Photography exhibition at C|O Berlin

The SLU study group — Kat Dwyer, Bridget Montesanti, and Charlie Reetz — and Spencer and I went to C|O Berlin for a photography exhibition entitled Die Stadt, the City.  C|O Berlin is situated in Mitte near the well known Kunst Tacheles alternative arts center.  The exhibition included the work of 18 artists from the agency Ostkreuz who for well over a year traveled to 22 cities around the globe to explore and examine present-day urban realities.

From the C|O catalog, “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 converge 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.”