Christian Siekmeier / Urban Work

dickicht, 2002-2005

style magazine, issue 102, April 2007

Somewhere in the global urban jungle lies the public park. Its hidden corners accommodate a specific user group: Men seek and find social and sexual encounters. These images show such „cruising grounds“ from all over the world. The more radical homosexuality is discriminated against in a country, the more important these hidden, to the rest of society secret places become for getting together.

Protective bushes become a sort of playground, where the hunter is also the hunted one and where numerous but elusive rules and rituals reign. In cruising grounds the certainty of spatial identification is undermined. The common safety to locate and identify a space is transformed into an invisible signification of desire. Embedded in the city is the existence of such spaces only visible fort he user who looks out fort hem and is able to read the signifiers.