In a huge announcement yesterday, Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press reports that the Heidelberg Project, Detroit’s best known public art installation, will be dismantled in the coming years, piece by piece. According to the Free Press, the Heidelberg Project, "will morph into something the organization is calling Heidelberg 3.0 — an "arts-infused community" rather than an installation driven by one man."
The Heidelberg Project is now 30 years old and was created by artist Tyree Guyton as a response to the blight in his community. The project consists of remnants found from all over the place (especially stuffed animals, shopping carts, TVs, and strange toys), the houses painted bright colors, and so many clocks. The Free Press states that the Heidelberg Project sees 200,000 visitors a year.
The project has lost numerous homes over the past few years due to arson.
The Free Press says,
"A confluence of factors have pushed Guyton to change course: an increasing awareness of his own mortality as he reached 60, the toll that the fires have taken on his psyche, the increasing number of project commissions that are pouring in from across the country and across the globe and the Sisyphean burden of keeping the Heidelberg Project going for literally half his life. Guyton, who likes to speak in arcs of allegory and metaphor, put it this way:
"I'm on an elevator, and I've taken it from the ground floor up to the very top 30 years later. Now I'm reversing that process, and I'm going to take this elevator down. I'm gonna stop on every floor to look around and see the beauty of taking it apart, and do it in a methodical way, where it becomes a new form of art.""
Part of the new plans could involve turning the remaining homes into museums. Steps in the near future include partnerships, such as:
"One already under way is with Shinola, the high-end Detroit-based watch company, which will soon install on Heidelberg Street a grandfather clock whose face Guyton will redecorate in his own inimitable fashion. On another front, Heidelberg leaders are meeting with residents and business owners in the McDougall Hunt neighborhood that surrounds the project about ways to address blight and economic conditions. One possibility would be a neighborhood café; another would be artist-driven projects of various kinds."
This gallery was taken a couple years ago, after arson took out many of the homes.
- The end, and a new beginning, for Detroit's iconic Heidelberg Project [Detroit Free Press]
- New plans for Heidelberg Project spark confusion, hope [Detroit Free Press]
- The Charred Heidelberg Project Still Has Plenty of Impact [Curbed Detroit]
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