Michel Würthlele cinéma de la vie

In 1972 Michel Würthle, together with his friends Ingrid and Oswald Wiener, opened the restaurant EXIL in Kreuzberg. I do not know why the EXIL so quickly became the most important establishment of the Berlin scene – perhaps quite simply because many a banished artist was made especially welcome there. There on the Landwehrkanal, German and foreign artists, actors and directors met without being asked about their origins or their papers; there the change took place from a local, almost provincial scene to an international one. Thus the EXIL became one of the most interesting and liveliest places in the city, places with which Berlin was able to regain its reputation as a cosmopolitan city open to all night owls. The circle of artists who frequented it included Joseph Beuys, Dieter Roth, Günter Brus, Walter Pichler, Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Maria Lassnig and Martin Kippenberger, to speak only of those whom I was able to discover among the hundreds of drawings Würthle produced over more than 25 years. He cultivated a kind of professional relationship with them – most of them were friends – because of course he could not afford merely to eat and drink with them all the time. Würthle ran the business and made sure that everything went smoothly, knowing how to combine the commercial side with that special ambience people came there looking for. We must never forget that the catering professions are among the most strenuous, truly gruelling occupations. Which did not stop Würthle from observing his guests and letting himself be infected by the magic of this unusual clientele which – paradoxically – found its promised land in the EXIL. Business is flourishing. In 1979 Würthle sells the EXIL in order to take over, together with Reinald Nohal, the more centrally located PARIS BAR, which in no time becomes the mythical place it still is today. Michel Würthle’s personality works like a magnet. The best artists continue to exchange drinks and meals for works that quickly paper the walls from floor to ceiling. People go there to see this new cave of Ali Baba, to admire this café which combines the principle of the Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul de Vence or the Kronenhalle in Zurich with the mockery and self-irony of the punk movement then flooding the planet. The punk flair will never entirely evaporate from the PARIS BAR – a persistence that poses a riddle, but which is probably to be found in Michel Würthle’s personality. He is not only a professional host through and through, he is also – behind the mask of modesty, the sincerely embarrassed smile – an artist.

Exhibition:
Contemporary Fine Arts CFA Berlin, 8 – 22/9/2018