City meets culture

How do art and culture shape the urban landscape around us? The exhibition "Culture:City" in Berlin explores an international array of art and architecture projects, citizens' initiatives, and creative conversions of city spaces and abandoned buildings. Pictured here is the gleaming glass and steel Seattle Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus.

Taking a critical look at various construction projects around the world, the exhibition asks visitors to evaluate the relationship between architecture and the social realities of the 21st century. The Park Library Spain is one of nine "library parks" built in the poorest districts of Medellin, Colombia, serving as secure community hubs in one of the world's most violent cities.

The bizarrely formed architectural "blob" that is the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria actually houses an impressive collection of contemporary art. Known affectionately as "the friendly alien," architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier designed the structure to stand in sharp contrast to the surrounding Baroque cityscape and revive the culture scene in a previously neglected part of town.

As part of the exhibition, young filmmakers from the Berlin Film School DFFB produced 15 short films about the impact of a selection of buildings on local communities. "The Astronaut's Ark" by Fiene Scharp, Kai Miedendorp and IJ Bierman explores the Kunsthaus Graz and the "transgression of borders" that the architects hoped to achieve.

In their short film "After Hours," Phillip Kaminiak and Steffen Köhn offer a rare glimpse inside Berlin's legendary techno club Berghain - a place where cameras are normally strictly forbidden. The filmmakers let loose a number of wild animals in the club, producing a haunting film in which "the brutality of industrial architecture meets the beauty of these shy creatures."

The curators of the exhibition propose that the common identity and culture of cities has been weakened by global mobility and new communication technologies such as the Internet. A collaboration between the French Ministry of Culture and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Centre Pompidou Mobile (pictured) is a portable museum traveling to communities in France which lack access to art.

Pictured here is a 1970 collage of the Centre Georges Pompidou by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The multicultural complex encompasses a public library, movie theater, a museum of modern art and a center for music and sound research. The convention-busting design wears its functional elements on the outside, including elevators, water pipes and electricity cables.

Highlighting the role of architecture in enabling creative dialogue, architect Michael Malzan turned an abandoned garage in Los Angeles's Skid Row neighborhood into Inner-City Arts. The unimposing space provides children with access to the arts, offering free art classes. It's a safe haven where kids can socialize, play and get creative.

Bringing together creative communities, "Detroit SOUP" is another social initiative illustrating the creative potential of conversion. Once a month, a meal is served in an abadoned space. In exchange for dinner, guests pay $5 and hear pitches from local artists. At the end of the evening, diners vote for their favorite proposal and the proceeds from the meal are given to the winning artist.

Polina Gumiela's film "Plaza de la Encarnacion" explores the redevelopment of the square in Seville, Spain. The architecture team J. Mayer H. designed the "Metropol Parasol," a fantastical curved timber structure housing bars, a farmers market and an archaeological museum. "Culture:City" runs at Berlin's Academy of the Arts (AdK) through May 26, 2013.