KOSMOS GAYHANE
Nicolaus Schmidt

Gayhane in the Berlin club SO36 is a special feature of Berlin nightlife: oriental and queer. Gayhane is the »House of Halay«, the traditional round dance. Here lesbians, gays, straight men, men with beards and faggots meet on high heels. »Hane« stands for house in Arabic and in Turkish, so Gayhane means something similar to gay house. The music, which is mixed here from Turkish, Arabic, Indian and other songs, had a great influence on other metropolises. Gayhane is a protected space, it is actually not allowed to take pictures.

From 2002 to 2006, Nicolaus Schmidt took impressive portraits in cooperation with Fatma Souad and developed a script of body shapes for the Gayhane cosmos, also called »morphographic typeface«. The result is a book as a work of art. The Gayhane cosmos follows its own rules, and so the writing is not easy to decipher.

An accompanying booklet reflects a special story in texts (von Helen Adkins, İpek İpekçioğlu, Fatma Souad, Kira Kosnick und Nicolaus Schmidt) and photographs: Gayhane in Berlin SO36 - since 1999.

An illustrated handling to the portfolio with artist book and magazine (poster).

Further information can be found at Nicolaus Schmidt and Kunststiftung K52, Berlin.
Nicolaus Schmidt studied at the HfBK Hamburg and focuses in his socially engaged photography on social groups within a society.

Press release for the catalog presentation with selected works by Nicolaus Schmidt