GfZK

The exhibition in the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art presents concepts for action and interventions in shrinking cities that focus specifically on eastern Germany. The 35 works, initiated by the Shrinking Cities Initiative Project of Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation, range from artistic intercessions and self-empowerment projects, through architectural, landscape and media interventions to new legislative provision and draft utopias. The development of these concepts for action was prompted by a competition organized by the architecture magazine archplus and supported by direct commissions by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and project grants awarded by the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art. The majority of these projects were developed in close cooperation with local citizens, groups and institutions. The projects were conceived by architects, biologists, choreographers, designers, geographers, graphic designers, journalists, artists, landscape architects, local initiatives, philosophers, mushroom growers, urban planners, political scientists, sociologists, urban construction companies and entrepreneurs from Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Croatia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Slovenia and the United States. Alongside the newly developed projects, material on existing practices illustrates possibilities for action regarding the following issues: »Negotiating Inequality «, »Self-Governance«, »Creating Images «, »Organizing Retreat« and “Occupying Space”.

Shrinking Cities is a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in cooperation with the Project Office Philipp Oswalt, the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the magazine archplus.

Curated by Philipp Oswalt, Barbara Steiner, Walter Prigge und Nikolaus Kuhnert