Shrinking Cities
1.

Concept

2.

Sites

3.

First Projects

4.

Role of Manchester and Liverpool in Shrinking Cities

5.

Manchester and Liverpool’s contribution to the international
exhibition

6.

Cooperating Institutions

7.

Curatorial Team

8.

Facts

Press Conference November 6, 2003 at 5 p.m.
CUBE Gallery, Manchester

Concept
Shrinking cities can be found anywhere, from the United States or Britain
to Belgium, Finland, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, or China. Our accepted
notions about cities and urban development are being challenged as urbanneighbourhoods, cities, and entire regions are being drained of their
population and jobs. Left behind are those who have lost out in the processof transformation from an era of Fordist industrial production to a society
governed by globalised service industries. The dramatic changes in eastern
Germany since 1989, which have led to the vacancy of more than one million
apartments and the abandonment of innumerable industrial complexes, as well
as social and cultural facilities, are evidence of a more general patternof our civilization.
While current debate is focused on the phenomenon of ever-growing
megalopolises, the parallel existence of zones of shrinkage seems to haveevaded public attention. Urban and rural areas have been equally affected,
with the loss of millions of people and runaway unemployment. The predicted
demographic trends for many countries will lead to further polarization in
decades to come. Shrinking cities contradict the notion, well establishedsince the Industrial revolution, of cities as “boomtowns” and engines of
economic and demographic growth. Shrinking cities provoke us to reconsider
entrenched ideas about the face of the European cities and the future ofurbanism in general.
Cities are a cultural expression of the society we live in, and simultaneously provide a platform for cultural production. Thus, they are a signifycant constituent of our self-perception. The radical transformation of
our cities as caused by their shrinkage hence presents not only an economic
and social challenge, but also a cultural one. Shrinkage is impossible tocontrol by conventional urban steering mechanisms, and it is accompanied bya number of related problems. The phenomenon generates new types of urban
entity for which no conceptions, or defined usages exist as yet.
Shrinking Cities is a major international research and exhibition project
directed by the German architect/writer Philipp Oswalt and initiated andfunded by the Cultural Foundation of the German Government (Kulturstiftungdes Bundes). Shrinking Cities seeks to propose new perspectives on thecurrent debate in Germany, which is restricted to strategies of demolitionof disused housing and upgrading existing target areas. We propose aninvestigation into how the phenomenon of shrinking cities can be a catalyst
for new cultural practices, and how their articulation can inform apositive identity for this new urban typology.
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What are the defining factors of an urban identity when thecontinuity of a city’s built environment is in disarray? What are thesort of conceptions, images, and perceptions that could spawn such a
new urban type? How do you set up public spaces and create social
coherence in an otherwise fragmented urban landscape?
What can be done with disused spaces and buildings, and what about
outdated technological, cultural, and social stratagems? How to deal
with loss and memory, destruction and vandalism? How to design decultivation?
How to take advantage of unplanned urban structures? What cultural
practices emerge here? Is there any potential, even utopia to bediscovered in the unplanned?
How do people deal with their lives in the absence of paid work? Can
social capital compensate for the lack of financial investment? Whatis the relevance of the informal economy, of self-organization, substandard premises?
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The project aims to provide new impulses for the management of shrinking
cities. Hence the East German experience is to be placed in an international context, and it is sought through the inclusion of diverse
artistic and scientific disciplines in the research to find valid proposals
for a due course of action. As a first step, the project, under the
management of the architect and journalist Philipp Oswalt (Berlin) and thecuratorial team of Nikolaus Kuhnert (publisher of ARCH+, Berlin), Kyong
Park (International Center for Urban Ecology, Detroit), Walter Prigge(Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau), and Barbara Steiner (Director of the Galerie fürZeitgenössische Kunst [Gallery for Contemporary Art], Leipzig) has invitedinterdisciplinary teams to conduct an international study of four partnercities and urban regions: Manchester/ Liverpool, Detroit, Ivanovo (Russia)
and East Germany. Once these case studies have been completed, theShrinking Cities project will enter its second stage of developing andconducting actual projects on site.
In this second phase, a number of artists, architects, and researchers fromvarious countries will develop on-site projects for eastern Germany. Additionally, an international competition for architects, artists, designers,
and researchers will be announced in February 2004 to generate projectideas for the four sites under examination: Detroit, Manchester/ Liverpool,
Ivanovo, and Halle/ Leipzig. Some of the suggestions will be realized incooperation with local actors.
The results will be presented in exhibitions (2004: Berlin, 2005: Leipzig,
Moscow and Manchester-Liverpool), publications and internet forums.
(www.shrinkingcities.com).

