Diamant Offenbach: A radiant place of inspiration in the pedestrian zone

Like "UND", which was subsequently also realized in Bad Homburg, "Diamant" at Frankfurter Strasse 8 is also an ephemeral pleasure. From Friday, November 4, until March next year, "Diamant" will be a "Museum of Urban Culture" and a space for cultural production and encounters, with group, themed and solo exhibitions on display every two weeks and music and a bar on the weekends. Lord Mayor and patron Dr. Felix Schwenke is delighted with the new project: "With the Hochschule für Gestaltung, we have an internationally renowned school of excellence in the city and everyone can benefit from collaborations of this kind. The students can try things out for themselves, have space in a prominent location and provide the important creative impetus that our city center needs right now. This is also part of the future concept adopted in 2020, which aims to develop the city center into a "center for all" with various uses that go far beyond shopping. That's why I was happy to take on the patronage of the project and am already very excited to see what will happen here in the coming months, the program reads extremely exciting."

It is as multifaceted as the mineral that gives the project its name: works by the students will be on display at the opening and then until November 12, while historical references, including illustrious names such as Valie Export and Robert Rauschenberg, will be presented in the Wallpaper Gallery. Because "Diamant" will also explicitly be a place for exchange and encounters, a series of installed folding frames can be freely used by the public in a Public Gallery in addition to the curated museum program. There will also be a public library with previously unpublished texts by various authors. Workshops for children, young people and school classes are also planned, including as part of an extensive cooperation with the Rudolf-Koch-Gymnasium as part of the "Profilschulen Kulturelle Bildung Hessen" program. The "Diamond School" understands everyday life and public space as a place of inspiration and cultural production and creates alternatives to the digitally influenced leisure time of children and young people and expands the scope of possibilities of educational work at school, which is often characterized by norms. Diamonds then become diamonds in the rough. Because a relaxed exchange of ideas should not be missing in all of this, a digital jukebox, musicians and DJS are of course on the program at the weekends.

"In this day and age, a selected part of cultural production is usually negotiated in excluded and bracketed protection zones. As a rule, artists work in seclusion in their studios and artworks are presented in differently formatted, white public spaces. In this constructed isolation, outstanding works of art and sophisticated discourses are created, but they also need an outside," explains Blum. "Diamant Museum, Bar and School are a new cultural powerhouse in Offenbach's city center and directly involve the surrounding area. I am sure that "Diamant" will have great appeal and attract many people to our city center," adds Anna-Maria Rose from the City of Offenbach's business development department.

Diamant" is made possible by the interplay between the university, the real estate developer Kilian Bumiller's provision of the property and funding from Agentur Mitte and the City of Offenbach's cultural management.

"Diamant" at Frankfurter Straße 8 is open on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays from 5 p.m. to midnight, Saturdays from 4 p.m. to midnight and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Up-to-date information is available on Instagram: diamant.offenbach