Rose Hackman, theguardian.com
It's Friday night in the heart of Detroit at the Red Bull House of
Art, a 14,000-square-foot underground art gallery carved out of the
basement of a
19th century brewery. Thousands of the young, the chic and the smart have gathered to celebrate
a new cycle of local artists’ work. DJ Erika is spinning, champagne is flowing. Outside, a line of people
hoping to enter winds around the block.
Christopher Stevens, a
good-looking 29-year-old car designer from
California, is the host of the hottest after-party, in his loft above
the brewery's back stairs. In the middle of the room casually rest two
of his motorbikes, with a piano in one corner. Darko,
the resident pit bull puppy, darts in between guests from one end of the
room
to the other.
“I love Detroit,” Stevens says, after declaring how
depressing he finds the idea of suburbs. “Detroit is full of heritage and
history. I came for its grittiness. It’s full of culture – old Americana
culture.”
To
Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO of New York-based advertising firm Story Worldwide, and a
former Detroit Free Press award-winning reporter, companies coming to the Motor
City for branding are “wrapping themselves around a mythology that is
outlaw”.
“It is a safe way to be appealing to young people all over
the country who embrace those kinds of feelings – of wanting to be outside of
the mainstream while actually defining the mainstream,” Cheyfitz says. More here.
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