On April 4th 1996 Esther Eppstein opens the message salon at Ankerstrasse 6, in Zürich Aussersihl. 26 years later message salon returns to the place where it all began.
In the mid-nineties, cultural life awakens in the city of Zürich, after the suppressed youth revolt and the neglect during the drug misery of the late eighties. The alternative culture, hitherto mostly active underground or in squats, conquers new spaces; the many store premises or industrial sites left vacant are redefined and revitalized by creative people. A young, new scene is forming out of the unquenched need for free space, community, exchange, experimentation and party. There are no art diplomas yet, and the commercialized, professionalized, globalized hyper-art business is only just setting out to become the next big thing.
In this zeitgeist of departure, Esther Eppstein opened the art space “message salon” in 1996 in a vacant former mirror store at Ankerstrasse 6 in Zürich’s Dreieck residential district, at the gateway to Aussersihl. Due to the years of the drug scene, the inner city and Kreis 4 are run down and deserted, there are hardly any cultural spaces, nightlife or commerce, except for the red light milieu in small storefronts, labeled with shaky adhesive letters: massage salon.
message salon quickly becomes the hybrid meeting place of a reinventing Zürich art scene. Everything is do-it-yourself and low-budget, people help each other out, production budgets are unknown, but you know someone with a van or even better, with a video camera. There is no funding, with an improvised bar and some art sales money can be generated, it is just enough to pay the rent, print the programs and pay the postage for the mailings.
The vernissage, the social meeting place, the creation of a scene, is Esther Eppstein’s artistic interest from the very beginning. With an analog Olympus-miu camera she documents the happenings and the people in her salon. In the last exhibition at Ankerstrasse, in October 1997, Esther Eppstein shows the photo installation “Keine Tränen” (“No Tears”), including the VHS video “der message salon fotoband, 49 Vernissagen, April 96 to October 97”.
Initially limited to three months, message salon existed for two years on Ankerstrasse until the Dreieck cooperative, formed by the residents, was able to redevelop the residential quarter, which had been saved from demolition. In the meantime, the established Zurich art world has become aware of the new scene in Kreis 4. In the exhibition “Freie Sicht aufs Mittelmeer” (“Free View of the Mediterranean”) curated by Bice Curiger at the Kunsthaus Zürich, artists from the message salon environment are shown and message salon is invited to introduce itself. In this context, Esther Eppstein presents the publication “message salon, Ankerstrasse 6”, designed by Alexis Saile and published by Andreas Züst and Scalo Verlag, in an art store installation on the forecourt of the Kunsthaus Zürich in summer 1998. Part of the publication is the VHS videotape “Der message salon Fotoband”, with an additional soundtrack by Zürich audio artist Stini Arn.
After the closing at Ankerstrasse, Esther Eppstein and message salon move on, into a caravan, into a store at Rigiplatz, into Perla-Mode at Langstrasse, then also abroad with the nomadic residency project message salon embassy. And now it comes full circle: not far from the first message salon on Ankerstrasse, Esther Eppstein opens the current location message salon embassy Réception, at Köchlistrasse 5, in December 2021.
With the exhibition “message salon rewind”, Esther Eppstein shows a small installation with photos, flyers and documents, as well as the original video of the publication with the audio track by Stini Arn, in the location at Köchlistrasse.
In a “re-setting” in the windows of the store on Ankerstrasse, which today houses the repair workshop “defekt!” of techno pioneer Styro, the video “der message salon Fotoband, 49 Vernissagen, April 96 to October 97” can be seen in both shop windows during the evening hours.
On the occasion of the exhibition Esther Eppstein publishes a fanzine with previously unpublished photos of message salon Ankerstrasse 6.
With thanks to Valentina Stieger, Nadia Hauri, Benjamin Sommerhalder, Julia Rüegg, Videocompany, defekt! and Styro. Supported by Genossenschaft Dreieck, Zürich.