As long as there were two Germanys, the identity cards of West Berliners bore a small and barely visible writing on the edge near the photo: “temporary”. That “temporary” indicated an absurd, painful situation... at least until the night between November 9 and 10, 1989 when the Wall was torn down. Since then, that term has also changed value and if that writing still existed today on the identity cards of Berliners, it could only indicate the great ferment that transformed the rediscovered German capital into an immense open construction site, an architectural, cultural and musical laboratory, so much so that, for this last aspect, the memory of the legendary recording studio, near the Anhalter station, where rock stars came from all over the world to record their songs, pales in comparison.
After just over fifteen years, Berlin is experiencing the exciting phenomenon of visual music. Exceptional interpreters of this new creative frontier, now known throughout the world – among their performances also one at the Centre Pompidou and one for Louis Vuitton – are, since the end of the Nineties, the Pfadfinderei. Musicians, programmers, typographers, graphic designers, video makers give life, together with the Modeselektor, to real visual-sound worlds where music literally takes shape. Music, with techno rhythms and motives, that lives in engaging jam sessions. Now it is no longer a question of reappropriating urban spaces and industrial architecture after almost thirty years in which walls, houses and buildings had been emptied, victims of the magnetic repulsion of the Wall, but of giving life to performances in which Pfadfinderei and Modeselektor create together, projecting shapes and patterns created on the computer onto gigantic screens thanks to interfaces specially designed by themselves and managing to involve the public in what is each time an extremely dynamic and fun journey of visual music called LabLand.
