Category Archives: publications

The title Flächenland is a reference to the geographical term, alluding to the urban sprawl in rural areas that the majority of people in Saxony-Anhalt live in. Stephanie Kiwitt took these atmospherically dense photographs while travelling through the state: on walks, from her car, or from the train. They show glimpses of towns, villages, and landscapes, often put together as sequences that communicate a shift in perspective or convey movement or a sense of getting closer. Kiwitt’s images describe a living space that has been hugely influenced by economic and social processes and is in an ongoing process of transformation. The photos give visual expression to political statements and signs of continuous structural change.

In the booklet accompanying the images, Jonathan Everts and Daniel Herrmann use Kiwitt’s photographic work as a means to reflect on the present and future of urban agglomerations and rural areas in Saxony-Anhalt.

On the Národní Třída (Avenue of the Nation) in Prague stands a department store that opened in 1975. Until the fall of the socialist regime it was called “Máj”: the month of May. Nowadays the fifth month of the year is referred to in Czech as “květen”. “Máj” is an older word that has a romantic quality and is closely associated with a famous poem of the same name by Karel Hynek Mácha written in 1836.
In 1996 the British supermarket chain Tesco purchased the store, renaming it “My” in 2009. If this name is interpreted as an English word, then it refers to an individual. It is surely no coincidence that this English name sounds much the same as the old Czech one. If pronounced, however, according to Czech phonetics, which no one ever does, it sounds quite different. Then it means “we” and refers to a collective.
Since 2017 Tesco has been selling off some of its stores in the Czech Republic because of financial losses. In spring of 2018 the department store “My” was also sold.

Photographed in Prague from November 2015 to June 2018

Between August and November 2014 Stephanie Kiwitt was commissioned by Team Flemish Government Architect to make a photographic work about the outskirts of Brussels: Diegem, Haren, Zaventem, Sint-Stevens-Woluwe, Kraainem, Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, Oudergem, Ukkel, Vorst, Drogenbos, Ruisbroek, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Anderlecht, Dilbeek, Groot-Bijgaarden, Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Ganshoren, Jette, Strombeek-Bever, Grimbergen and Vilvoorde. These neighbouring but extremely different areas cannot be conceived in terms of a single unequivocal image. The composition and order of the double pages in this publication do not refer to their geographical origins, but introduce a new order and create a connection related purely to aesthetics of form.

The marshes of Wondelgem are situated in the north of Ghent, in close proximity to the old docks. The former swamp area is about 100 hectares in size. It is surrounded by the municipality of Wondelgem to the north, an industrial zone with nineteenth-century factory buildings to the east, the ring road and a canal to the south, and a residential and small commercial zone to the west. A large part of the area consists of wasteland that is traversed by railroad tracks.

As a result of the local urban development scheme, a business park will be built here as well as a bus and tram depot, a forensic psychiatric centre and parking lots.

During a one-year stay in Marseille (2006/7), I observed the changes in urban everyday life that came about as a consequence of the massive redevelopment and construction measures that were taken in the context of the ‘Marseille Euroméditerranée 2010’ project. Taking Marseille as an example, Cornerville shows an urban area whose ‘common’ architecture is being changed permanently, both by economic interest groups and individual inhabitants; it is deformed, destroyed or reproduced from scratch.