German artist Carsten Holler’s longtime fascination with the Democratic Republic of Congo has grown into an experimental vision for a temporary night club where Congolese culture collides with its Western counterpart in subtle and interesting ways. Named the Double Club, Holler’s project is both a music venue and restaurant that seeks to draw clear aesthetic lines between the two worlds while at the same time creating a unifying experience for the attendees.
The restaurant, laid out like a chessboard, serves both Congolese and Western dishes; the disco features a rotating dance floor and a soundtrack that changes at regular intervals from thumping Western house music to Congolese rumba rock (distorted to approximate the low-tech vibe of Congolese sound systems handmade from scrap-yard salvage).
“It’s really about keeping things apart, spacewise and timewise,” he says of this sci-fi disco scene. “But, yes, in people’s minds and bellies, this comes together.”
At a time when the boundaries that separate the larger global community continue to blur (due in large part to the internet’s pervasive reach), celebrating and preserving differences is becoming even more important. The points where societies mix and diverge are often cradles of creativity and innovation.
[via NY Times]
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