33) Alibar

Alibar is a bar run by Ali. It stands in the middle of the Kulturforum and it is been invisible for eighteen years. A customized container, a dixi toilet, several bricolage storage shelves and boxes constitute Alibar, a combination of Imbiss, bar and coffee place under a thick cloud of knotweed. When it is sunny Alibar provides for long chairs and people spread out sunbathing on the great expanse of the open Kulturforum, surrounded by the solemn institutions of Mies’ Neue Nationalgalerie, Philharmonie, Gemäldegalerie, and the golden library.

There have been a number of design proposals for the Kulturforum during the past twenty years and one can feel the municipal eye nervously searching the area, the pressure level rising. Against all odds Alibar is still there. The key to its success is that it serves mediocre coffee, bad food, and its opening hours are erratic.

Alibar is a bar run by Ali. It stands in the middle of the Kulturforum and it is been invisible for eighteen years. A customized container, a dixi toilet, several bricolage storage shelves and boxes constitute Alibar, a combination of Imbiss, bar and coffee place under a thick cloud of knotweed. When it is sunny Alibar provides for long chairs and people spread out sunbathing on the great expanse of the open Kulturforum, surrounded by the solemn institutions of Mies’ Neue Nationalgalerie, Philharmonie, Gemäldegalerie, and the golden library.

There have been a number of design proposals for the Kulturforum during the past twenty years and one can feel the municipal eye nervously searching the area, the pressure level rising. Against all odds Alibar is still there. The key to its success is that it serves mediocre coffee, bad food, and its opening hours are erratic.