For the exhibition space of the Kunstverein Ruhr in Essen, Christian Haake developed a special choreography, whereby four elements correspond with each other evidently and unite to form one site-specific installation. Already at first glance, an intervention in the interior architecture is obvious: The two columns on the right-hand side of the space become a framing element for a kind of “urban furnishing” from the 1950s and ‘60s. What one sees is in fact an outdoor display case, well known from the era of the so-called German Economic Miracle and typical of the shopping promenades of the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin and the Königsallee in Düsseldorf. These ostentatious display cases filled with luxury goods, shoes, handbags and other accessories were intended to grab the attention of strollers and passers-by and seduce them to take a closer look. The goal was, of course, to promote consumption on the respective shopping street. What was once intended to contribute to the prosperity of our cities can, however – as a result of a lack of municipal resources, low levels of consumption, stores going out of business and empty commercial spaces – become a brutal indication of their inhospitableness. And now, just such an empty, somewhat desolate display case now stands before the viewer as soon as he or she enters the exhibition space…