“Familiar Spaces” is an ongoing project by Klaus W. Eisenlohr that visually investigates the shape of urban space. As a reaction to his project “Slow Space” in Chicago, USA and his experience of living and working in this wide spread city, the artist has become interested in the larger metropolitan areas of European Cities: the development of cities, the shape of the European city at the beginning of the 21st century and especially the public space these larger urban areas provide.

In his presentation at HIAP, Helsinki, the artist shows a media installation that shows public spaces in two cities: Hannover, Germany, and Poznan, Poland. A working thesis for this project is that public space today may be under a threat of disappearance, but that there may also be a tradition of building, caring for and using public spaces in contemporary Europe that is different to developments in the United States and other parts of the world. The work shown will be a starting point for his investigation of the city and the metropolitan area of Helsinki during his three month residency.