Shrinking Cities

By Vagner Whitehead

When thinking of urbanization, the first image most of us conjure is that of the inflated city, and its problems. During the last two centuries hordes of people migrated to cities in quest for better opportunities. The rise of super-cities is an escalating and current phenomenon. This exaggerated growth is directly linked to the industrial revolution, with its blessings and curses. As the world economy integrates, the decentralization of the productions of goods change the way in which we live, work, produce, consume and communicate with one another. One undermined effect of this happenstance has been the shrinkage of industrial urban centers throughout the Earth. Shrinking Cities explores the inversion taking place in the localities of Manchester/Liverpool (UK), Ivanovo (Russia), Halle/Leipzig (Germany), and Detroit, Michigan (U.S.A.).

The Detroit version of this nomadic exhibition was split between two institutions. Its largest portion was installed at the Cranbrook Institute of Art, located 15 miles from downtown Detroit; the remainder at the recently inaugurated Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). Both venues are connected by weekend shuttle buses, providing a rare commute experience here (where most people drive). This connection between old city center and new suburb mirrors what Shrinking Cities aims to expose and explore. As the exhibition articulates a paradigm shift in cities, its organization also indicates a reconfiguration of the traditional art museum space. No longer a mere repository of artifacts, chronologies and movements, the current museum is also an education venue, a social meeting ground, and experimental arena for art and visual culture.

Shrinking Cities is an interdisciplinary conglomerate of artists, activists, architects, filmmakers, academics, and international thinking and practicing teams. International pit stops includes the University of Tokyo with AkiDeCo Museum, Japan; Biennale di Venezia, Italy; Pro Arte Institute , in cooperation with the State Museum of History St. Petersburg, Russia; Pratt Manhattan Gallery and Van Alen Institute, New York; E-Werk, Saarbrucken, Dortmund, Rhür Valley, German Architecture Museum (DAM), Frankfurt, Germany.

As a new comer to Detroit this exhibition has expanded my knowledge of the region, its histories, and explanations for the sad abandon of what once was a thriving, beautiful city. I am fascinated by Detroit’s situation –it is said that the urban flight there actually preserved its 1920’s architecture; had the city thrived, new constructions would have replaced the old ones. Detroit is like a fading photograph, in limbo, either waiting to completely dematerialize or being restored.

The Cranbrook section is subtitled International Research. In it, one becomes familiarized with the overall strategies and goals developed (Global Studies/Comparisons) and applied in the chosen cities. Of special interest to me was the piece titled Moving Data, a computer animation by Project Office Philipp Oswalt, Berlin/Elke Beyer, et al. Displayed on a large flat panel television monitor hung on the wall, this work visualized the urban exodus in the shrinking cities within a five-decade time span, by juxtaposing graphical representations of the cities’ architecture layout from a bird’s eye view. Also by the same ensemble were the Chronologies 1900 – 2000, with large wall image/text information panels that merged economic, political, social and cultural events for each city section. The chronology for Detroit was positioned next to six photographs by Canadian artist Stan Douglas, Detroit Photos. The juxtaposition of these two works exemplified the complexity of the problem presented here – on one side one could read the significant landmarks in the city’s history (first asphalt city in the U.S., birthplace of Motown records, etc), while right next to it is a gorgeous photograph of an old theater that has been converted into a parking lot where a new cement platform with parked cars lies beneath a once beautifully decorated but now decayed plaster rotunda.

The MOCAD section subtitled Interventions is further divided into the areas of Negotiating Inequalities, Self Governance, Creating Images, Organizing Retreat, and Occupying Space. The location was very pertinent, as its aim is to provide models in which a problematic urban space can invigorate and reinvent itself. MOCAD is the newest contemporary art institution in the Detroit Metro area, located in a remodeled former car dealership. This museum signifies a shift back from suburb to city center, and its exhibition provided an analysis and possible strategies for a sustainable revitalization. Under the section Negotiating Inequality, the works However Unspectacular: The New Suburbanism/Detroit Do Your Thing, a collaboration among the Center for Urban Pedagogy/Damon Rich, Rosten Woo, Interboro/Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Ocs, and Georgeen Theodore (designers, urban planners, and political scientists) were displayed in two large flat panel monitors as slide shows that displayed alternative approaches to land usage and ownership. While no permanent solution to the decline of the modern city is in sight/site, Shrinking Cities offers a complex and upbeat possibility for renewal and reinvention, for both the city and the museum.

Vagner M. Whitehead is an artist based in Detroit. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Oakland University’s Department of Art and Art History.

For more information, please visit:

• Shrinking Cities Exhibition
• MOCA Detroit
• Cranbook Institute