"We are about five or six people - actually more, when the others join us... - well, with our circle, that makes some ten to 15" (Interview Phantombüro, April 2001). Those ten to 15 people are "artists, musicians, a psychologist, structural designers, TV people, journalists, cab drivers" (ibid.) The caucus of the group calls itself Phantombüro [Phantom Office]. The name came by accident, though: after having finished their art studies at Städelschule a disparate group of artists were seeking a room that was to be an interface for joint work and a substitute for the institute-owned atelier. At first they found a place with a mate who soon cancelled the contract. Subsequently there was a "Büro", in the sense of a cooperation but no room to share. Hence, the individual members of the group often provided different telephone numbers to clients which - whether intentional strategy or not - brought about confusion. "Well, and then we thought that we had a kind of Phantombüro (ibid.). That was in 1997

Forced by financial bottlenecks Phantombüro moved ever so often in recent years. Following a stay in Junghofstraße (downtown) and one-year "homelessness" from May 1999 to February 2000 the group resided in former splendid boulevard Kaiserstraße, today located amidst Frankfurt's red light district. There Phantombüro even managed to make Beate Uhse wet.

It is surely not due to this incident that the group today has again no fixed abode. "Finding really good and above all affordable floorspace downtown - and a downtown location is extremely important for us and our work - is pretty difficult in Frankfurt" (ibid.). Ideas of using a Phantommobil as a shared working platform were discarded because of lack of space.

Accident - Part1: "It is much more interesting when somebody coming accidentally from the station calls on us than somebody who already knows that there is something here. So, this accidental moment and that this creates new opportunities, this is what I find actually interesting and this is, of course, much stronger downtown than in the odd residential area" (Interview Phantombüro, April 2001).

Accident - Part2: "For instance, Zoltan Laszlo planned an exhibition in Phantombüro. Three days before it was to begin he did not have any clue what he would show. Two days before there was a drum & bass party in the Phantombüro rooms, which was quite 'tagged up' by the drum & bass kids. The best spray-can painted 'tags' were used by Laszlo as pattern to saw them ten times their size into some wooden partitions in the office, which then looked like Japanese characters and were illuminated by Jörg Rees with different light and video effects" (Katalog Phantombüro Kaiserstrasse, 2000).

The accidental moment is a central element in the Phantombüro working method. Tempting appear results that do not necessarily have to occur but rather may occur without a recognizable causal chain. Thus, opportunity spaces are created which are characterised by indetermination and instability; spaces that provide unexpectedness, light spaces that are not characterized by predefined uses. The city serves Phantombüro as an experimental field, where interaction between user, situation and space is tested: Accident as a place making strategy.

Current and future (urban) planning bodies should sit up straight. Aren't open spaces, areas where a large variety of functions can overlap and thus create liveliness and heterogeneity that what is presently being sought after? To put it another way: Should not the design attention (especially in Frankfurt) concentrate more on a provision of activity zones than on drafting object-like forms?

The Light
Very easy. "Basically, we think that urban areas could be used differently with very simple mans, relatively little funds and a bit of imagination" (Interview Phantombüro, April 2001)

Pleasure in a place. "We are trying to work highly contextually, i.e. space-related. We are looking for places with a certain intrinsic charm, due to their location or their properties. Then we try to somehow recode such places or obtain a new angle on things " (ibid.).

The Difficult
Plight. "Finding ourselves in a plight - since we wanted to perform in large spaces - we were basically always only in a position to do something temporary, some type of interim use ."

Complaint. "As a matter of fact, the city should support us in such a manner that we have a permanent office and that, whenever there is such opportunity, premises are offered to us where we could perform. But this will only work when the city acknowledges what we are doing" (ibid.).

Under the empty-city-coffers conditions in the 1990s the situation of, inter alia, culture producers has grossly changed. Politics - with England's Thatcher government as trailblazer - increasingly attempted to detach cultural activities from the traditional image of being a receiver of financial support and shift them towards a more aggressive PR and entrepreneurial ethos. In our all-Germany setting this is especially true to say of the global finance location of Frankfurt with its fierce capitalist conditions. In this context Phantombüro is waging a struggle for its survival, with partially subversive-playful (the Light), partially (demanding-)complaining (the Difficult) means.

The spatial analogy of this situation is reflected in a nomadism of temporary activities. One the hand, the economic framework conditions play a decisive role. Places suited for performing that had dropped out of the economic disposal cycle and the inhabitant's day-to-day perception are swallowed up again via the control of established societal structures. On the other, the nomadism of time-limited activities is inherent in the very nature of temporary uses. Instability, lightness and flexibility become the driving elements of the game of phantom-like appearing and disappearing which has a colossal dynamism. Opportunities opening up are used at short notice. One adapts oneself to the conditions, leaves a message in order to disappear shortly thereafter.

