Ostkreuz . The City

Becoming and Decaying
May 8, 2010 – Jul 4, 2010
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk

The city: cradle of civilization, melting pot of cultures, mentalities, religions, and ideas, and the locus of human desires for security, freedom, and prosperity. In cities, all those that would never cross paths in the country suddenly conver- ge and collide. The city liberates its inhabitants from the fetters of kinship and family; it requires and fosters enormous cultural and social achievements. It creates concentrations of severe poverty, but frequently offers the only chance of escaping from it. In the city, every person is part of some larger whole, and at the same time, just a tiny, unimportant part. The city offers closeness but creates anonymity. It is everything and its opposite—all at the same time and in the same place. It harbors within it the future of the world.

 

The 18 photographers from the agency Ostkreuz have embarked on a search for the essence of present-day urban realities. Together with C/O Berlin, the photographers conceptualized this project collectively as a long-term photo- graphic project documenting urban growth and decay in 22 cities worldwide, creating a historically unique document of these processes of coming into being and fading away.

With this exhibition, Ostkreuz celebrates twenty years and C/O Berlin ten years since its founding.