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SitesDetroit
Suburbanization
Local curators/ coordination: Kyong Park
(gallerist/artist), Dan Pitera (architect)(artist/curator),

Mitch

Cope

Detroit, in the northeastern part of the Midwest in the USA, developed from1900 on into the center of the automobile industry (Ford, Chrysler, General
Motors). In 1930, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in the USA and grew
to a population of 1.8 million in 1950. In 1950, a successive process of
suburbanization began, accompanied by a decentralization of the industry.
By 2000, the city had shrunk to only 950,000 residents, while thesurroundings ("Metropolitan Detroit") grew to almost four million. The
suburbanization is characterized by racial segregation. In 1998, 78% of thesuburbanites were white, while 79% of those in the city were black. The
average income in “Metropolitan Detroit” is almost twice as high as in thecity. A major part of the buildings erected during the construction boom in
the 1920s has been torn down, leaving large empty spaces. Many of theremaining, isolated buildings are untenanted.

Ivanovo
Post-socialist Transformation
Local curators/ coordination: Alexander Sverdlov (architect), Sergey Sitar(architect/ journalist)
Ivanovo (ca. 450,000 residents) is about 250 km northeast of Moscow and is
the administrative center of the district of the same name, which has 1.2
million residents. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the region developed
from a village pattern of life into a center of the Russian textile
industry and of the Russian workers’ movement. Its population grew rapidly,
especially between 1920 and 1960. The one-sided economic dependence on the
textile industry accelerated the area’s decline in the 1990s. Most combines
now operate at a deficit or have been abandoned. There is a high rate ofhidden unemployment. Since 1989, the population has also been declining: by
5.8% in the city of Ivanovo, but at an even higher rate in the surrounding
region. The population is overaged, the birth rate is falling dramatically,and qualified workers are leaving, primarily for Moscow. Most of the
population lives in pre-fabricated concrete slab constructions, and there
is still a housing shortage.

Manchester / Liverpool
De-industrialization
Local curators/coordination: Joshua Bolchover (architect),
Philipp Misselwitz (architect) and Paul Domela (curator)
Northern England is characterized by a decades-long process of deindustrialization and migration away. The cities are also losing population
to suburbanization: today, Liverpool and Manchester have only half as many
inhabitants as they did in the 1930s. Liverpool (439,000 inhabitants;
population loss 1991-2001: 8.8%) is still declining. The economy’s overdependence on the harbor is accompanied by a low average level of education
among the residents. Huge empty areas in the inner city have resulted froma consistent policy of demolishing buildings.

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Manchester (393,000 inhabitants; population loss 1991-2001: 2.5%), in
contrast, developed in the 1990s into a supraregional service industry
center and an important cultural city. Nevertheless, large parts of thecity outside of the center are plagued by poverty, segregation, and depopulation. Empty lots and untenanted buildings contrast in close proximitywith a new development in real estate prices.

Halle / Leipzig
Post-socialist Transformation, De-industrialization, Suburbanization
The eastern German region Halle / Leipzig (in the states of Saxony and
Saxony-Anhalt) developed during industrialization into a site of lignite
mining and chemical industry. The changes in society since German
unification have entailed far-reaching economic changes. De-industrialization and rationalization have pushed unemployment up to about 20%. An
initial wave of migration to other parts of the country in the mid-1990s
was followed by an intense process of the suburbanization of residences,
trades, and retail businesses. Some communities in the surrounding area
have profited from this, but the population of the region has fallen. The
cities, in particular, have had to struggle with an increase in untenanted
buildings in medieval and baroque city centers (for example, Weißenfels),late 19th-century buildings (for example, Leipzig), and large pre-planned
settlements (for example, Wolfen-Nord). Since 1989, Weißenfels has lost aseventh of its population and Leipzig a sixth. Wolfen has shrunk from45,000 to 27,000 inhabitants. Demographic development has been characterized by a drastic fall in the birth rate since 1990.

