The place to be

Between 2013 and 2020, artist Julie Chovin photographed approximately 220 nightclubs in Berlin, using a list from the city's official website as her guide. She adopted the city's marketing campaign slogan, 'The Place to Be', for her book's title and employed the list as the starting point for her photographic project. Chovin, a resident of Berlin, visited club locations scattered throughout the city, from 1a Lauschgift to Berghain and Puro Sky Lounge to Zur Klappe. Her photographs, however, do not capture the interiors or remnants of nighttime activities. Instead, she focuses on the external facades and entrances, often unassuming, with a frontal view during daylight hours. This approach integrates the clubs into the urban landscape, rather than portraying them as sites of intense ecstasy. Chovin's work offers a everyday perspective on the urban club scene, documenting places that may no longer exist or are at risk of disappearing due to gentrification. When she completed the series in early 2020, several clubs had already closed, and more may have shut down since. In retrospect, the empty images seem to foreshadow the lockdown era, raising concerns that vibrant Berlin may soon exist only in memory. The book, featuring 220 color images, is accompanied by texts from Boris Gresillon and Severine Marguin, providing insights into Berlin's techno history and Chovin's club archive from a sociological perspective.