“Go for Gold!” is a photo project over a period of twelve years by artist Gesche Würfel to show how the landscape of East London has changed in the course of preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 – a dynamism that can be observed every two years in different forms in new host cities of the summer or winter Olympics.

The series documents locations in the Lower Lea Valley which over the years have become construction sites for the Olympic venues. Initially only the picture titles refer to the forthcoming changes. This discrepancy between picture and title should prompt the observer to reflect on the wholesale demolition and enormous building activity that ensues whenever a major event of this kind takes place. The photographer and qualified regional planner criticises the transition of the Games in the past 45 years from a sports event to an “economic event”.