Press Release /// June 13, 2006

“Shrinking Cities” Tours the World, 2006 to 2008
Following the great success of the exhibitions “ShrinkingCities I + II” in Berlin, Halle, and Leipzig, the German
Federal Cultural Foundation is now sending the exhibitions toten additional international sites. For two years, a selectionof the exhibition contributions will be on view in the UnitedStates, Britain, Japan, Russia, and other places.
In four years of work, the initiative project of the cultural
foundation has investigated the worldwide phenomenon of urban
shrinkage on the basis of numerous examples in Germany,Britain, Russia, the U.S.A., and elsewhere. Since 2002, morethan 100 artists, architects, scientists, and local initiatives
have taken part in the project Shrinking Cities. The results
have been shown in two exhibitions, several books, digitalpublications, and numerous public events.
The success of the exhibitions in Berlin, Halle on the Saale,and Leipzig exceeded all expectations: “Shrinking Cities” wasamong the best-attended exhibitions of each of the venues. The
first 5,000 copies of the first book were sold out within a fewweeks.
In the German and in the international debate, the project
established the expression “Schrumpfende Staedte / Shrinking
Cities” and made a crucial contribution to the public
discussion conducted in recent years.
From Fall 2006 to Spring 2008, the project Shrinking Cities
will now present the results of its global investigation andits proposed concepts for action in a worldwide context. The
tour focuses on some of the countries facing massive processesof urban shrinking – the United States, Britain, Russia, Japan,and Germany. Since the 1990s, 25% of the world’s big cities arelosing population, and the tendency is increasing. The project
Shrinking Cities is thus initiating an international exchangeof experience with this until now neglected urban phenomenon,
which has become a crucial issue of urban development all over
the world in recent decades, in parallel to the rapid processesof urbanization.
The concept of the exhibition will be individually adapted andupdated for each of the sites. Planned are also common
activities and events with the respective local partners.
The international stations are ///Italy, Venice, Biennale di Venezia: a contribution to the 10th
International Biennial of Architecture, Venice, from September
10 to November 19, 2006.
Japan, Tokyo: University of Tokyo with AkiDeCo Museum, Fall2006.
USA, New York: Pratt Manhattan Gallery / Van Alen Institute,November 2006 to February 2007.
USA, Detroit: Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills / Museumof Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), February / March 2007.
Britain, Liverpool: afoundation, Greenland Street, Summer 2007.
Germany, Saarbrücken: E-Werk, Fall 2007.
Germany, Ruhr Valley: probably Dortmund, Fall 2007.
Germany, Frankfurt am Main: German Architecture Museum inFrankfurt (DAM), November 2007 to January 2008.
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg: Pro Arte Institute incooperation with the State Museum of History St Petersburg,
Spring 2008.
Also in planning /// Austria, Eisenerz andBulgaria, Rousse, both Fall 2006.

Preview /// The bilingual “Atlas der schrumpfenden
Staedte/Atlas of Shrinking Cities”, describing and analyzing
for the first time the phenomenon globally in maps, diagrams,texts, and portraits of cities, will be published in August.
Review copies can already be ordered now.

Current press images ///http://www.shrinkingcities.com/fotos.0.html...............
Press and Publicity
Dr. Astrid Herbold
Schrumpfende Staedte - Shrinking Cities
Eisenacher Straße 74
D-10823 Berlin
Tel: +49 (30) 81 82 19-06
press@shrinkingcities.com
http://www.shrinkingcities.com

Shrinking Cities is an initiative project of the Kulturstiftungdes Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in cooperation
with the Project Office Philipp Oswalt, the Gallery forContemporary Art Leipzig, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and themagazine archplus.