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First Projects
World map
Massive losses of population and jobs have shaken cities, districts, andregions all over the world. Shrinking is a general phenomenon of urban
development, not merely an exceptional case in special situations. In
addition to examining the four international cases, the project will
therefore look into shrinking in the global context. What meaning andrelevance does shrinking have in the global development of cities? Whichcities shrink? How has this phenomenon developed in recent decades? What
global factors influence shrinking?
To pursue these questions comprehensibly, a world map of the shrinking
cities will be prepared. Based on statistical information, we will examine
the histories of 8,000 cities in countries all over the world over the last
50 years. Initial results show that urban shrinkage affects not only
increasingly aging industrial nations, but also developing and thresholdcountries like Argentina, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, China, andAfghanistan. Despite continuing rapid population increase and an increasein urbanization in these countries, urban shrinking is growing in
relevance, due to waning population dynamics and increasing spatial
polarization.
Further results show that, in recent decades, about 370 cities with morethan 100,000 residents in 62 countries have lastingly shrunk. One quarterof all the cities examined have gone through at least temporary significant
shrinkages. Data was gathered on about 50% of the world’s urban population(ca. 1.5 billion people) in 170 countries on all continents.
The world map will be supplemented with short biographies of about 50
cities, in text and image, which unfold a typology of various urban
shrinkings.

Cultures
Shrinking cities are often starting points for cultural innovations.
Whether in music, visual art or architecture, literature, photography, orfilm – a wide range of new developments in popular and high culture haveemerged from these urban crisis points. These are often parts of atypicalcultures of everyday life based simultaneously in the potentials and the
difficulties of these sites. They often thereby make substantial
contributions to new definitions of identities and mental milieus and thus
offer important beginnings for the conception of models of action. In thefirst phase of the project Shrinking Cities, we will examine and document
several genres as examples: music, film, architecture, and art.

& FilmProject Michael Baute, Antje Ehmann und Harun Farocki
Film has always given us dramatic images of both large and small towns. The
portrait of a city has been a topos in the history of this medium from thevery beginning. The problems faced by shrinking cities, in contrast, mostly
come to light indirectly, in socially-conscious documentaries, for example.
Only emptiness keeps appearing as a theme: in pictures of burnt-out
American ranches; deserted Spanish villages; lonely French suburbs andutterly void streets and squares in Italy.
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The film expert Antje Ehmann, the film journalist Michael Baute and thefilm-maker Harun Farocki will research and record images like these for a"Lexicon of Cinematographic Expressions": pictures that give clues to theshrinkage of cities. Taking clips from numerous films, they will create avideo installation for the exhibition. They will also produce acomplementary videotheque, with films in which the phenomenon of city
shrinkage plays a part. In addition, a programme of films to accompany theexhibition will be shown in a local cinema.

& Music
Projectleaders: Sarah Cohen (Institut for popular Music, University
Liverpool) with Robert Strachan (Liverpool), Anne König (Leipzig);
Dan Sicko (Detroit), Jan Levcheko (St. Petersburg), Anton Jansen (Izhevsk)
In Detroit and Manchester – and in the shrinking regions of Russia andGermany – the crises of the Eighties and Nineties led to the growth ofmusical cultures specific to each of these places. Some of them evenachieved success in the ‘world market’ of pop culture. In Detroit, technoand house flourished, in Manchester it was indie new wave and hip-hop
music. Even today, in the sounds and songs and clips, the listener stillencounters the rough, raw, urban spaces in which this music was firstplayed.
Empty buildings and vacant sites, long abandoned by industry, gave young
people the chance to create new forms of music production and reception:
warehouse parties, raves and clubs. To the advantages of rooms which werepractically or completely rent-free were added technological innovations
that enabled them to break free of the big music companies and set up theirown labels. In Manchester, for example, the punk and new wave of the lateSeventies spawned a local industry based on making and distributing music.
This played a by no means insignificant part in the change of Manchester’s
identity from a manufacturing city to a service industry centre.
This subject will be investigated for the Shrinking Cities project by Sarah
Cohen from the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool.
The results will be included in the exhibition and catalogue.

