Shrinking Cities>>> Press Release/November 2005---------------------------------------------------------------------------EXHIBITIONS ON THE THEME “SHRINKING CITIES” IN HALLE
AND LEIPZIG--------------------------------------------------------------------------Exhibitions address the worldwide phenomenon of processes of urban
shrinkage / More than 100 participating international artists, architects,
and researchers / The first exhibition in 2004 in Berlin drew worldwide
attention / The exhibitions are the conclusion of the three-year project ofGermany’s Federal Cultural Foundation
Halle/Leipzig, November 29, 2005 - With two exhibitions in Germany - inHalle (Saale) and Leipzig - the results of the initiative project of theFederal Cultural Foundation on the phenomenon of processes of urban
shrinkage will have their concluding presentation in one of the studied
regions. The region Halle/Leipzig, where zones of growth, shrinkage andstagnation are direct neighbors, is a typical example of the spatial
polarization processes happening all over the world.
In Halle (Saale), the exhibition 1 "Shrinking Cities – InternationalInvestigation" will be on view in the Zentrum fuer zeitgenoessische Kultur(Center for Contemporary Culture) in Halle-Neustadt train station from
November 19, 2005 to January 29, 2006. The exhibition examines thephenomenon of shrinking cities from an international perspective. Processesof shrinking are shown in the examples of four cities and regions: Detroit,USA; Manchester/Liverpool, United Kingdom; Ivanovo, Russia; andHalle/Leipzig, Germany. Artists, architects, filmmakers, journalists, andcultural and social researchers present the changed reality in theseregions in exhibition contributions. The topics range from neglect and theappropriation of spaces through changed forms of work to the development ofinnovative subcultures and criticism of existing planning cultures.
After the projects "Hotel Neustadt" and "International Summer School Halle2005", for the first time an international exhibition – "Shrinking Cities –International Investigation" - will be held in the Halle-Neustadt railway
terminal, which was shut down in 2003. Another impetus for a Zentrum fuer
zeitgenoessische Kultur in Halle (Saale). A first version of the exhibition
won worldwide respect when it was shown in Fall 2004 at the KW – Institutefor Contemporary Arts, Berlin.
The second exhibition, "Shrinking Cities – Interventions", in the Galerie
für zeitgenoessische Kunst (Gallery for Contemporary Art) in Leipzig from
November 25, 2005 until January 29, 2006, will present strategies foraction and interventions for shrinking cities, with a focus on eastern
Germany. Along with more than 30 newly developed projects, materials on
existing practices reveal possibilities in five areas of activity:“Negotiating Inequality”; “Governing Oneself”; “Making Pictures”;“Organizing Retreat”; and “Occupying Spaces”. The projects of theinternational artists, architects, and researchers thereby range fromartistic interventions and self-empowerment projects through architectural,
landscape, and media interventions to new legal regulations and utopianvisions.
To initiate strategies for action, the architectural magazine "archplus"
staged an idea competition, while the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation made directcommissions and the Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig awarded work
stipends. The majority of the projects were developed in close cooperation
with citizens, local groups, and institutions.
.........................................................................
Accompanying Program and Publications

-- 2 --

A broad program of events with film screenings, concerts, performances,discussions, talks with artists, workshops, city tours, and much more inHalle, Leipzig, and Dessau will accompany the two exhibitions. For
Exhibition 1, the publication Shrinking Cities. Volume 1: International
Investigation appeared with the publishing house Verlag Hatje Cantz. The
second volume, Shrinking Cities. Volume 2: Concepts for Action, will appearin German for the opening of the exhibition at the end of November, alsowith Verlag Hatje Cantz. Information on other publications of the project
can be found at www.shrinkingcities.com.
.........................................................................
Exhibition 1
Shrinking Cities – International Investigation
Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kultur (ZfzK), Halle-Neustadt train station
Albert-Einstein-Straße 41, 06112 Halle (Saale), www.zfzk.net
November 19, 2005 to January 29, 2006
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.-5 p.m., closed on
holidays
Sponsor: Governing Mayor of the City of Halle (Saale), Ingrid Häußler
Exhibition 2
Shrinking Cities – Interventions
Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (GfZK)
Karl-Tauchnitz-Straße 11, 04107 Leipzig, www.gfzk.de
November 26, 2005 to January 29, 2006
Opening hours: Tues-Sat 2-7 p.m., Sun noon-7 p.m., closed on holidays.........................................................................
Shrinking Cities
Shrinking Cities is an initiative project of Germany’s Federal Cultural
Foundation in cooperation with the project office Philipp Oswalt, theGalerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau,
and the magazine archplus.
In three years of work with the participation of more than 100 artists,architects, researchers, and local initiatives, the project hasinvestigated the worldwide phenomenon of processes of urban shrinkage andhas developed suggestions for interventions.
Whether in Germany, the USA, Russia, China, South Africa, Finland, orKazakhstan – cities are shrinking all over the world. Losses of populationand jobs are convulsing the regions and contradicting the image, accustomed
since the Industrial Revolution, of “boomtowns”, big cities characterizedby continuous economic and demographic growth. Shrinking Cities seeks totrigger a rethinking of traditional ideas of the city as well as of thefuture development of urbanism. The far-reaching changes caused byshrinking present not only an economic and social, but also a culturalchallenge.
.........................................................................
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 BerlinTel.: +49 (30) 81 82 19-06
press@shrinkingcities.com, www.shrinkingcities.com