No.Town beyond the wall

A second common feature is that both cities were divided. Berlin was divided by the Wall, Detroit by the Eight Mile Road; One was a border between two towns, East and West (Berlin), the other between black and white (Detroit).

After the fall of the Iron Curtain and election of a black president, these borders have become more permeable.

However, even to this day the separation has not fully been overcome. Economic and psychological borders remain.

These former (and still present) divisions are also part of the special spatial situation of both towns.

A third common feature: In Berlin, creatives, and many artists among them, moved into the former industrial buildings. For example, the former vault of a department store (Wertheim) later became home to one of the most famous techno clubs in the world, called „Tresor“ (vault). The „Tresor“’s concept was strongly influenced by a kind of music that has its roots in Detroit: Detroit Techno.

In spite of their different techniques (painting, photography, installation), the fifteen Berlin artists‘ works deal with perception and use of space, and with people or buildings in space in the widest sense. Town landscapes, fantastic landscapes, public space, private space, the border between inside and outside. These examinations of space by Berlin artists should be particularly well perceived in Detroit.

Jan-Philipp Sexauer