Antonia Schmidt: You’ve already done several pop-ups in other cities. Why now Berlin?

Arnaud Frisch: In Berlin, club culture has historically functioned as a cultural form in its own right, bringing together music, performance, visual culture and communities in an organic way. In that sense, Berlin feels very close to something that has always been central to Silencio.

AS: Nightlife as well.

AF: Berlin is the model. This city has inspired the rest of the world. I have great admiration for the clubs here, the ones still running and the ones that are gone, and not only for the music. What Berlin built is a place where individual freedom is taken seriously, where people are protected and where everyone is allowed to be whoever they are for a night.

AS: Watergate specifically is a great location.

AF: Watergate is a landmark, and taking over a room with that history is intimidating. It drew its own path to the city with that window onto the Spree. Anyone who has watched the sun come up over the water from the lower floor knows it. Its closing was a real loss for Berlin. What mattered to us was that it stays a club rather than becoming offices.

AS: Can you tell me a bit about the program already?

AF: Cultural programming is the centre of the project. In Paris, beyond the club nights, we run carte blanche invitations, art performances, concerts, installations and talks. The first Berlin night already gave a sense of it: a performance by Valentina Magaletti, DJ sets from Richie Hawtin and Ben Klock, and a limited-edition military tag by Maurizio Cattelan given to everyone who came.

AS: Berlin has this quality, where all these different scenes are already so connected to each other. The music scene overlaps with the fashion scene, the film scene… A lot of people are already in exchange with each other.

AF: In Paris the scenes overlap, but they’re vertical. Everything passes through institutions, and each world has its own gatekeepers. Berlin is horizontal. People collaborate before anyone has given them permission, and that changes what a night can be.

AS: Tell me a bit about your relationship with Mumi, the founder of Reference Studios who is now supporting you with the pop up.

AF: It happened naturally. Mumi came to our first Fashion Week at Silencio. His agency was new then and was doing things nobody else was doing: connecting fashion with art, hospitality, and other fields. That was very close to how we were already working. We kept crossing paths around the world, and it grew from there.