Cities are shrinking all over the world! /// Shrinking cities are a cultural challenge to us. In the Shrinking Cities project, architects, academics and artists investigate recent developments in Detroit, Ivanovo, Manchester / Liverpool and Halle / Leipzig – and make suggestions. Shrinking cities is a project (2002-2008) of the Federal Cultural Foundation, under the direction of Philipp Oswalt (Berlin) in co-operation with the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the magazine archplus.
In Halle/ Leipzig, the project was presented at one of the investigated sites for the first time. With zones of growth, shrinking, and stagnation all in close proximity, the region is a typical example of the worldwide process of spatial polarization.
The exhibition “Interventions” in Leipzig, with a focus on eastern Germany, presented for the first time concepts for action and interventions for shrinking cities. To stimulate the production of concepts for action, the architecture magazine archplus had staged an idea competition; the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau had made direct commissions; and the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig had awarded work stipends. The majority of the projects were developed in close collaboration with citizens and local groups and institutions. The resulting 33 projects and additional presentations of existing practices showed on 1,500 square meters possibilities in five fields of action: negotiating inequality, self-government, making pictures, organizing retreat, and occupying spaces. The projects of the international artists, architects, and researchers ranged from artistic interventions and self-empowerment projects through architectonic, landscape, and media interventions to new legal regulations and utopian visions. A total of 12,400 visitors saw the two exhibitions or took part in the 65 events of the accompanying program.
