Mark Powell embarked on a shopping spree of houses in Detroit, Michigan, where the govenment filed for economic banckrupcy in 2013. The value of the city has declined in astronomical proportions and down with it came the prices of houses in the city. Massive migration towards the suburbs during the past 30 years has left the city in a downfall where poverty skyrocketed and opportunites seized to exist. In the last couple of years a wave of young people have started to purchase cheap houses to rebrand them as potential future resources, in attempt to reocupy the city, seek investiments and thus with time revitalize the city.
In his project For Sale Detroit, Mark Powell photographed the facade of the four houses he acquired. Thru his gallery in Mexico City, Arroniz, he sold the pictures, and along with it, the buyers obtained a property title to the houses themselves. Buying the images made the collectors owners of properties in Detroit. Mark explains the project as a " metaphor of speculation involved in the apraisal of objects within the general politics of the art world."
In this video Mark tours the houses for the first time as the owner, with awe and curiosity. As he walks from one space to another, the viewer is unable to distinguish when one house ends and the other starts, which directly allludes to the homogeniety of american homes and its architectural standarization. In a traditional format of real-state visits, or walkthroughs, he shows us the properties so that future owners can see what lies inside the houses photographed.
The video was exhibited in Mark Powells "For Sale Detroit" exhibition in Arroniz Gallery in Mexico City in september 2015.