Portraits of the Urban

The exhibition features research photographs from thirteen Ph.D. candidates and postdocs of the Graduate School of Urban Studies (URBANgrad). It shows images from Beijing, China; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Surabaya, Indonesia; Delhi, India; Frankfurt, Germany; Hong Kong, China; Lake Tanganyik, Burundi; Lekhnath, Nepal; Nairobi, Kenya; New York City, USA; and Teheran, Iran.

URBANgrad is committed to research with international scope and relevance and supports fieldwork abroad through the PhD Programme “Urban Infrastructures in Transition: The Case of African Cities”, funded by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation; and the project “International Mobility and Networks in Urban and Architectural Research”, promoted by the German Academic Exchange Service and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the programme “Internationalization of Ph.D. research in Germany – for all” (IPID4all).

From the official announcement:
Drawing from small moments and fragments, URBANgrad research seeks a broader understanding of daily phenomena as part of an urban world. No longer islands of distinct forms of social life, cities have spread beyond their borders and become intrinsically connected to each other—-so that today we speak of an urban society. In this context, differences are relational and inequalities political. Capital, people and commodities travel, as do ideas, practices and images. Translations and alternative replacements constitute the specificity of a place. The displayed scenes and artifacts are evidence of the social creativity in cultivating nature, creating publics, recycling materials, everyday dwelling, play and other activities. 

The exhibition is on display at
TU Darmstadt – Campus Lichtwiese
Graduate School for Urban Studies – URBANgrad
L3|01 310-315
El-Lissitzky-Straße 1
64287 Darmstadt

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