BYE BYE MITTE. Hello Charlottenburg.

Article by Christa Reynheim in Berlin // Saturday, March 09, 2013

After 15 years, one of Berlin-Mitte’s most famed art venues, C/O Berlin will close their current location at the former imperial Postfuhramt (Post Office) and move to it’s new location of the Amerika Haus next to the station Zoologischer Garten. Along with so many other old buildings in the city, the Postfuhramt also closes it’s doors to the public, and will be turned into a luxury hotel and apartment complexes.

Joel Sternfeld Retrospective 2012; Photo: David von Becker

Founded in 2000 by photographer Stephan Erfurt, designer Marc Naroska, and architect Ingo Pott to be an “International Forum For Visual Dialogues”, the venue has hosted several of Berlin’s most monumental photography exhibitions in the last years including Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibovitz and Nan Goldin. After looking for new locations for two years, C/O, signed a contract with BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH in December 2012, giving them their new location in Charlottenburg for the next 16 years.

If you haven’t visited Postfuhramt yet, do not despair. Tonight the venue is hosting ”Bye Bye Mitte” – their big farewell party, giving art lovers a chance to pay their last visits to the old Postfuhramt on Oranienburger Straße.

The floors where we used to walk on in silence, admiring great photograhpy exhibitions, are turning into dancefloors and instead of hearing awkward shoe clicking and echoing, the volume is being turned up. For one night only, the C/O Berlin is giving us a chance to say our final proper goodbyes to the building. With a long list of DJ’s, screenings, bar and a packed venue, we are looking forward to one of the biggest gallery-parties this year in Berlin. The night is not about artists nor exhibitions, merely a celebration of what the Postfuhramt has been for the gallery and what C/O Berlin has in store for us for many years to come.