TWINNING TOWNS: LEIPZIG-DETROIT
2010
The idea of the project was based on the concept of “town twinning” (sister cities) whereby towns or cities in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired. The “town twinning” concept was applied in the cities of Leipzig and Detroit by focusing on the issue of shrinkage and abandonment. Three examples of that connection were realised.
For the first connection a video installation was created, with two trombonists playing in two abandoned swimming pools, one in Leipzig and one in Detroit, in a way that the music of both trombonists creates a composition.
The second connection concerned the exchange of two signs between two abandoned shops that signify the economical and cultural past of the cities, of industries and small shops that run down and left many abandoned spaces.The signs give information about the former functionality of the buildings. As architectural elements of the façade of the building, they are part of it s morphology, they are designed to follow the architecture of the building and they indicate the period it was built. The written language signifies the country of their origination and their graphic characteristics and materials reveal the time they were made. After the exchange each building acquires a new sign, while the traces of the old sign are still visible. What occurs is an exchange of culture in the form of language.
The third connection realized was the exchange of two windows between two similar associations one in each city. The two art initiatives were the “Hinzundkunz” in Leipzig and “The Yes Farm” in Detrtoit. The windows were part of the renovation and transformation of the two abandoned buildings into living and cultural spaces. The characteristic european and american window slightly changed the facade of each building.
The “twinning towns: Leipzig -Detroit” project consists of different actions that could be seen as actual actions and symbolical actions. Actual actions can be considered moving from one city to another, transporting, installing, removing, playing music, being involved in the city‘s life, exploring, finding materials and cooperating with musicians, craftsmen and art initiatives. On the other hand the symbolic action is the twinning, the attempt to transform, through the exchange of materials, buildings of Leipzig into buildings of Detroit and the other way around, transforming in a way the one city into the other. Although the actual action, of the specific installations or events, is visible only to a limited audience (the passers buy, the people involved in the project, etc) the symbolic action aims to the larger image and idea of the twinning of two cities, a wider concept opened up to a lot of questions on what the twinning of towns could mean.
EMST-NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, ATHENS
“A-Fresh: A new generation of Greek Artists”. Curated by Daphne Dragona, Dapnhe Vitali, Tina Pandi