Berlin Case Study - Cities Institute

More than 10,000 visitors have seen the exhibitions
in Halle and Leipzig, Germany The exhibition at the
Centre for Contemporary Culture in Halle had 5,264
visitors between November 19 2005 and January
29 2006. The second exhibition of Shrinking Cities
– Interventions, at the Gallery for Contemporary
Art Leipzig, drew 4,900 visitors. More than 2,000
visitors attended the 66 events of the accompanying
programme, which included discussions, city tours,
workshops, club evenings, and a children’s and a film
programme. Some items from the exhibition in the
ZfzK will remain in Halle: the Municipal Museum
of the city of Halle on the Saale has acquired a
number of the exhibition contributions for its
permanent collection.
The exhibitions in Leipzig and Halle were the
concluding presentation of the results of Germany’s
Federal Cultural Foundation’s extensive project on
the phenomenon. More than 100 artists, architects,
city planners, authors, and sociologists took part.
After the exhibitions in Berlin in 2004 and in Halle
and Leipzig, follow-up exhibitions are being planned
for Detroit, Moscow and Manchester.
A publication on the exhibitions has already appeared
in English with the publishing house Verlag Hatje
Cantz: Shrinking Cities – Volume 1: International
Research is devoted to the topic of processes of
urban shrinking on several levels. The selected
contributions to the international idea competition
Shrinking Cities – Reinventing Urbanism, which
were presented in the exhibition in Leipzig, were
also published in a special issue of the German
architectural magazine archplus. At the conclusion of
the project, more publications will appear, including
Shrinking Cities – Volume 2 Interventions, the
Complete Works and the Atlas of Shrinking Cities.
Urban district culture
www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de
Art and culture for empty shops
The cultural quarters project “Boxion” targets empty
shops around Boxhagener Place in Kreuzberg,
in order to re-use them for resident and local
enterprises for art and culture.
This neighbourhood is a mixed area with old
buildings located on the edge of the city centre.
The Boxion project aims to promote the ‘culture of
quarters’, improve the residential environment, its
image and public areas.
“Boxion 2001” provides artists and creatives with
the possibility to use and animate as exhibition
and communication space, 18 empty shops
and restaurants. The users of the shops commit
themselves to keeping firm opening times and to
participate in the overall “Boxion” cultural quarter
project www.boxion.de
The shops are used as workplaces and extend
into the public realm. At the end of the first year
the shop lease is either transferred by the user or
rented to other business premises in the district.
Public works, such as external advertisements,
shop window displays, information boards for
promoting the Boxion project and activities, as well
as accommodation management, are coordinated
under the “social city” project. “Guerilla shopping”
has also gained hold in Berlin, with high fashion brands
and independent designers opening ‘secret outlets’,
using vacant shops for only a few months before they
become too popular.
With the help of a public show of interest, over 20
organisations applied to coordinate the project.
The ‘playing field’ agency was selected by a project
committee for to deliver the programme.
The exchange between inhabitants and artists
as well as co-operation between cultural quarter
projects are to be sustained beyond the life of the
empty shop programme. The idea for artistic-cultural
stimulation through the temporary use of shops and
restaurants in the ground floor of the residential
blocks, goes back to the results of a survey of
local residents’ ideas and initiatives undertaken
by the playing field agency – as well as those of
representatives of the local district in the context
of the social city area concept.
Project beneficiaries include local residents (tenants,
owners) and enterprises, artists and education
providers/students. Finance was provided through
the European Union (EFRE), the federal land programme
“social city”, sponsorship/donations, and other
private donations for the different shop exhibition
projects. Participating organisation included:
• Bad Boxhagener place – Accomodation
Management
• District Friedrichshain Kreuzberg – Culture
Committee
• Houseowners and Tenants
Berlin Case Study/appendix A
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