'Let's try it again': Tresor's Dimitri Hegemann is starting a new club in Dortmund
- PublishedTue, Nov 5, 2019, 11:30
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- The venue, tentatively called Tresor.West, will open its doors at the end of this year.
- Dimitri Hegemann has revealed more details about his new project. Last week, the Tresor founder hinted at a new club somewhere in West Germany. Now, Hegemann's sharing specifics about it, including the venue's location, Dortmund, and its likely name, Tresor.West. Similar to the original Tresor in Berlin, Tresor.West has turned a historic factory building into a multi-purpose art space. There will be a basement club, which Hegemann compares to OHM, as well as a 3000-capacity upstairs, which will be used for special occasions, like Kraftwerk. Another one of the venue's "mysterious floors" will be a space for experiments in light design, literature and fine art. Outside, Tresor.West is said to have an impressive garden. Hegemann has been working on the Dortmund space for nearly four years, though his dream to open it goes back much further. "In 2002, I wanted to open a venue called Tresor.West," he told Resident Advisor. "It didn't work out. It was in an old British barracks in the city where I went to school—a smaller city, Werl. Everything looked fine, but then some politicians called Berlin and asked, 'What is going on with Tresor? Is it okay? Is it difficult?' And there was an incident. The day before, the Berlin police did a raid here at the club, with 400 policemen. They didn't find anything, but it was not good press for Tresor [laughs]. So, the small politicians thought, 'Oh, that might be dangerous.' Now 17 years later—17 years later—I said okay, let's try it again." This time, Hegemann succeeded. Tresor.West is set to officially open its doors at the end of December, running on Fridays and Saturdays with a mix of local, international and Berlin-based acts. Before that, though, the club will also run on a one-off weekend this month. The early opening, on November 23rd and 24th, is part of yet another one of Hegemann's visions: MUMA - Music And Machine Conference 2019. Originally co-run in Berlin with Jeff Mills in the early aughts, MUMA is now being revived in Dortmund for the first time in years. Across two days at the Warsteiner Music Hall, the conference will connect local youth and policy makers to explore ways to develop creative scenes and industry within Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia region. In Hegemann's eyes, it'll require more support from state government. "I think culture is one of the main factors for city's today," he said. "They should invest more not in just opera houses or theaters, but also in night culture. This is my advice for decision-makers in Dortmund. I've seen Berlin, and I've seen how peaceful everything worked out. How strong the image has changed for Berlin because of techno and clubs." This is the dream behind both MUMA and Tresor.West. Hegemann hopes they'll become cultural catalysts for Dortmund, a platform for all kinds of artists in a city where creative spaces are hard to come by. The club could help breed new record shops, galleries, cafes and so on. As MUMA's poster prominently reads: "The Best Ideas Are Born At Night!"Read Hegemann's original Facebook post. Revisit Max Pearl's 2017 interview with Hegemann.
- Fri, Nov 22, 2019
MUMA: Musik & Maschine Konferenz x Telekom Electronic Beats | Clubnacht
Underground Resistance, DJ T-1000, Afrodeutsche, Markus Suckut, Sven von Thülen, Parlour