Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 6 pm
We Promise! 22 Years of Broken Promises
Martha Rosler (artist, New York City) in conversation with Miguel Robles-Durán (urbanist and activist, New York City)
By the 1980s, many of Western Europe’s most important cities were widely regarded as suffering some de-gree of decline. The epochal social and economic changes resulted in population loss to surrounding suburbs, or even across borders to more prosperous countries. The twilight of large-scale industrial manufacturing meant further capital flight, job losses, and serious reduction in tax revenues by local and municipal go-vernments. Yet the necessity remained to change and develop central city districts, to attract new businesses and prevent decay from spreading further. A new type of entity was developed in which corporations, principally developers and banks, joined with governments in forming “public-private partnerships,” in which public funds served to accentuate speculation and private profit. How to justify the use of public funds in en-deavors that offer immense benefits for private entities?
Starting from the works and texts of conceptual artist Martha Rosler about the social history of the city she and urban researcher Miguel Robles-Durán present their new project We Promise! 22 Years of Broken Promises (2015). Using the developments in HafenCity Hamburg, one of the largest urban regeneration sites in Europe, as a backdrop they address the history of broken urban promises and their visual propaganda on the occasion of the summer program of Stadtkuratorin Hamburg.