7Role of Manchester and Liverpool in Shrinking
CitiesThe Manchester/Liverpool region has been chosen with Detroit and Ivanovo(Russia) as a partner region. Each selected location represents specifictypes of shrinkage, which occurred at different times and for different
regions. Manchester and Liverpool’s de-industrialization began decades
before the collapse of the East German economy and both cities have enjoyeda period of urban regeneration throughout the 1990s. Although many effectsof economic and demographic shrinkage will be lasting (the population ofboth cities has halved in the last 50 years), this period of renewal led toa unique cultural production in the field of popular music, visual arts orarchitecture. The cities have generated unprecedented urban renewal
strategies, which could be inspirational to the East German context.
Manchester and Liverpool contributes to Shrinking Cities in the following
way:- International Exhibition in Berlin (2004): A large public exhibition will
present the results of the international case studies, which will include
contributions from artists, urban researchers and academics from Manchesterand Liverpool. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue publication and travel to the various partner cities including Manchester andLiverpool.
- International Competition: In February 2004, an open international
competition will be launched for architects, artists, and others to developinterventions in the shrinking cities Detroit, Manchester/Liverpool,
Ivanovo, and Halle/Leipzig. After preselection by an international, interdisciplinary jury, ca. 15 works will be chosen in a two-step procedure;
these are to be presented to the public in 2005 in the framework of theexhibition and catalog. If possible, they will then be implemented.
- On Site Projects: Shrinking Cities aims to initiate on site projects inEast Germany, which will build upon the results of the international casestudies. Liverpool and Manchester artists and architects will be invited todevelop and implement concepts and innovative strategies for specific East
German locations.
- Exchange and Collaborations: Throughout all stages, Shrinking Cities will
rely on continual artistic, academic and public exchange with a wide
ranging network of local partners, which will involve the organisation of
joint workshops, conferences, publications and public events such as film
screenings, exhibitions, lectures or concerts.
The Internet site www.shrinkingcities.com provides an open platform for
public address and further discussion. In addition, a number of activities
in selected locations are designed to induce active public participation,
whose results will be incorporated in the project’s working process.

British Partners
Shrinking cities has developed a local network of partners and sponsors,which include prestigious cultural and academic institutions as well as
individuals from Manchester and Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow and London.
British partners for the exhibition include:• The Liverpool Biennial• CUBE Manchester8• FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) Liverpool• Institute of Popular Music (University of Liverpool)• Manchester School of Architecture (University of Manchester)• Department of Geography (University of Manchester)• CURS Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (University of Birmingham)• North Western Arts Council• The British Council, Berlin• Goethe-Institute, Manchester

Manchester and Liverpool’s contribution to theinternational exhibition
A major section of the exhibition will be dedicated to Liverpool andManchester. This exhibition will afford a first time opportunity for an
audience outside of the UK to discover these two major cities, theirrichness and cultural complexities as well as their long-standing experience with issues of decline, shrinkage and urban regeneration. The
exhibition will combine diverse angles and perspectives developed byManchester and Liverpool artists, film-makers, architects, urban researchers and academics. This interdisciplinary approach will allow for a
combination of a micro-research (e.g. communicating the experiences ofresidents at grassroots level), as well as a documentation of strategies
and tactics developed by cultural entrepreneurs, municipal authorities orcultural institutions and the different cultural responses as in popular
music, film and literature. Different aspects will be explored throughcommissioned studies, using individual media for documentation, e.g. film,
interactive material, photographs, original documentation, (interactive)
maps, models or sound pieces. The contributions will be supplemented byanalyses using scientific means such as cartography, statistics, chronologies and diagrams. Examples from film, music, art, and literature will
document the various cultural responses.
Local Curator / Coordinator:
Joshua Bolchover, architect, Manchester
Paul Domela, curator, Liverpool
Philipp Misselwitz, architect, Berlin/ Tel Aviv

