After finish the successful project "X Capitals Europe" and its impressive exhibition in the atrium oft the Federal Foreign Office in February 2008, I plan the follow-on project titled "X Capitals Transatlantic".
"X Capitals" projects and adds a new aspect. This projects is a portrait of five top universities in the USA and Europe, respectively, thereby creating a transatlantic bridge for an explosive future issue. Here the reciprocity of an academic environment and the urban space will be scrutinized.
The goal is to lead a transatlantic discourse on the closely interrelated themes of education, democracy, freedom, family, money, and religion. Already now we can see that the designated cities introduce a enriching spectrum to the variety of the "X Capitals" project series. It reaches from small towns in agrarian spaces to mega-cities that all have one thing in common: they are the home to worldwide renown top universities and for a limited time they provide the social environment for the future leadership elite. "X Capitals" reflects upon the reciprocity of campus and students on the one side and infrastructure and residents of the cities on the other side. 22 motifs show these interdependencies by using a special black and white photography technique and a Japanese scroll picture technique that was especially adapted for this exhibition. This creates a cutting-edge panorama of urban life-styles. Furthermore, it clearly shows the wealth of cross-cultural experiences that holders of a DAAD scholarship for instance make while living abroad, and then later bring back with them when returning to the home country.
Considering the current debate on "elite leadership aid in Germany" the project can help to elucidate a notion, which in this country is gladly diluted and often hackneyed by incorporating it in exhibitions and lectures for professors, students, citizens, and politicians likewise.
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The project for the selected cities, are not only capitals, as the title of "X Capitals ..." suggests. It is much more about the playful interpretation of the English term in its two levels of interpretation. This means the city as a capital and pillar of its Region. Selected are 10 cities, which culminated as points of reference largely in accordance to the regional or national cultural identity.
With the selection of cities "X Capitals Transatlantic" draws on the world wide operative network of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). To make an evaluation of the cities possible, DAAD kindly provided their statistics on the frequency with which US universities were chosen by stipendiaries.
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| "X Capitals Transatlantic" in preparation |
| (10 universities in the US and in Europe) |
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| Estimated selection of cities: |
| Cities/USA |
Universities
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Country |
| New Haven |
Yale University
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Connecticut |
| New York |
Columbia University
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New York |
| Palo Alto |
Stanford University
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California |
| Philadelphia |
University of Pennsylvania |
Pennsylvania |
| Seattle |
University of Washington |
Washington |
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| Cities/Europe |
Universities |
Country |
| Barcelona |
University of Barcelona |
Spain |
| Berlin |
Freie Universität |
Germany |
| Oxford |
University of Oxford |
England |
| Vienna |
University of Vienna |
Austria |
| Warsaw |
University of Warsaw |
Poland |
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This is a preliminary selection of cities. The final selection I want to co-ordination to the co-operational partners for conceptional reasons.
• Publication of the project: exhibitions according to the X-Capitals exhibition-concept will be portrayed in the 10 cities and also in Germany. Furthermore a multilingual exhibition catalogue is planned as well as Associated Press work .
• Exhibition venues in the cities: suitable will be modern art museums, art galleries, larger private or public galleries (in planning) exhibition format, maximum floor area: length width 13 x 15 x 5.5 m high, added safety space
• preliminary schedule
in process of planning |
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