Shrinking Cities>>> Press Release/November 2005---------------------------------------------------------------------------PUBLICATION “SHRINKING CITIES: INTERNATIONALINVESTIGATION” APPEARS IN AN ENGLISH EDITION--------------------------------------------------------------------------In November 2005, the Verlag Hatje Cantz will publish the book “ShrinkingCities: International Investigation”. It provides an overview of theinvestigations of the project “Shrinking Cities”, a three-year initiative
project of Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation that has focused for thefirst time with the phenomenon of urban shrinkage processes.
Whether in Great Britain or Belgium, in Finland, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan,or China: cities are shrinking everywhere. Beginning with concrete
examples, this volume examines the causes and dynamics of the shrinking
process for the first time on an international level. Manchester/Liverpool(UK), Detroit (USA), Ivanovo (RUS), Halle/Leipzig (D), and Japan are at thecenter of an international investigation that concentrates upon living
conditions and cultural transformations in urban regions affected byeconomic decline and a decrease in population. Cultural investigations andartistic contributions sharpen our sensitivity toward a highly explosive
phenomenon, whose image we have barely begun to internalize.
Shrinking Cities, Volume 1: International Research
Edited by Philipp Oswalt on behalf of the German Federal CulturalFoundation
Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern, Germany
German edition, 2004, ISBN 3-7757-1481-2
English edition, October 2005, ISBN 3-7757-1682-3
736 pp., 503 illus., 389 in color, 17.00 x 22.40 cm, € 39.80
Essays by Herwig Birg, Diedrich Diedrichsen, Robert Fishman, Yasuyuki
Fujii, Dave Haslam, Linda Grant, Jerry Herron, Thomas A. P. Van Leeuwen,
Kyong Park, Sergei Sitar, Thomas J. Sugrue, Katherine Verdery, and manymore.
Photos by Stan Douglas, John Ganis, Ken Grant, Bas Princen, Tom Wood,
Tobias Zielony, and many more.
Contains: Global Processes of Shrinkage, Dying Cities—Redundant Spaces,
Moving Cities—Unstable Places, Panic City—The Psychogeography of Fear,
Imagining the City—Cultural Representations, Space Pioneers—The Avant-Gardeof Shrinking, Everyday Survival—Do It Yourself, Growth : Shrinkage—Dynamicsof the Periphery, The Myth of Planning—Automatic Urbanism, DeconstructedValues—Mentalities in Flux. With portraits of the four locations and Japan.
To order a review copy, please contact Meike Gatermann,presse@hatjecantz.de.
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Upcoming Publications
Shrinking Cities, Volume 2: Interventions
Edited by Philipp Oswalt on behalf of the German Federal CulturalFoundation
Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern, Germany
German edition, October 2005, ISBN 3-7757-1558-4
English edition, Spring 2006, ISBN 3-7757-1711-0
ca. 900 pp., ca. 500 illus. in color, 17.00 x 22.50 cm, ca. € 39.80
Atlas of Shrinking Cities
Philipp Oswalt and Tim Rieniets

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160 pages, 37.5 x 26.7 cm, with many colored illustrations
English / German
Hatje Cantz, Spring 2006
Price: ca. € 39.80
ISBN 3-7757-1714-5...........................................................................
Shrinking Cities
In three years of work with the participation of more than 100
international artists, architects, researchers, and local initiatives, theproject “Shrinking Cities” investigated the worldwide phenomenon of urban
shrinkage processes and developed suggestions for intervention. Along withpublications, events, and an initial exhibition in Berlin last year thatwon worldwide respect, the results will now be concludingly shown in two
exhibitions in one of the investigated regions, Halle/Leipzig.
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Exhibitions
The exhibition “Shrinking Cities – International Investigation” (“Centerfor Contemporary Culture”, Halle/Salle, Germany, November 19, 2005 toJanuary 22, 2006) takes as its theme the phenomenon of shrinking cities,
from an international perspective. A first version of the exhibition wasshown in Fall 2004 at the KW – Institute for Contemporary Arts, Berlin.
The exhibition “Shrinking Cities – International Investigation” (Galerie
für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany, November 26, 2005 – January29, 2006) concentrates on concepts for action and interventions for eastern
Germany. The projects of the international artists, architects, andresearchers range from artistic interventions and self-empowerment
projects, through architectural, landscape, and media interventions, to newlegal regulations and utopian designs.
Additional exhibitions are planned in Dusseldorf, Spring 2006, andManchester, Fall 2006.
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For additional information on the exhibitions and the entire project,please contact:
Achim Klapp // Press Office and Public Relations
Schrumpfende Städte – Shrinking Cities
Eisenacher Straße 74, 10823 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (30) 81 82 19-06
press@shrinkingcities.com, www.shrinkingcities.com