Contributions“Spaces of Labour” by G.L.A.S. (Allan Atlee, Florian Kossak and others):architects and artists, members of the Glasgow based artists collective‘Glas’ whose work has been exhibited internationally; teaches at Universityof Strathclyde. For the forthcoming Shrinking Cities exhibition Atlee andKossak will curate a specific edition of the quarterly Glaspapers. The
edition will gather a variety of text and visualisations from local authors
and focus on the transformation of the work-spaces in the Manchester andLiverpool region since the beginning of post-industrial change. (format:
newspaper on exhibition display)“Re-imaging the city” and “Hume as an urban myth” by Joshua Bolchover andothers: Manchester based architect, graduated from University of Cambridge
and at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Bolchover recently completed
his own design for Top Shop flagship Oxford Street store (London),commissioned by Tank Magazine. Apart from his role as member of the local
curatorial team Bolchover will collaborate with Manchester academic Kevin
Ward on a research and visualisation project which will focus on the9transformation of municipal decision making structures during Manchester
beginning phase of regeneration. Bolchover will also collaborate witharchitect Shumon Basar (Blackpool, London) on an in-depth study of theurban transformation of Hulme, Manchester, titled “Hume as an urban myth”.
(format: architectural models, diagrams, archival material, etc.)“Shrinking City Music” by Sarah Cohen: Director of Institute of PopularMusic, University of Liverpool; trained as an anthropologist at Oxford(PhD) she has conducted major international research projects on popular
music and the urban environment. Sarah Cohen heads a research team thatinvestigates links between urban shrinkage and the production of popular
music in the Manchester/ Liverpool region during the past decades. Her
research will be published in the exhibition catalogue and developed as adisplayed for the Shrinking Cities exhibition. (format: text, graphic
display, photography, sound)“Transformation of Manchester Mill Towns” by John Davies: Liverpool based
photographer John Davies will contribute a series of time-lapse photographs, revealing the transformation of the ring of industrial towns around
Manchester since the collapse of their industrial base in the 1980s. The
work will be based on a photographic investigation from the early 1980s,
complemented with new shots taken from the same positions in 2003. (format:
photographs, displayed as 4 pairs)“Further up in the Air” by Neville Gabie, Leo Fitzmaurice: Liverpool based
artists group, initiated the project ‘Further up in the Air’ which invited
UK artists to appropriate a partially abandoned tower block in Liverpool.
Gabie and Fitzmorris will develop a new display documenting the project,and contribute new work to the exhibition. Tower block resident Kath Healy
will contribute a unique recording the response of local residents to thepresence of artists throughout the duration of the project. (format: video,
graphic display)“Tip Rats” by Ken Grant: photographer and Senior lecturer in Documentary
Photography, University of Wales College, Newport; worked in Liverpool
since the 1980s documented in an exhibition and the book ‘The Closed
Season’ which was exhibited in major international venues (e.g. Dublin,
Oregon, Prague). Grant will develop the new exhibition display “Tip Rats”
of a photographic research into a closely-knit resident community in thenorth of Liverpool for which a nearby waste deposit site provided
opportunities to recycle and resell found objects. The display will consist
entirely of works that have never been exhibited before. (format: displayof photographs of varying sizes)“Shrinking City Movie”, consultancy by J Hallam: Senior lecturer at the
University of Liverpool; conducted widely published research on film andurban regeneration. Julia Hallam will gather a library of films and videos
that are thematically related to urban decline and regeneration. The works
will predominantly include productions from the Manchester/ Liverpool
region. Julia Hallam will also advise on a series of film screenings incollaboration with the Berlin British Council that will be screening during
the public exhibition period in Berlin.
“Hacienda” by David Haslam: Manchester based DJ, promoter (Hacienda) andauthor of the book “Manchester England” will explore links between theraise of popular music and urban renewal. Haslam’s new work is inspired byan auction, held in November 2000, which sold off memorabilia of thelegendary Hacienda club, which has been a key symbol of Manchester’s urban
renewal. Fifty current owners of such paraphernalia will be photographed
10with the old bricks, mirrors, seating, etc., now on display in theirprivate homes. The work will reveal a mental map of the ongoing myth of theclub, which remains an integrative symbol for a generation. Dave Haslam
will also compose a new sound piece to accompany the installation,
juxtaposing past and current sounds of the Hacienda site, which has
currently been redeveloped for luxury apartments. (format: photographs,
text, sound piece)“Systems of Fear and self-defense” by Tom Jeffries, architect: Head of
Urbanism and Landscape College, Manchester University, has conducted aseries of urban studies on post-industrial cities. Together with architect
Neil Swanson and architect Dominic Wilkinson Jeffreys will direct a
research project on the widespread distrust and safety fears as of local
residents following years of urban decline and its impact on thearchitecture and planning of new housing estates in the region. Even aftercrime rates fall an atmosphere persists where safety is a major priority
for private home owners, generating new spatial typologies and reconfiguring the public spaces in large parts of the cities. The research will
be conducted with the help of architecture students of Manchester
University. (format: models, illustrated manual)“Study of urban geography” by Peter Lee: Senior researcher at Centre for
Urban and Regional Studies, University of Liverpool; conducted various
urban research projects in the North-West of the UK and internationally.
Peter Lee heads an urban geography research team, which will conduct new
data research on the metropolitan region of Manchester and Liverpool. The
team will focus on indicators that describe the spatial, social andeconomic transformation of the region during post-industrial regeneration.
(format: diagrams and moving data, displayed on digital screens)“Call-center Sound” by Paul Rooney: Manchester based sound and video artist
Paul Rooney will develop a new work, which will continue his interest in‘voice service’ industries, which have emerged and physically located invacated areas previously dominated by manufacturing or trade. Rooney will
investigate the social environment of the workplace at a regional callcentre based on interviews conducted with employees. The interview texts
will be reworked and set to music, performed and videoed for theexhibition. (format: 10 video monitors, sound, live performance)“Architectural entrepreneurialism” by Static (Paul Sullivan, Becky Shaw):
The Liverpool based architect/artist collaborative will contribute an
investigation of the role of architect/ developers such as Urban Splash to
the transformation of Liverpool’s urban fabric in recent years. The work
will include a series of new interviews conducted with key figures from theindustry, data research and a video based investigation of the nature of
public and private spaces within recent commercial developments. (format:
video interviews, diagrams and maps, data files)“Scotland Road – mental mappings” by Imogen Stidworthy: Liverpool based
sound and video artist Imogen Stidworthy will investigate the contrasting
perceptions of urban spaces that whose built fabric has been cleared during
the processes of slam-clearance and regeneration. Stidworthy will focus on
the Scotland Road area in central Liverpool, which had once been a thriving
centre for an Irish immigrant community. Today, only a widened thoroughfare
and scattered pubs remain. In interviews and walks with former residents,
the artist will record the mental map within the perception of local
residents, invisible to any outsider passing through the area. (format:
video, sound, drawings)
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“Re-imaging the city” by Kevin Ward: Lecturer at Geography Department at
Manchester University, co-editor of the recent book “Manchester, city of
revolution”. Kevin Ward will contribute new research on the transformationof municipal decision making structures since the beginning of large-scaleurban regeneration in Manchester. Kevin Ward will collaborate with Joshua
Bolchover.
“Dockers at Cammel Laird” by Tom Wood: Liverpool based photographer Tom
Wood will contribute a selection of photographs of the Cammel Laird shipyard in Liverpool, taken at the point of high redundancies and imminentclosure. The exhibition will be the first public display of this work.
(format: photographic display)“Left Behind” by Public Works (Kathrin Böhm, Andreas Lang): London based
art and architecture collaborative; projects include “Mobile Porch” anevent infrastructure developed for Hammersmith Local Council, which was
exhibited in several European countries. Public works will investigate thesocial and spatial landscape of areas that have been earmarked for
demolition. The project “Left Behind” will focus on Norris Green (EastLiverpool) and investigate reasons and motivations as well as theinteraction between residents and newcomers who choose to live in an area,
which is otherwise totally abandoned. (format: video production, project
report, installation)
Consultant: Julia Hallam, Film expert, Liverpool

