Location, Location, Location
2008

Installation
Portikus, Frankfurt am Main

Within the space of an art gallery, the soul of a city unfolds through a history of the legendary Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) over the River Main on which Charlemagne was crowned. That history is traced in a collection of artifacts: barrels, rats, a museum model of the bridge, a cockerel from the Frankfurt coat of arms, the medieval headgear that Jews were required to wear, a gingerbread heart, and other emblems of the city's life as an entrepôt of trade. Presiding over all is a replica of the huge Euro-Monument, which graces the Frankfurt headquarters of the European Central Bank, while transactions of the nearby Frankfurt stock exchange are projected onto the wall in real time. The map on the floor depicts the Judengasse, once the largest Jewish ghetto in Germany but now completely erased. Contemporary music from Frankfurt and a video of important sites of the city's present-day commerce play, and there are computers at which visitors can explore websites on Frankfurt's history and architecture.