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	Talking Cities THE MICROPOLITICS OF URBAN SPACE
Talking Cities Magazine Talking Cities Radio Talking Cities Audio Lounge Symposium 29.9.2006 Magazine Launch	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 to 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. 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 poltically-charged - urban issues and spaces – hence the subtitle to the exhibition: ‘The Micropolitics of Urban Space’.
	©Copyright 2006 urban drift productions Ltd.  impressum