Who really wanted to bring Mike over

Image: Thomas Haltner / Aurora Photos




source: Economist

Because the state did not want to take the risk of transporting Merlion, Mike has never made it to Venice Biennale.

But Barclays did make it to Singapore. Lately, they have also successfully been working on the new Cycle scheme for London. Many of Londoners would not bet on its enriching value for the public space. Yet, it does not stop the Group galloping towards further partnerships with state controlled firms.

After selling InterContinental Hotel stakes for £330m , Barclays group was not particularly concerned of a risk, when deciding to unstoppable expansion further East, selling the stakes to corporations supervised by Chenese and Singapore states. Temasek, an investment firm controlled by the Singapore government is investing 1.4 billion euros for 2.1 per sent stake. Finance sure does not threat the globalization, Alphaville confirms: "Western banks are now getting the 'flat' treatment, with the components of what promises to be the biggest banking merger on the planet now being put together in all corners of the globe." Moreover, Barclays are hiring six senior bankers in this Business Mecca, city-state.

The old saying says that 'who does not risk, they do not gain', still I remember that for opening the international student account at Barclays bank one had to deposit £1000. Obviously, risk is here to be taken by the weaker player. Of course they have a whole part of the Group dealing with all sorts of 'wealth service' - acquire, protect, use and enjoy or pass on wealth. Acquiring is particularly interesting, when observed through the links of gambling and the big players like this.

Gambling is illegal in Hong Kong, and although Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia - the potential for new similar centres in this part of the world appears to be spotted by the Western corporations. Singapore, despite its territorial limitation of CBD, pursued the plan of rebranding itself into gambling resort, in expectation of economic gain, naturally. It is planned to become "world's second-largest and most-expensive gaming enclave, spanning 2,600 hotel rooms, 50 restaurants, nearly 300 retail shops".

Interestingly enough - a financial adviser of Merrill Lynch, has been arrested for gambling! One of Merrill's biggest share holders is Temasek Holdings Pte, itself -one of Singapore's two sovereign wealth funds (also: SWF) and the investor of the gambling resort.

If we know that three years ago statistics noted 'over two-thirds of Britain was betting on something or other', this confusion of the internal rules deserves a Singapore sling. Chin chin!

Who will harvest the opportunity?

"Manhattan is the richest, most professional, most congested and without a doubt most fascinating island in the world. To attempt to plant , sustain and harvest two acres of wheat here, wasting valuable real estate, obstructing the machinery by going against the system, was an affrontery that made it the powerful paradox I had sought" Agnes Denes, Wheatfield: A Confrontation 1982


via The City Project


Damon Rich, Cities Destroyed for Cash, 2009, 1431 plastic markers on a panorama of New York City, c.30 x 30m. Photograph: Damon Rich


Damon Rich, Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center, 2008. Installation views at MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA. (Photos: Judith M. Daniels)


Centre Point tower, London





I have no intention here, alas, solving the puzzle ever revolving around the question whether architecture is just the means and instrument, or the very source for changing the world. Yet, we know for sure that the real estate and the buildings themselves, at least in their very physical presence accelerated the last credit crunch. 'It's quite fascinating how this is possibly the first crisis of our times that has a distinctive architectural aesthetic - empty, detached suburban mansions connected by deserted streets, or slum-like frame houses in varying states of dilapidation,' says Joseph Grima, director of Storefront for Art and Architecture.

While the architecture of financial districts brings no hope of resolving the aforementioned puzzle, as it only makes them culturalized products, their today immense unrented, empty space offers maybe a crack into the heart of the problem. In Berlin, Potsdamer Platz, the facade became more valuable than the space itself. Look, also, at the enormous TINAG collection of London City office space waiting to be rented.

The housing schemes are unmistakeably connected to the corporations whether East or West. Maybe contemporary art has retained the means to confront the problem without falling into the culturalization trap. Damon Rich from Centre for Urban Pedagogy is in his project Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Centre trying to unveil how does the notion of financial risk affect the built environment?

Office space is mirroring the capital, but sometimes, like in the example of Centre Point tower of London, built in the 1960s - floors waiting to be rented for years did not reflect the lack of the interest in this space - but the power and the monopoly of one man to raise the rent by such a gesture. There we are again at the same integral interdependent point of the state and its tax relief for the land developers. In Britain, it took a long time for broader public to accept the outlook of the tall buildings and the city smart facades, but in this country the traditionalists would probably embrace its first failure to use it for their understanding of some 'more human' form. If the dragons and lions did not help the City of London headway, can Feng Shui (in the year of Tiger) or at least, Maneki Neko?

Public art of private space?

After the graffiti spraying This is Not Art over the sculpture in SoHo last year, the decision has been made to continue with showcasing artworks in the same spot, as otherwise it would "lie vacant", said curator Adam Kleinman.

Curiously, the 'filling up' process of these vacant spaces by big names's artwork
seems to be a win-win combination for both city authorities and the investors of financial districts' developments around the world. The first group counts on receiving acclamation for enriching the public space by a mere display of art objects, and the latter ones on eliminating height restrictions by investing in public amenities.

The space in-between the office towers and on plazas among them is often given the 'new identity' by artwork such as James Turrell's five glass panels in Brookfield's Bay Adelaide Centre in Toronto's financial district, Michael Heizer's fountain in Manhattan, or Jenny Holzer's instalation in LA Standard Hotel. Broadgate Estate in London is proudly mapping the art around their properties. Influence on public opinion and a qualitative change of space attained by these installations is debatable.

However, artists in Hamburg crossed the border of the permitted art. Their open discontent by the newest establishments has been not acknowledged as the enrichment of public space, but simply as protests.

For more on 'American' model of politics and aesthetics of public space read a text bySharon Zukin.
Art collective Platform has been running critical project Museum of Corporation and walks around London City promoting an alternative model of art taking place in the spatial set-up of London City.