PHOTOS: Inside Hamburger Bahnhof’s Landmark Inaugural Gala

Christine Forfel Stuss. Photo: Polina Vinogradova

Last year, the Observer spoke to the co-directors of Hamburger Bahnhof Sam Bardawil and Even Velrath About the museum’s development and their shared organizational vision. “If there is one principle, it is this: a museum must be disruptive enough to remain alive in its moment and committed enough to foster lasting resonance beyond it,” Bardawil said. This concern was on full display at the Foundation’s first-ever gala, “A Night in Berlin,” a sparkling celebration not only of the museum’s 30th anniversary, but also of its ongoing renewal and the people whose support has allowed it to flourish.

And he was among them Cate BlanchettHer relationship with Hamburger Bahnhof dates back to 2016, when she was a German artist Julian RosefeldtMulti-channel video installation Statement Its first appearance in Europe was at the museum. Artists were seen in the crowd Eung Kim, Monica Bonvicini, Olaf Nikolai, Petrit Halilaj, Alvaro Urbano, Mark Bradford, Jeremy Shaw, Elmgreen and dragst, Anne Imhoff and Wolfgang Tillmansalong with art world insiders Kira Streletsky, Carla Sozzani, Tricia Tuttle, Max Hetzler, Dahu ko, Francis Morris and Glenn D. Lori. Beloved film and theater talents were also in attendance Edward Berger, Matt Dillon, Nina Hoss, Thomas Ostermeier and Wim Wenders; University Christine Forfel Stuss and Monique Berger; contractor Roshni Nadir Malhotra; They are impeccably dressed Yana BellHead of Arts, Culture and Heritage at CHANEL.

In the cavernous 2,500-square-meter museum hall, revelers enjoyed performances and spatial installations, including an intervention by Elmgreen and dragst Which turned completely confused concert-goers into unwitting performers in a multi-act opera to a site-specific neon installation by Bonvicini and a piano solo by the famous pianist Alice Sarah Ott. When the crowd calmed down, Bardouil and Fellrath presented four new awards that the museum presents annually: the Hamburger Bahnhof Studio Award, which this year was presented to Abdul Hamid Kircher, Munilola Olayemi Ilupejo and Jonas Rosemeisl; Hamburger Bahnhof Lifetime Achievement Award, given to the Beirut-born, London-based artist Mona Hatoum; The Hamburger Bahnhof Prize for International Arts Patronage is awarded to a patron and collector of works of art Kiran Nader; The Hamburger Bahnhof Changemaker Award presented to the Delfina Foundation in London.

Blanchett, on stage, called the Hamburger Bahnhof and spaces like it irreplaceable. “Tonight is, in part, a celebration of a place where creative cacophony can exist… where different voices, visions and energies come together,” she declared. “For this friction, this deeply human impulse to be shared between strangers, spaces like the Hamburger Bahnhof are essential. They are electric environments that invite us to open up together and surrender for a moment to the visions of others.”