FROM FOREIGN LANDS IN OUR OWN CITIES
In the area surrounding the Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, one last in-stance of urban life is realized in all of its heterogeneity, beauty, and severity. This neighborhood is considered the city’s last uncharted urban territory, and is now in search of a future. As a central point of receipt and virulent intersection between the world, the site, and the personal, the quarter is marked by dysfunctional urban spaces, traffic concepts that are prohibitive to pedestrians, and a 1980s architectural program that seems entirely out of proportion with the dimensions of the human body. It is precisely here that countless twisted cultural and subcultural qualities have grudgingly, subversively, and resistantly settled in.
The Project, Von fremden Ländern in eigenen Städten (From Foreign Lands in Our Own Cities) is a large-scale interdisciplinary art and cultural project. It involves people from the fields of visual art, theater, dance, film, and music as well as—and with a particular focus on— the residents and active members of the area in search of a future, which is currently undergoing a process of urban development transformation.
After an extensive 2017 program of around thirty city tours, conducted by residents and active members of the neighborhood com-munity, the project now presents new perspectives on this heterogeneous urban space in a large-scale exhibition in public space. MAP curated and led numerous site-specific art projects, initiatives with active members of the community, and comprehensive event programs with theater, dance, and media projects in collaboration with various partners and neighborhood residents.
PROJECT NEWSPAPER DOWNLOAD