PHOTO: Inside the Inaugural Gala of the Hamburger Bahnhof

Christine Dice Stauss. Photo: Polina Vinogradova

last year, The Observer spoke to the co-directors of Hamburger Bahnhof Sam Bardaouil AND All the way to Fellrath about the evolution of the museum and their shared curatorial vision. “If there is one principle, it is this: the museum must be concerned enough to stay alive to its moment and committed enough to nurture a lasting resonance beyond it,” Bardaouil said. That concern was on full display at the institution’s first gala, “A Night in Berlin”—a glittering celebration of not only the museum’s 30th anniversary, but also its continued reinvention and the people whose support has allowed it to thrive.

He was among them Cate Blanchettwhose connection with Hamburger Bahnhof dates back to 2016, when the German artist Julian Rosefeldtinstallation of multi-channel videos Manifesto had its European debut at the museum. Artists stood out in the crowd Young Kim, Monica Bonvicini, Olaf Nikolai, Petrit Halilaj, Alvaro Urbano, Mark Bradford, Jeremy Shaw, Elmgreen & Dragset, Anne Imhof AND Wolfgang Tillmansalong with art world insiders Kira Streletzki, Carla Sozzani, Tricia Tuttle, Max Hetzler, Dahoe Ku, Frances Morris AND Glenn D. Lowry. The beloved film and stage talents were also present Edward Berger, Matt Dillon, Nina Hoss, Thomas Ostermeier AND Wim Wenders; SCAVENGER Christine Dice-Stauss AND Monica Burger; entrepreneur Roshni Nadar Malhotra; and impeccably dressed She undressespresident of Arts, Culture and Heritage at CHANEL.

In the museum’s cavernous 2,500-square-foot Historical Hall, revelers took in performances and spatial installations, from an intervention of Elmgreen & Dragset that transformed thoroughly confused gala-goers into unwitting performers in a multi-act opera in a site-specific neon installation by Bonvicini and a piano solo by the acclaimed pianist Alice Sara Ott. When the crowd had settled down, Bardaouil and Fellrath introduced four new awards to be presented by the museum each year: The Hamburger Bahnhof Studio Award, given this year to Abdulhamid Kircher, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju AND Jonas Roßmeißl; The Hamburger Bahnhof Lifetime Achievement Award, given to the Beirut-born, London-based artist Mona Hatum; Hamburger Bahnhof Global Arts Patronage Award, awarded to client and collector Kiran Nadar; and the Hamburger Bahnhof Changemaker Award, given to the Delfina Foundation.

Blanchett, on the dais, called the Hamburger Bahnhof and spaces like it irreplaceable—and rightly so. “Tonight is in part a celebration of a place where creative cacophony can exist … where different voices, visions and energies meet,” she said. “For that friction, that deeply human impulse, to share among strangers, spaces like Hamburger Bahnhof are essential. They are electric environments that invite us to open up together and, for a moment, surrender to the visions of others.”