The star was the location

Prize question: What is the occasion when nearly two hundred art lovers gather on a terrace in front of a café in Cologne in the early evening at the beginning of September, temporarily occupying the entire pavement? That's right, the art season in the Rhineland has begun – with the DC Open and its traditional sundowner reception organised by ART COLOGNE.

The Cologne art fair found the perfect venue for this event in Café Central, as the lively atmosphere on Jülicher Straße proved. Guests chatted animatedly with a glass of Gaffelkölsch in their hands or a glass of white wine or rosé (from Domaine Grier and La Mar de Aresan) and enjoyed nibbling on skewers of grilled vegetables and anchovies, pumpkin soup from a glass or pizza slices from a wooden board.

Daniel Hug and Benjamin Agert, the two directors of ART COLOGNE, welcomed renowned collectors from the region such as Sabine Duvenbeck, Georg Jacobi, Ralph Weiden, Nina and Mauritz Meßler, as well as representatives of the younger generation such as Johanna Hölscher from Haus Mödrath. Artists such as Luisa Clement, Sophia Süßmilch and Stefan Brüggemann were joined by gallery owners such as Marietta Clages and Petra Martinetz. In addition to many visitors from Cologne and Düsseldorf, Bonn was also well represented this time, with Friederike Voßkamp, director of the August Macke House, Viktor Neumann, director of the Bonner Kunstverein, and Johanna Adam, curator of the Bundeskunsthalle.

But the secret star of the evening was the (rediscovered) location. Since this year, Café Central has a new tenant in Alex Flick, a gallery owner who lives in London and Ibiza. Flick wants to breathe new life into the legendary Cologne artists' meeting place, opened in 1984 by Werner Peters, where Martin Kippenberger, Jörg Immendorf, Albert and Markus Oehlen, Günter Förg and many others found a second home. At the same time, he also opened a branch of his London Gathering Gallery in the Belgian Quarter.

Alex Flick, 39, discovered Café Central and its new gallery location through his Cologne-based gallery owner friends Manoucher Khoshbakht and Jakob Pürling (from Galerie Drei). When Flick exhibited for the first time at ART COLOGNE in the NEUMARKT sector last November, they showed him the vacant gallery, previously run by Jan Kaps, and introduced him to 83-year-old Café Central founder Werner Peters, who had been wanting to retire from the business for some time. Flick, who has successfully combined his second gallery in Ibiza with a bar, was immediately enthusiastic about the great potential of the location. Although the café had already seen better days, with the momentum of a younger generation and their fresh ideas, a renaissance seems more than likely.

Café Central will definitely remain a place of art. This is evident from its unique interior, which some Sundowner guests only really noticed when a sudden rain shower at 8:30 p.m. drove them off the terrace. There was great admiration for the amusing breast lights by Turner Prize winner Tai Shani in the entrance hall and the aluminium-clad bar by German-Mexican conceptual artist Stefan Brüggemann. But there was also admiration for the eight iconic mirrors that Martin Kippenberger decorated with caricatures of regular guests to mark Central's fifth birthday. Werner Peters had found them in his archive and made them available to Alex Flick for the café's redesign.

Kept in high spirits by DJ Alex Tackenberg and his set perfectly tailored to the party's needs, lively conversations continued late into the evening at the bar and square tables. Art was not always the dominant topic, however. The upcoming local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia and cuts in the cultural sector were also hotly debated. Times have simply become more political, and art is feeling the effects. Meyer, Julie Mia and Lara Werth – a dynamic mix of painting, sculpture and installations.

Author: Olaf Schlippe