Cooperating Institutions
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst
The Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art promotes and communicates international and national artistic positions. Occupying a Wilhelminian villa in
Dresden, converted by the architect Peter Kulka, it primarily holds
exhibitions of work by the new generation of artists, but also of
historically significant pieces from recent decades. Since its opening in
1998, the gallery has grown into one of the leading institutions forcontemporary art, not only in Germany's new eastern states, but also in thewhole of Europe. One of its main concerns is the examination of architecture and town planning. As part of the Shrinking Cities project in2004/2005, the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art will commission work
directly and award stipends, so as to initiate the development of interventions for eastern Germany. www.gfzk.deArch+
As an architectural magazine that focuses on issues, ARCH+ takes an indepth look at a different subject in each edition. In doing so, ARCH+ does
not display one project after another without comment, but works out new
concepts and ideas on the basis of significant, key designs. Its articles
examine questions to do with science and technology, politics, economics
and ecology, making architecture known in a different way to the usual one.
In 2004, ARCH+ magazine will hold an international, open competition in
conjunction with the Shrinking Cities project.
12www.baunetz.de/arch/archplus
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Set up in 1994, the foundation has two aims: firstly, to preserve theheritage of the historical Bauhaus and communicate it to the public;
secondly, to contribute to the design of our environment today in thespirit of this tradition. Today, the building is more than a school, or amuseum: it is a place of design, teaching and research that offers space
for the study of towns and cities and all subjects that are of importancefor our understanding of them today. In 2003 / 2004, as part of the
Shrinking Cities project, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will initiate thedevelopment of interventions for eastern Germany by means of directcommissions and workshops. www.bauhaus-dessau.deKulturstiftung des Bundes
The Federal Cultural Foundation was set up in March 2002 and its head
office is in Halle an der Saale. The General Funding programme is open to
applications made to the Federal Cultural Foundation for financial support
for particular projects. The Federal Cultural Foundation also develops
multi-part programmes of its own. The programmatic work of the Federal
Cultural Foundation currently covers the following subjects: Regional Focus
on Eastern Europe, Cultural Aspects of German Unification, The Cultural
Challenge of the 11th of September and Art and City.
The Shrinking Cities project is part of the Art and City programme, inwhich the importance of urban developments for the cultural identity ofmodern societies is investigated and portrayed in diverse artistic forms.
www.kulturstiftung-bund.de13

