Shrinking Cities examines the worldwide phenomenon of urban population decline. Artists, architects, filmmakers, journalists, cultural and social researchers present the changed reality of four cities and regions: Detroit, Michigan; Manchester, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Ivanovo, Russia; and Halle/ Leipzig, Germany.

Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and SPACES bring Shrinking Cities to Cleveland through a combined effort.

Shrinking Cities is a project of the German Federal Cutlural Foundation in cooperation with the Project Office Philipp Oswalt, the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, and magazine archplus. www.shrinkingcities.com

Gallery Talk with Austrian architect Johannes Fiedler
Fri, Jun 8 at 7pm

Fiedler will discuss Exterritories, his contribution to the Shrinking Cities exhibition. Exterritorial communities are the continuation of a process that began in the late 20th century—people from expanding countries and cultures filling the voids in receding societies. Fiedler's proposal to create "exterritories" within contracting regions, administered by more economically dynamic nations (e.g., a Chinese economic zone in Halle/Leipzig) exposes these schemes to necessary critiques: who benefits from such arrangements? What is growth, and why assume it is always desirable? How could we conceive a social economy more democratic and humane than the current entrepreneurial model? And, ultimately, what local efforts can make headway against forces operating on global scales?

*All events are free and open to the public

This is your last opportunity to view Shrinking Cities! The exhibition closes at Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and SPACES on Jun 8, 2007 after the gallery talk.

For more information contact:
SPACES Gallery
Phone: 216-621-2314
www.spacesgallery.org

CUDC
Phone: 216-357-3434
http://www.cudc.kent.edu/