DETROIT: A BROOKLYN CASE STUDY, SUPERFRONT LA’s first exhibit of 2011, considers Detroit both as a specific city and as a set of circumstances. Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study invites not so much a comparison of Detroit and Brooklyn but a calculated misreading. How and where might the logics or circumstances of Detroit operate in Brooklyn? At what scale of intervention or performance could Detroit and Brooklyn become indistinguishable?



This exhibit investigates Detroit as not only a given typology – the shrinking city, abandoned city, reclaimed city – but also as an everyday environment, as a specific place with specific moments. Through cartography, documentary video, architectural proposals, photography, painting and other media, DETROIT: A BROOKLYN CASE STUDY explores urban typology and local specificity between places both known and imagined. From intimately personal representations of Detroit to abstract mappings or urban-scale analogies, the exhibit produces a case study (an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context) of a Detroit that may or may not exist.





“Fallow City Project, Aviary Tower” Berenika Boberska, mixed media, image courtesy of Berenika Boberska



The exhibit includes works by: Dana Bell, Brent Birnbaum, Berenika Boberska, Brennan Buck, Lynn Cazabon, Sara Conde, Philip Dembinski, Jill Desimini, Ellen E. Donnelly, Sebastian Fischbeck, David Freeland, David Karle, Erin Kasimow, Amanda Matles, Blake Morris, Juan Alberto Negroni, Paper Tiger TV, Kaleena Quinn, Jon Stevens, Brett Van Aalsburg, Anusha Venkataraman, Margi Weir, Audra Wolowiec and others.



Within this exhibit across art, architecture, and urban documentary, SUPERFRONT LA also presents the 25 Inch RFP (Request for Proposals) – results from an international call to develop new construction at SUPERFRONT’s micro property in Detroit. This fall SUPERFRONT invited artists and architects to propose a buildable project for 25 square inches of Detroit, located at 13949 Evergreen Rd, Detroit, Michigan, purchased in partnership with LOVELAND micro real estate. The winning entry, LIGHT UP! by Ellen E. Donnelly and David Karle, was selected by an interdisciplinary jury to be constructed by July 2011. The jury included Paul Amitai (New York), Andrea Bauza Hernandez (San Juan), Christina Heximer (Detroit), Jerry Paffendorf (Detroit), and Craig L. Wilkins, PhD AIA, ARA, (Detroit). The jury selected proposals by Pedro Santa-Rivera (San Juan | Boston) and Tim Kindrat (Van Couver) for honorable mention.