Another very important stop on my journey was the exchange I did in Canada. I spent the first four months of my final year in Windsor, small town in Ontario, right on the Canadian border withStates, just across the river from Detroit.
It was a very interesting experience; I met lots of different people, I traveled across Canada and America and I was also able to study subjects that were completely new to me, like for example drawing.
It was during my exchange when I first visited Detroit and met my family that lives over there.
I was really pleased to be there and see how the place is like with my own eyes, instead of being completely reliable on the rumors. It was a very interesting time, even more so as members of my family are artists themselves and were able to show me around and help me understand the city and it's people better. During my trips to Detroit surprisingly I met a lot of foreigners, especially people from England, Sweden, Netherlands and Germany. Some of the came to Detroit for the same reason as me - curious to see what's the real face of this place. However, there were many of them looking for a cheap sensation and ways in which the city could be exploited. It seems like Detroit is just before a big explosion of trendy people flooding the place, taking over it's characteristics and covering it up with a little bit of New York, a little bit of London, a little bit of Berlin, a little bit of EVERYTHING IS THE SAME.
why? why ? why? is it that industrial feel that characterizes all those locations? is it the fact that those places start off cheap and empty as if they were waiting for something to come and over take it?
maybe.
Whatever it is, it's good I made it on time. I am lucky to see that raw and true version of Detroit. I am even more lucky to see it seconds before things dramatically change.
READING:
The Origins of the Urban Crisis - Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue, Princeton University Press; Revised edition (August 1, 2005)
Devils Night: And other tales of Detroit by Zev Chafets, Vintage (October 1, 1991)
Detroit Lives (Conflicts in Urban and Regional Development) by Robert H. Mast, Temple University Press (October 20, 1994)
KICK OUT THE JAMS:DETROIT'S CASS CORRIDOR 1963-1977: the Detroit Institute of Arts, July 13-September 14, The Institute (1980)
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