Kennedy, Project Director of The Double Club. In 1995 he opened the acclaimed Michelin starred restaurant Quo Vadis with Marco Pierre White, before opening the seminal Pharmacy with Damien Hirst in 1998. He was the co-founder of the legendary dance music club We Love Sundays at Space (Ibiza). - Mourad Mazouz, founder of successful restaurants in London such as Momo Restaurant Familial and Sketch, as well as 404 in Paris and Almaz by Momo in Dubai. He is also founder of Mo’Zik, an innovative record label. - Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram, founded KRAM/WEISSHHAAR in Munich and Stockholm in 2002. Their breakthrough project was Breeding Tables (2003-2008), In this project their approach towards intelligently intertwining product development and media design, while taking advantage of the newest technological possibilities, is paradigmatically outlined. The project is made possible through the support of Guaranty Trust Bank, plc, Nigeria, which will also be partner of a cultural programme to be presented during the opening months of The Double Club. ‘In the current climate of escalating conflicts in the Congo, we feel it was important to support Carsten Höller’s artistic ground-breaking experiment. The Double Club focuses on representing the nature of one African country such as the Congo, highlighting the positive aspects of the culture of its people; its lifestyle, music, food and aesthetics. Guaranty Trust Bank have partnered with the Prada Foundation to create a cultural programme, hosted at The Double Club. This signals a further step in our renewed engagement to support contemporary artistic and creative expressions coming from Africa, which started with initiatives within Nigeria and is now reaching a global dimension’. Segun Agbaje, Deputy CEO, Guaranty Trust Bank plc Founded 15 years ago, the Fondazione Prada has presented many ambitious artists’ projects in a programme which often features collaborations and multiple approaches to the creative process, with a unique capacity to embrace utopias such as The Double Club. With its involvement in this new project, the Fondazione Prada — its relations with Höller date back to 2000, when his first extensive solo exhibition in Italy took place in Milan — has fulfilled its need to encompass other forms of artistic expression, testifying to its growing awareness of the importance of a global vision. The Double Club is a not-for-profit organisation. A percentage of its profits will be donated to the City of Joy charity that generates specialised projects to help abused women and children in the Congo. A fund-raising event is also scheduled for February 2009. A book and a music compilation documenting the various stages of the project will be published by the Fondazione Prada. General information: Opening Hours Sunday & Monday closed Tuesday to Thursday 6 pm to 2/3 am, last food order midnight Friday & Saturday 6 pm to 4 am, last food order at 1 am Contact information Ph: + 44 (0)20 7837 2222 email: info@thedoubleclub.co.uk