Out of site

Detroit is no longer a city associated with the image of post-industrial devastation. On the contrary, Detroit has become exemplary of a city energized and regenerated by a creative attitude, new urban opportunities, and a flourishing artistic scene. This image of a renaissance city has helped propel Detroit into the international limelight, with artists and entrepreneurs becoming increasing self-aware of city's unique and authenticating brand. And yet, this rebirth is threatening to wipe out some important traces of the cultural heritage that make Detroit so unique: its African diaspora culture, its counter-histories and its working class stories.

Against this background of urban transformation, the Detroit-based studio Akoaki explores new ways design can catalyse positive, fair change. By setting up social and collective initiatives in complex and economically challenged urban scenarios, the studio works to alter people's perceptions, outline new methods for urban activation, and transmit stories that have gone untold. Thanks to radically collaborative processes, context-specific research and concentration on locally rooted cultural activity, Akoaki reveals how the inhabitants of Detroit are reinventing ways to live and work. The studio's recent activities, conducted in collaboration with musicians, artists, urban farmers, and cultural advocates, are being transported to Saint-Étienne, where this public process is ongoing.

Curator : Akoaki — Anya Sirota et Jean-Louis Farges
Site : Cours des H - Site Cité du design

3 Rue Javelin Pagnon Saint-Étienne