Punchline Poster Exhibition - Artists in Cities of Distress: Baltimore and Detroit

In March 2016 a group of cultural studies students from Leuphana University Lüneburg and HafenCity University Hamburg researched the role of artists in Baltimore and Detroit. Both US-cities are characterized by negative influences such as shrinking yet their transformation bears possibilities. For two weeks the students explored different parts of these cities through walking tours and workshops as well as conducted camera interviews with experts from the local art and cultural scene. The influence of history onto city planning, the aestheticization of urban problems and the art initiatives as tool for urban
improvement were topics discussed in both cities. Starting point of this set of conversations was a seminar called „Artists in Cities of Distress“ at Leuphana University in the winter 2015. Baltimore and Detroit are both cities who lost meaning through postindustrialism. The vast shrinking of these urban areas have shaped the city and their citizens. Can vibrant art and cultural scenes as part of the urban movement influence the city in a positive way? Which potentials are set free when bottom up contemporary art initiatives as well as community engaged artists are shaping their living environments? The students worked their impressions, findings and further questions into a series of posters which you can see exhibited at Amerikazentrum Hamburg until the 21st of July.

The opening of the Punchline Poster Exhibition. Artists in Cities of Distress: Baltimore and Detroit is on the 29th of June at 6pm. This evening students will be present and support their findings with excerpts from interviews, visual impressions as well as music from both cities.
Concept and organization: Prof. Dr. Volker Kirchberg, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg and Kerstin Niemann, FILTER Detroit
Research: Finn J. Brunken, Alicia Chemin, Marius Geisler, Lorraine Ginestet, Linnea Larsson, Tobias Lutze, Anton Moosleitner, Berit Ohlsdorf and Patricia Wedler.
With kind support of Amerikazentrum Hamburg.