In summer 1996 Dirk Paschke and Daniel Milohnic - two later members of Phantombüro - open their installation "Hafenbad" [harbour baths] in the external storage yard of Städelateliers amidst Frankfurt's East industrial district. Planning and realisation of the entire project took one year; the bathing season was from end-May to mid-September 1996.

"Hafenbad" consisted of two overseas freight containers welded together, each with a length of 12 m, a width of 2.40 and a height of 3 m. The resulting swimming pool had a surface of some 60 sqm and a volume capacity of about 150,000 l. The two builders erected a wooden sun-tan deck with railings around the pool area. Access to the above-ground swimming pool was via steel stairs erected for this purpose.

Moreover, the containers had to be supported by a lateral steel beam structure to absorb the anticipated material loads due to water pressure as calculated by a structural designer. Due to optical considerations the containers were additionally provided with several glazed windows through which the bathers could be watched from outside. The facility was completed with a bar-cum-kitchen, a basketball field, table-tennis tables and a free-climbing wall as well as other leisure facilities, such as pin-ball machine, HiFi set and TV sets. As a further component of their installation Dirk Paschke and Daniel Milohnic erected the orange lettering "Hotel" that could be illuminated by night on the roof of the opposite atelier building.

The funds (some DEM40,000) required to construct and maintain the swimming pool were partly obtained in their own initiative and from other aids. In addition, the builders operated "Après Ski", a trucker bar, during winter 1995/96 in the still empty plastic-sheeting covered containers to generate additional income.

"The entire project was also a very clear pointer to the city as to how to perform better urban planning Basically, the whole thing looked like a model, well, we built it after a model and it was to have a model function, too. But it was futile among the city officials" (Interview Phantombüro, April 2001).

Besides the a/m hint addressed to the city the project included a further intention. An activity zone was to be created, an interaction between the installation, the surrounding architecture and the behaviour and activities of the bathers. Without those their installation would be incomplete, say the builders. "It can be told from this alone, that this project was not about the construction of an exhibition object in the classical sense but about the creation of a public space that is to be possessed by the people being there." (Thomas Heinrich)

The project was realised again from May to October 2001 titled "Werkschwimmbad" [works swimming pool] on the premises of Kokerei Zollverein Essen. Info, e.g., in Kunstforum 156 (2001), pp. 479.

The above description of the swimming pool and its technical details bases on a text by Thomas Heinrich under www.phantombuero.de.

Under the title Space Place a group around Matthias Morgenstern initiated a "Wanderclub" [rambling club] in the mid-1990s, which threw parties in spaces made vacant by deindustrialisation processes in Frankfurt and thus temporarily appropriated and recoded such. In the meantime Space Place has settled down on the premises of disused Milchsackfabrik [milk bag factory] (Gutleutviertel) where there is partying and dancing every Friday and Saturday until dawn featuring the local and international Drum'n'Bass-, House & Big-Beat scenes. Space Place is one of the Frankfurt 'In-Clubs'.

Field diary entry. Was Ihr Wollt. Was geht. [As You Like It. As it works] Staged exchange of blows in Milchsackfabrik, Gutleutstraße 294 (Space Place and Endless Summer), March 2001. Space situation: Hall character, a boxing ring at the centre (square stage, red carpeting, ropes put up to mark a square, standing tables). Lined by benches and standing room, raised DJ console, lighting system, installations beamed to walls. Atmosphere: interested, excited, relaxed.

The "panel discussion" is staged as a four-bout boxing match. The event begins with the invited speakers marching in with their respective anthems. Between the bouts a digitally remastered version of the 'Rocky' film song is played. The opponents: Petra Roth (Mayor, CDU) (dressed completely in black and elegantly-feminine, relaxed posture, hand in pocket, sexy-throaty voice, go-getter woman, power woman, who asserts herself also in a milieu where she is not at home, has the gift of the gab), Achim Vandreike (Runs for mayor's office/SPD) (clothing explicitly casually, jeans, leather jacket and black shoes, his style betrays his image of youth that has not been updated for the past ten years), Walter E. Baumann (FR, Galerie Station) (super-relaxed veteran left activist, witty, goes down well with the crowd), Matthias Morgenstern (Space Place operator/NightDanceDemo promoter, Ex-DL member, arguments mainly from his very personal, purposeful view (improvement of Service Centre, Public Affairs Office, Noise Protection Regulations)), Hans Romanov (Frankfurt underground legend, now temporarily exiled to Paris, is received with standing ovations, he embodies the broadest possible consensus in the scene, pretends to be cool, slightly macho-like, rather reserved, it is not apparent why he is joining the discussion and what he really thinks). Presenter: a witty, cheeky, young, well-dressed bloke from hr-LateLounge radio program (Roberto Cappelluti). Entrance fee: 15 marks (an impudence for a panel discussion (election campaign event!!!)), possibly only the ensuing party should have been charged for. Moreover, the event was heavily sponsored (Journal Frankfurt).

