City and Democracy
June 2–September 25, 2016
From summer 2015, the Shedhalle project The Whole World in Zurich (concept and realization in collaboration with the artist Martin Krenn) yielded to artistically explore concrete proposals for Urban Citizenship in Zurich. A transdisciplinary expert group developed projects focusing on three essential aspects of citizenship: freedom of residency, freedom from discrimination, and freedom of agency. Those processes took place in closed “harbor talks” with decision makers as well as in public “harbor forums,” where local and international protagonists discussed the potential of urban citizenship for the City of Zurich. Zurich should become a safe harbor: for all who live here, and those yet to arrive.
The project created a transformative space for thinking, negotiating and acting collaboratively—beyond practical constraints of political “realism.” It created a pre-enactment of a social utopia. For in a global age, the whole world is reflected in one city.
Now, the exhibition #urbancitizenship. City and Democracy gives visual insights into above-mentioned processes: the idea of urban citizenship, its beginnings throughout the world, its arrival in Switzerland, and its future: a city for us all.
Curator: Katharina Morawek
Concept The whole World in Zurich: Katharina Morawek and Martin Krenn
Research: Roger Conscience and Andreas Kleemann
Wall/Graphic design: Carolina Cerbaro and Roger Conscience
Drawings: Andreas Bertschi
Scenography: Mirjam Bürgin
Publicity: Nicole Niedermüller
Technicians: Wamidh Al-Ameri and Martin Schmid
Speakers at the harbor forums: Ilker Ataç, Ayesha Basit, Bah Sadou, Jochen Becker, Kijan Malte Espahangizi, Mary Jane Jacob, Rohit Jain, Martin Krenn, Henrik Lebuhn, Katharina Lenz, Oliver Marchart, Katharina Morawek, Tarek Naguib, Osman Osmani, Nathan Prier, Christoph Schäfer, Bea Schwager, Nora Sternfeld, Ivana Pilic
Members of the expert group: Bah Sadou (activist, “Autonomous School Zürich”), Dr. Kijan Malte Espahangizi (managing director, Center “History of Knowledge,” ETH & University of Zurich), Martin Krenn (executive artist, www.martinkrenn.net), Katharina Morawek (curatorial director, Shedhalle), Tarek Naguib (lawyer, ZHAW School of Management and Law), Osman Osmani (trade union secretary for migration, UNIA), Bea Schwager (director of SPAZ, contact point for Sans Papiers in Zurich), Dr. Rohit Jain (social anthropologist, University of Zurich/Zurich University of the Arts)
