Since I came to Vienna in spring 2014 the idea to open the first BIESTMILCH shop worldwide once and again popped up in my head. I felt this necessity to build something in the real world beyond our huge digital realm. But the imagination to visit one place after the other, maybe over years without result, made me drop this plan.
I was well aware of the fact that the shop location has to reflect BIESTMILCH’s vibration, style and exclusivity, not an easy task. Vienna is an exclusive and covetable place, ranking the most worth living city worldwide. Biestmilch is an exclusive amazing substance, worldwide unique and deserving a number one too.
All this im mind I discarded the idea of a shop because it seemed unrealistic to me to find a location, affordable and suitable, the perfect match for the both of them. All my preconceptions and worries turned out to be stupid and a waste of energy and time. Please, see how the story evolved. This picture shows the old wallpaper of the elegant lady hairdresser - coiffeur - who was in this location from the early sixties to the late ninties.
But then all of sudden things changed. I was in one of our regular Skype calls with my dear friend Ralf which usually lasts for hours exchanging ideas and helping each other to compensate frustrations on the job both of us experience more or less every other day. I raised the topic ”shop" again, not very intentional, more a helpless side-step not exactly knowing how to continue with Biestmilch lacking a consistent strategy at this moment of time last autumn 2019.
Out of the blue Ralf who is based in Frankfurt/Main - you won’t believe it - send me a link from willhaben.at and said:
I browsed through the photos of the ad, and thought, if the photos match reality, then this is exactly the place for me and Biestmilch. Usually I am quite hesitant, if it comes to phone calls of this kind. This time I had no second thoughts, I just picked up the phone, made an appointment, went there, and got the place. It was the perfect time for renting because the renovations were still ongoing. So we had some influence on how the rebuilding was done, really great. I had found the needle in the haystack. I couldn’t have been luckier and happier…
The ceiling beautifully arches the floor.
I have a wonderful proprietor who loves what I am doing, and a beautiful house dating back to the 1750ies. When entering the place you are in a different world. The thick walls and the round arched ceiling making up for the 80 sqm wrap you peacefully, your heart beats calm, your breath changes into a deeper slower rhythm.
Thanks to my girl friend Barbara who is a brilliant architect influencing the ongoing work was an easy task. I could have never done it. The result is a piece of living full of beauty and harmony. That the opening got delayed due to some hick-ups which usually happen on construction sites, does not matter at all. Like this we bought some time for the preparations around the shop, giving it some more conceptional thoughts.
While I write these lines the shop’s opening hours are already fixed and the definite opening is scheduled for February 29, 2020. I think that this is a nice convenient date as it doesn’t exist every year.
A new chapter for Biestmilch and myself has thus evolved.
Slowly we are getting there. The imaginations turn real. All the furniture has gt its own little history. The sofa I inherited from my dear frien Arne's mother, who accompanies me and Biestmilch since the beginning of its foundation in 1999. The two colorful chairs are made and donated by my wonderful friend and architect Barbara. Without her none of these imaginations of mine would have become true.
Thanks to the two of you!!!
Since many years cubes are a symbol of the BIESTMILCH universe. The cubes' story started in 2011 on Hawaii and ever since they are part of my life. So no doubt that the first BIESTMILCH shop worldwide needed a CUBE too.
Here it is, and again radiating its magic with these old walls. It is all wood without concession, hand-made, a place of concentration and a perfect storage room.
... and at the very end of this beginning of something new a photo dedicated to the marvelous thinker and mathetician Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is famous for his minimalistic approach to aethetics.