The whole thing is irritating. Morgenstern (organiser) provides a terrific platform to Roth and Vandreike in the hot phase of their election campaigns, people they would not normally reach. On the other hand - at least 90 % of the attendees would never vote for one of those two. Possibly, politicians like to embellish themselves in retrospect with this visit to the scene and the "open ears" they had for those youngsters. The staging of this event as an exchange of blows in a boxing ring could be meant ironically or simply implemented unconventionally (rather the latter). The attendees: people who define themselves in Frankfurt as "the sub-culture scene". Interesting is the combination of partypeople, partypromoters, artists (such as Station Rose) and political activists (many representatives of Uni-Asta like the culture officer, radical democrats, Jusos, RCDSler, Junge Union (booed at)).

The development of Frankfurt's nightlife since 1996/97 has been political, artistic and celebrating alike. Example: NightDanceDemo (the 1997 event with radical political slogans ended in a massive police intervention), one fights together against the hated Public Affairs Office which attracts attention by fussy interpretation of laws and little delicacy. Counter-example is Offenbach where Romanov felt "like being in paradise" with his rotari

Bout 1	Frankfurt - Smallest metropolis or largest village in the world?
Bout 2	Closing time vs. Noise
Bout 3	Administration vs. Residents - Who has the say?
Bout 4	Cultural Policy - K.O. or O.K?

The topic cultural policy makes it clear that Roth and Vandreike cannot make head or tail of youth culture and neither comprehend what young, creative promoters and people with ideas want in the first place (little stress with the city, little administrative hassle when they want to start something off temporarily or spontaneously in their own initiative. They do not want any funding from the city). P.S.: If you want to open a party location in Frankfurt you have to see at least ten different municipal offices (from the Fire-Protection Office to the Public Affairs Office...) but, astonishingly enough, not the Cultural Affairs Office. Roth arguments with subsidies for "Minor Stages", "Borough Initiatives", "Associations" that are supported (this sounds very much like the early 1980s). "Scene" people would never use such terms in an argument. Moreover, the city administration of Frankfurt does not even have categories for things like off galleries that turn into party locations at night. It is not clear for what a concession is needed, how this can be solved administratively.

Partypolitics! Key word ‚space': The club scene needs - as a legitimation strategy - the appropriation (occupation) of space (at least the political, also artistic wing that was pushed into the background). The people want to deal with space themselves (reflect, make art, celebrate).

Silke Steets, March 2001.

The extent of reflexivity with which the party scene in Frankfurt pursues its own activities becomes evident from the project SPACEinPLACE which is described on the Website of space-place.de:

"Project SPACEinPLACE investigates the opportunities of undermining with medial technologies conventional urban action and control structures. Starting point is the club scene which appropriates vacant floor space and makes it with minimum investments into temporary focal points of its culture.

A new urban network is created which becomes visible in those "interim spaces". The threads making up this network are in obscurity. Outsiders have the impression that, as if from nowhere, a disused warehouse, a disused subway section or a pedestrian undercrossing under an autobahn becomes an event location.

Behind this sudden appearance there is a structure that is based on the principles of distributed information. People who are sensitive for their urban environs, new technologies and acoustic signals provide their input to the masses. This information yields knowledge of influencing spatial perception by means of audio-visual technology. This is the underlying context for the emergence of "projects" which are performed at a given time in one place and are previously propagated via flyers and mailing lists.

Project SPACEinPLACE transforms this kind of information processing to a spatial level. The provision of a network - both in physical, urban and immaterial, digital space - shall provoke an intervention among those contacting it and build spatial potentials in a self-developing efficiency." (Source: www.space-place.de)

"...initially 'Nachttanzdemo Frankfurt' filed its street party party for the traditional procession route through the city centre. However, it had to be altered in a "Cooperation meeting" with the Public Affairs Office. Klaus Diekmann, responsible for public assemblies in the Office, said, a route was pressed for through relatively sparsely populated districts. The city centre would be barely touched, the easternmost point was the police HQ" (dpa release 26.08.2001).