FREDERIKE WETZELS: “ZWISCHENSTADT”
«The Zwischenstadt - the urban sprawl denotes areas that form a new type of landscape that is neither city nor countryside but which are different from what we think of as suburbs. In my project I have examinated this cityscape that dominates the German landscape today and the gradual transformation of the image of landscape during the last decades. The term Zwischenstadt describes the overflow of the towns into the countryside. It is a newcomer that has evolved between the old historic city centers and the open landscape. The cityscape underlies socio - economic conditions which have formed a patchwork structure of disparate elements which vary in function, scale and use. My work basically visualizes the urban sprawl‘s structure and its underlying conditions but also the perception that occurs in this space. Therefore I have been photographing in areas that are exemplary for this development like the Ruhr Valley and the Rhein - Main area but also in other areas that are affected by urban growth like more rural areas or cities that show less obvious structures of suburbanisation. All in all my work is trying to give an insight into what the German landscape might be today by showing different tendencies that form the cityscape called Zwischenstadt that has been ignored for decades even though it is no longer new, but reality»
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