Message from Cecilia & Jop

“We are Cecilia Rebergen and Jop Vissers Vorstenbosch, two Utrecht based visual artists. The past year and a half we have studied the case of Detroit behind our computers. We have found it hard to grasp the complexity of the situation in Detroit through documentaries and articles; and believing that seeing with your own eyes is still the best way to unravel a place complexity, we booked a ticket.

Here in the Netherlands we are developing practices of the making and showing art in 'alternative spaces'. Both in our own way, we seek modes of producing site-specific works of art and discover alternatives for the arbitrariness of the white cube gallery.

In Detroit we hope to encounter new ways of dealing with this question and register all different methods and hierarchies existing in the Detroit exhibition culture.
The first month we are artists in residents at Popp's Packing located in Hamtramck, a neighbourhood north of Detroit’s centre. This will be our home base from which we'll start our experience. After this month, we have two left in which we will travel the Detroit area in a purpose-bought bus. In drawing, photographing, interviewing and writing we'll try to link our experiences to our artistic practice.

From the first of March 'till the end of May you can read weekly about our findings on this blog.”