Curatorial Team
Philipp Oswalt, architect and writer, Berlin
Born in 1964 in Frankfurt am Main. Studied architecture at the Technical
University of Berlin and the School of Fine Arts, Berlin (diploma in 1995).
1988-94: editor on the architectural magazine ARCH+, also planned symposia,
workshops, lecture programmes and exhibitions. 1996-97: worked for OMA /Rem Koolhaas (Rotterdam) and MVRDV (Rotterdam). 1998: set up his own
practice. 2000: wrote “Berlin – Stadt ohne Form” (Berlin - City withoutform). 2000-02: Visiting Professor at the Brandenburg Technical University
in Cottbus. 2001: set up Studio Urban Catalyst. 2002: began project
direktorship of Shrinking Cities. mailto: os@shrinkingcities.com
Nikolaus Kuhnert, Publisher and editor of the magazine ARCH+, Berlin
Born in 1939 in Potsdam. 1958-62: studied architecture and painting at theTechnical University of Berlin, and the School of Fine Arts, Berlin, while
also working in the architectural practices first of his father and then ofHans Scharoun. Since 1975: publisher and editor of the magazine ARCH+(together with Marc Fester, Sabine Kraft and Günther Uhlig). 1979:
doctorate at the Rhine-Westphalia Technical College in Aachen (subject:Social Elements of Architecture - Type and Definition of Type in theContext of Rational Architecture). Since 1983: Managing Editor of ARCH+.
1989: concept and organisation of Berlinmodell Industriekultur (with Otl
Aicher). 1996: awarded the Erich Schelling Prize for Architectural Theory.
mailto: archplusberlin@gmx.de
Kyong Park, artist/curator, Detroit/New York
Born in 1955 in South Korea. Studied architecture at the University ofMichigan. 1982-98: founder and Director of Store Front for Art and Architecture, New York. 1997: curator of Images of the Future: The Architectureof A New Geography for the Kaanggju Biennale in Korea. Since 1998: founderand Director of the ICUE (International Center for Urban Ecology) in
Detroit. 2001: taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecturein Los Angeles and the Rhode Island School of Design/City University of New
York. 2001: Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Detroit
Mercy. Exhibition contributions: Archilab, Orleans (2001); Deichtorhallen,
Hamburg (2002); Baden Art Association, Karlsruhe (2003).
mailto: icue.park@verizon.net
Walter Prigge, Sociologist, Dessau
Born in 1946 in Bremen. Studied sociology, philosophy, politics and architecture in Frankfurt am Main, later gaining his doctorate, professorshipand teaching sociology there. After this, he wrote and researched on
cities. Since 1996: member of the academic staff of the Bauhaus Dessau
Foundation, curator of events and exhibitions, editor and author ofnumerous publications. Main subjects: the city, space, society, architecture, building culture. mailto: prigge@bauhaus-dessau.de
Barbara Steiner, director, Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art
Born in 1964 in Vienna. 1984-90: studied Art History at the University of
Vienna. 1990-92: post-graduate course for Curators at the State Academy,
Krems. 1993-96: worked on exhibitions in Hamburg, Vienna and Cologne.
Director of the Art Associations of Ludwigsburg (1997-98) and Wolfsburg(1999-2000). Since 2000: Lecturer at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,
Copenhagen. 2001: doctorate at the University of Vienna (subject: On the
Ideology of the White Cube in the Art of the Sixties and Seventies). Since
2001: Director of the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art.
mailto: steiner@gfzk.de
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Local Curators
Manchester/ Liverpool
Joshua Bolchover, architect, Manchester
T +44 (0) 7986 464 524
mailto: jbolchover@hotmail.com
Paul Domela, curator, Liverpool
Deputy Chief Executive
Liverpool Biennial
1 Maryland Street PO Box 1200
Liverpool L69 1XB England
T: +44 (0) 151 709 7444
F: +44 (0) 151 709 7377
mailto: p.domela@biennial.org.uk
Philipp Misselwitz, architect, Berlin / London
T +49 30 70071702
mailto: philmisselwitz@aol.com

