For more than a year, the historic toilet block behind the Gasteig was literally a quiet place, but now the peace and quiet is over again. An exhibition called “Haidhauser Views” will open there this Friday at 5:30 p.m. The show shows drawings by the artist Adeline Schnekenburger, whose interest was in “bizarre house views”, ruins after the Second World War and the streetscape of the 1970s.
The pictures show, among other things, the remaining buildings of the former Bürgerbräukeller as well as old buildings on Milchstrasse and Preysingstrasse. At the vernissage there will be jazz by Barbara Jungfer and Steffen Müller as well as short readings by Gunna Wendt about Liesl Karlstadt and Franz Klug from “Munich off the beaten track”. Local historian Hermann Wilhelm also talks about Haidhausen in the 1970s.
The exhibition is organized by the “Initiative Locus”, which is made up of members of the Au-Haidhausen (BA) district committee. She has decided to revive the more than 120-year-old outhouse as a cultural venue – just as a group of artists did from 2021 to 2022. They put together an ambitious program with concerts, readings, workshops and exhibitions in and around the previously neglected toilet facility.
The reactions in the neighborhood were divided: While many residents praised the project and a number of events were well attended, there was also criticism about the noise and the use of the adjacent lawns. In the summer of 2022, the Locus team announced that it would not continue its commitment due to “bureaucratic hurdles”. “Sometimes contradictory guidelines and requirements” have led to an effort “that not only has nothing to do with cultural work, but actively blocks its potential,” it said in a statement.
Now the “Initiative Locus” is making a new attempt to turn the quiet little place into a cultural meeting place. “The exhibition is, in a sense, the starting signal,” says BA member Hermann Wilhelm, director of the Haidhausen Museum. A reading is planned for November, and further events are to follow.