Modern ruins

The series highlights visually impressive ruins, which embody the major topics of the 20th and 21st century. These ruins engrave the developments of our contemporary society: the struggle of social systems (Pyramids of Spitsbergen), Globalization (Fordlândia), colonialism (Coleman’s Hill), handling of resources and energy (Zeche Lohberg) and mobility (Detroit). The series MODERN RUINS describes the dynamics of modern times, which is defined by the will for constant progress, but inevitably has to slow down. The technical term for this process is „Creative Destruction“ and is used in the economic sciences. It describes the downside of progress and globalization. Every economic development is built on constructive, respectively creative destruction. Old structures are replaced by more efficient solutions and innovations and finally demolished. Thus destruction is necessary and not a system failure, it enables reconstruction. Only recently Alan Greenspan stated the connection of consistent enhancement of the life quality in the USA through globalization and progress to “Creative Destruction” of working environments in the western world. In the USA one million people loose their job per week and have to find a new one. In the series MODERN RUINS we take a look at the testimonials of progress, which give us a further understanding of our contemporary culture. Detroit became the centre of the American car industry at the beginning of the 20th century. The “big 3” – Chrysler, Ford, General Motors – created a “Motor City”. The economic boom attracted millions of people who fulfilled their parochial ideal of the American dream. Detroit was modern, urban and fast. Here the first city motor way, the “Davison Freeway”, was built, as well as the first production line and the first street with concrete coating. Later the boomtown with the first Shopping Center became the model for suburbanization – which then was accepted in the USA and the rest of the western world. The oil crisis in 1973 was the beginning of the end.The “Big 3” closed down their old factories and build new facilities, often in low-wage countries. It was the demise of the metropolis. Today one third of the entire municipal area is deserted and numerous buildings have been demolished. Altogether more than 4.000 buildings are vacant: abandoned, shut down and walled. In some streets Detroit resembles a ghost town. Street signs corrode. Grass grows on pathways. Wild dogs stray. Visitors of Detroit have to prepare for dystopian sceneries. Many houses are covered by ivy; tress and bushes grow out of their roofs and windows. And the current economic and real estate crisis tightens the situation. Empty buildings are not going to find new owners in the near future and every day the decay of the city continues with the return of nature. Every corner tells the story of an urban dream and its slow decay. Joseph Adranga, 85, used to work in the Packard Plant when it was still big, assembling Studebackers. He witnessed the city in its golden age. Today, the empty factory halls are the setting for gloomy music videos. Mama Pay Ceck runs a bar where writer Steve Hughes is a regular, listening to the many stories of hardship. Drugs, crime and unemployment shape the lives of the mostly black population, who are struggling to find a way out. Like Olayami Dabls. a black artists who reflects his cultural heritage in his monumental sculptures, using the scrap material that he finds in his neighborhood. Concept artist Scott Hocking discovered the empty factories for his art, building bizarre sculptures in the abandoned buildings. The film witnesses his latest piece of art coming to life: a gigantic egg-shaped sculpture, made from the marble of the shut down Central Station. Urban farmers use the vast wastelands to grow their own fruit and vegetable – there are many ways to bring new life to the ruins of Detroit. Like no other place, the city embodies both: The disillusionment of economic downturn and the bizarre beauty and creativity emerging from it.