DetroitKyong Park, architect, Detroit/ New York
Mitch Cope, gallerist / artist, Tangent Gallery Detroit
Dan Pitera, architect, Detroit

Ivanovo
Sergey Sitar, architect / author, Moscow
Alexander Sverdlov, architect, Moscow / Rotterdam

15Facts
Project Manager / Curator Philipp Oswalt
architect / writer, Berlin
Project time frame

September 2002 – June 2005

in cooperation with

Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Arch+ magazine

Curatorial Team

Nikolaus Kuhnert
Arch+ magazine, Berlin
Kyong Park
Intern. Center for Urban Ecology, Detroit
Walter Prigge
Stiftung Bauhaus, Dessau
Barbara Steiner
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig

An initiative project of the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany/ Halle

Agenda2003

International research by interdisciplinary teams inpartner locations, specialist workshops and symposiums

2004

Design workshops, direct commissions, travel grants

Feb 2004

Competition, Arch+ Magazine

Sep/Oct 2004

Exhibition in Berlin (Kunstwerke), catalogue publication

April/May 2005

Exhibition of second phase in Leipzig, local
interventions

2005

Exhbition will be shown in Moscow (Architectural Museum
Moscow) and Liverpool/ Manchester

Further Information:
Shrinking Cities Office
Dr. Astrid Herbold (public relations)
Eisenacherstr. 74
D-10823 Berlin
Phone +49 (0)30-818219-06
Fax +49 (0)30-818219-12
press@shrinkingcities.com
www.shrinkingcities.com

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