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Stadtluft Macht Frei

Urban Air Makes You Free

On View:
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 — Sunday, October 19, 2014


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Stadtluft Macht Frei is a German medieval dictum describing a principle of law that offered freedom and land to settlers who took up urban residence for more than "a year and a day."

Broadly speaking, this principle allowed the rising burgher class to seek self-governance and economic autonomy. Migration to cities, whether catalyzed by political dictum or by the promise of socioeconomic betterment, powerfully informs the many transformations that have shaped contemporary cities, nations, and landscapes.

Migration, as a human and ecological phenomenon, profoundly reshapes its context and is a conduit by which identity is routinely questioned.

This collaborative multimedia inquiry brings together voices of three discrete academic disciplines—visual arts, printmaking and music—to offer a unique artistic interpretation of this complex historic process.

Jacek Kolasinski, Roberto Rovira & Orlando Garcia