Recently Concluded
Shrinking Cities
February 3, 2007-April 1, 2007
Main, Center and Wainger Galleries

Cities, not unlike Detroit, are shrinking all over the world! In the exhibition Shrinking Cities, a project sponsored by Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation, more than 100 architects, academics and artists including more than twenty artists currently based in Michigan, investigate recent developments in the cities of Detroit, Ivanovo, Manchester / Liverpool and Halle / Leipzig. Shrinking Cities introduces the theme of urban shrinkage as a global phenomenon, showing its effects on the respective local situations, and providing insight into possible options for action. The goal of the exhibition, however, is not to mourn the demise of the city, but rather to bring fresh perspectives to the job of revitalizing them. While Shrinking Cities contradicts the image, familiar since the Industrial Revolution, of the "boomtown," a big city characterized by constant economic and demographic growth, the project encourages a reconsideration not only of traditional ideas of the city, but also of the future development of the modern metropolis.

Shrinking Cities is a project created by Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation (the Kulturstiftung des Bundes) in cooperation with the Project Office Philipp Oswalt, the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the architecture magazine archplus. Shrinking Cities is sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Cranbrook Art Museum and the newly founded Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) will serve as partner institutions and co-hosts for Shrinking Cities.

Bloomfield Hills and Detroit, MI – Between 1950 and 2000, more than 350 large cities across the globe lost a significant share of their inhabitants and businesses. What do we do with cities that are contracting? Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) will host the two-part exhibition Shrinking Cities – a project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation – which offers an in-depth survey of the worldwide phenomenon of urban depopulation as well as interventions by more than 200 artists, architects, filmmakers, academics and international teams from over 12 countries. The exhibition offers imaginative remedies for regions that have undergone decline and suggests artistic and architectural interventions that are visionary. Focusing on four cities around the world, including Detroit, Shrinking Cities will open on February 3, 2007, and the public is invited to visit both venues.

Cranbrook Art Museum will host part one of the exhibition entitled Shrinking Cities: International Research, which examines the phenomenon of urban decline in the four focus cities: Detroit, Halle/Leipzig (Germany), Manchester/Liverpool (Britain), and Ivanovo (Russia). These cities are explored and represented in diverse forms of documentation by artists, architects, researchers and others. Themes include a worldwide study of urban depopulation, the change of urban landscapes, everyday practices and political conflicts under the conditions of decline.

MOCAD will host part two of the exhibition entitled Shrinking Cities: Interventions, which presents strategies for change and action. It is divided into five areas: Negotiating Inequality, Self-Governance, Creating Images, Organizing Retreat, and Occupying Space. The artists see the four depopulated cities in question as offering opportunity, a blank slate or canvas for developing news ways of living and working.

"Shrinkage calls into question our understanding of the city and of urban planning. Urban neighborhoods, cities and entire regions are being drained of their population and jobs, leaving behind those who have lost out in the process of transformation from an era of industrial production to a society governed by globalized service industries," says Philipp Oswalt, the curator of the Shrinking Cities, who is based in Berlin. "Shrinkage does not only imply loss; it can also be the point of departure for cultural renewal."

"Shrinking Cities is impressive for the sheer sense of possibility it offers to the residents of this region," says Gregory Wittkopp, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum. "We hope people will be inspired by what the artists of Shrinking Cities have imagined for us and for others around the globe."

In Shrinking Cities, Detroit is represented in many fascinating projects including "However Unspectacular: The New Suburbanism/Detroit Do Your Thing," by the Center for Urban Pedagogy and Interboro, New York. They offer a study of how Detroit residents of the inner city can suburbanize through individual appropriations of neighborhoods. Another project looks at Detroit’s urban agricultural projects and at neighborhood groups that have taken control of their own city services. And a third project examines Devil’s Night and the fact that the number of reported fires on that night is actually lower than the average number of fires in the city on any other given night.

"By taking a contemporary interdisciplinary approach, Shrinking Cities offers many different perspectives on our urban situation," says Marsha Miro, acting director of MOCAD. "The projects and extensive related programming should stimulate important dialogue. We are excited about our collaboration with Cranbrook as extension of that conversation."

The joint presentation of Shrinking Cities by Cranbrook Art Museum and MOCAD, speaks of the dialogue and new urban models to physically and conceptually unite the city and the suburbs. Every Saturday and Sunday afternoons a free shuttle bus will transport viewers between both venues, connecting the region symbolically, while making the exhibition available for everyone. Admission will be free at Cranbrook for anyone that arrives on the shuttle bus. Public programs will also be presented collaboratively at Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, and other institutions and will include film screenings, related exhibitions, artist talks, panel discussions, and music performances.

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

Cranbrook Art Museum and MOCAD

ADMISSION FEES AND LOCATIONS

Cranbrook Art Museum is located at 39221 Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan. Enter on the west side of Woodward Avenue between Lone Pine and Long Lake Roads. Free parking is available adjacent to the Art Museum and in Cranbrook’s new parking deck, located between Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science. Public museum hours are Wednesday-Sunday 11am-5pm; 4th Friday of each month 11am-9pm.The Museum is closed Monday-Tuesday and select holidays.

Museum admission is free for members. General admission is $6 for adults; $4 for
seniors (65 plus), teens, and full-time students with ID; children 12 and under are
admitted free with adult admission. For more information, please call 1-877-GO-CRANBrook (1-877-462-7262).

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is located at 4454 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan at the corner of Garfield. Entrance is on the Garfield side with Free parking in the rear of the building. Public Museum hours are Wednesday & Sunday 12-6pm, Thursday-Saturday 12-8pm. The Museum is closed Monday-Tuesday and select holidays. Museum admission is free to the public. For more information, please call 313-832-6622 or visit www.mocadetroit.org.