Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1973, I'm working as an artist and independent curator out of Detroit. In 2001 I co-founded the Tangent Gallery in Detroit where I also were the director. Now, I am your guide in Detroit.
Veranda sessions
My name is Mitch. As visitors to Detroit tend to get overwhelmed by the sheer scale and brutality of the city, i'll take it easy witch you.
Visit Gina and mine Design 99 storefront, a shop where we sell over-the-counter design and architectural advice, as well as graphic work from artist friends. Check out the Powerhouse, and learn how to turn the abundance of infestant plants in the city into fine woodwork..
the rise...
Detroit is the place where our modern society was invented and first experimented. Diego Rivera's (the fat guy in 'Frida', the biopic starring Salma Hayek as the mexican painter Frida Kahlo) 1933 murals at the Detroit Institute of Art celebrate the epic narratives of hope and the new rituals of the modern times: science, technique and the sweat of pan-american workers consacrating the wealth of a new progressive future.
... and the fall of the fordist society
As we know, the progressive era started to show its first signs of illness in the city of Detroit since the Fifties, and eventually collapsed at the end of the Seventies.
Take a ride on the 'people mover' in downtown Detroit and explore an old theater turned into a car park and then abandoned. Or enjoy the sublime vision of the ruins of the monumental ex-railway station.
new economies part one / industry and shopping
While the old economy suffers, a new one flourishes while the city becomes an open-air mine to collect any sort of re-usable material.
A mile from Hamtramck you will meet with artist Scott hocking, who uses this and other areas for his extensive scrapping and scavaging campaigns. You can try to access the recently boarded up Packard Plant, to check out his massive art piece ‘Ziggurat’.
If you are a shopping addict, you must try the Detroit style post-consumerism paying a visit at John King's used and rare bookstore, or at Franklin used office furniture.
new economies part two / transport and food
As the last barrels of oil remaining are starting to get too much expensive, it will be a good idea to get a bike at Back Alley Bikes. You will appreciate the urban landscape in a different way. Bikes don't require oil but food to be propelled. Detroit provides lots of food for its inhabitants. A visit to Catherine Ferguson Academy's urban farm will give you an idea of what is the new American homestead frontier.
The arts in Detroit
Since a while, Detroit has it’s own Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCAD. Its exhibitions generally take inspiration from the present condition of Detroit, and recently a new kind of artist community is gathering around this institution.
Different curators worked here since the opening in 2007: among others, Kyong Park's work was the first of a series of different initiatives focusing on the phenomenon of city shrinkage.
Music
But the arts have always thrived in the motor city. Detroit is Motown, is Techno, is White Stripes, is Eminem. No matter dire situation the city found itself in, the music scene razed through ever new rapids. What better way to end this week by going down the hole of night life experiments?
Cafe d'Mongo is the right place to have a dinner and start your night in Detroit.
Trumbullplex is more than an anarchist collective. They organize underground events and festival, and they are actively engaged with their surrounding community.
About your Guides
Mitchell Cope was born Detroit, Michigan in 1973. Mitch works as an artist and independent curator out of Detroit. Most notably he co-curated the Detroit section of the Shrinking Cities Project. Mitch runs the design/art storefront Design 99 with his wife, Gina in Hamtramck, Michigan. Although schooled in painting, he is involved in many collaborative projects around town, most notably the Powerhouse and the Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop.
Eat out
Cafe d'Mongo Speakeasy
Shopping
John King used and rare books
Franklin Furniture
Design 99 storefront
Transportation
Get a bike at Back Alley Bikes
Have fun
Trumbellplex
