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Participants
Atelier Bow Wow
Atelier le balto
Baukasten
Andreas Bergmann
Building Initiative
Nuno Cera
Simon Conder
Luc Deleu / T.O.P. Office
DCDC
Stefan Eberstadt
El ultimo Grito
Frank H�lsb�mer
IaN+
Interbreeding Field
KARO
Heike Klussmann
Bernd Kniess & Leonhard Lagos
K�bberling, Kaltwasser & Maier
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Aglaia Konrad
Karsten Konrad
Kreissl Kerber
Land for Free
Lederer+Ragnarsd�ttir+Oei
Tobias Lehmann & Floris Schiferli
Map Office
N55
Petetin and Gr�goire
Marjetica Portrc and Srdjan Weiss
Bas Princen
Recto
Rural Studio
Stalker / Osservatorio Nomade
studio.eu and Stalker
Timorous Beasties
Toh Shimazaki Architecture
Sissel Tolaas
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Press Release
An exhibition at ENTRY2006 -
PERSPECTIVES AND VISIONS IN DESIGN
26 August to 3 December 2006, Zeche Zollverein,
Essen, Germany.
TALKING CITIES EXHIBITION, curated by Francesca
Ferguson and Urban Drift Productions Ltd., features innovative international
design, architecture and spatial interventions in a
trans-disciplinary exhibition platform.
The 35 protagonists create a dense collage of statements, designs and
installations: a collective dialogue on reconfiguring and reactivating the
marginal, residual and public spaces of our contemporary cities.
Talking Cities is conceived as a trans-disciplinary exhibition for the spectacular
coal washing plant at Zeche Zollverein, a world heritage site within
Germany's industrial heartland - the Ruhr
Area. As part of the international architecture and design forum ENTRY2006,
the exhibition draws inspiration from the transformational nature of the site itself,
and from the contemporary urbanized landscape that surrounds it.
Zollverein's evolution into a centre for international design and culture also
creates a highly relevant setting for the presentation of architectural and urban projects that stretch our
understanding of the term "architecture", towards
an architecture of adaptability; one which accepts and delights in such a state
of transition. The Ruhr Area has been the subject of numerous studies and propositions
- not least by MVRDV and OMA - and the agglomeration
of towns and cities interspersed with post-industrial landscapes,
monuments, and residual brown-field sites are
symptomatic of contemporary urban conditions within Europe and beyond.
With 35 exhibition protagonists from 16 countries, the 17m floor of the coal
washing plant will become a dense collage of statements and installations. The
exhibition design will make reference both to the elegant pragmatism of Zollverein's
industrial architecture, and to the makeshift simplicity of the informal city
- one which - like Archigram's
propositions - literally plugs itself into the existing space for 100 days and
allows the individual contributions to adapt and alter its structural grid.
Large-scale photographs of numerous urban contexts will bring a sense of the
city into the exhibition space.
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Talking Cities will thus present architectural and urban design strategies together with artistic positions,
which propagate a redefinition of the potentials and capacities of architectural practice to that of a vital
social and communicative tool. This collective dialogue on contemporary cityscapes
is made visible via quotes and statements as graphic strips that focus the motivation and innovative practices of
our participants.
The density of the exhibition is intended to create a kind of conceptual bazaar for spatial practice and
architecture; the juxtapositions that result are inspired by provocateurs
in architecture such as Cedric Price. Focusing upon the need for political
and social engagement in contemporary practice, Talking Cities makes deliberate
reference to the collective spirit of 1970's activism in architecture and urban
design. There is a shared sense of purpose amongst the protagonists to
reconfigure, map,
re-sample, and indeed re-activate
the marginal, undervalued, and public spaces of
cities. The exhibition intends to convey new perspectives on the
fragmented, dispersed urban conditions and typologies within contemporary cities
and the conurbations. The site intends to become a focus for multiplicity in
architectural and design practice, and a form of improvisation.
Overall the protagonists focus upon affordable and small-scale solutions to contemporary
- and often politically-charged -
urban issues and spaces - hence the subtitle to the exhibition: 'The
Micropolitics of Urban Space'.
[ Events ]
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For further information contact:
®edux
Unit 303, Third Floor,
Lana House, 116 Commercial
Street, London E1 6NF.
526 Manhattan Building,
Bow Quarter,
Fairfield Road,
London, E3 2UP.
Email: plewis@reduxart.org.uk
Tel. +44 (0)20 7247 4960
M. +44 (0)7986 084697
www.slashseconds.org
www.talkingcities.net
www.entry-2006.com
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Urban Drift Productions Ltd.
Julia Albani
Email: press@urbandrift.org
T +49.(0)30.257571 - 86 / 87
F +49.(0)30.257571 - 88
Urban Drift Project Space Berlin
Budapester Str. 48
3rd floor / 3 O.G.
10787 Berlin
Germany
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