Farewell to literature scholarship holders
On Friday, this year’s recipients of the City of Chemnitz’s literature grants were honoured at the Neue Sächsische Galerie in the TIETZ. Under the title ‘Über Städte’ (On Cities), photographer Burkhard Peter and director and writer Judith Kuckart presented the results of their residency in text and images.
On this evening, Chemnitz was to play a role as an external urban landscape. At the same time, the Kuckart/Peter duo unearfed invisible stories of everyday life. The evening was accompanied by improvised music from Salome Ahmend on percussion (Wuppertal) and Raissa Mehner (Cologne) on guitar.
In 2026, the City of Chemnitz’s literary scholarship was awarded for the third time. Burkhard Peter and Judith Kuckart had impressed the jury with their joint application and prevailed over 52 other entries. Burkhard Peter lived in Chemnitz from early April to late June, and Judith Kuckart from early July to late September. Both immersed themselves in the city’s diverse cultural landscape and, amongst other things, created an installation for Museum Night at the TIETZ, as well as one as part of the exhibition ‘Floating – schwebende Zustände’ at the ‘Karl liebt Käthe’ gallery, where they also took part in an artists’ talk. During their respective three-month stays, both worked on their own projects and supported a Year 8 class at the Georgius-Agricola-Gymnasium in several workshops on writing texts and photography.
Background
The award of the literature fellowship (every two years) is intended to make a significant contribution to raising the profile of literature in Chemnitz and to fostering networking amongst regional literary figures. The first scholarship holder, Arna Aley, and the second, Stefan Hornbach, continued to act as ambassadors for the city even after their scholarship period had ended.
Burkhard Peter lives in Berlin as a freelance photographer. He works throughout Germany in the fields of portrait and reportage photography, as well as editorial documentation, for institutions, publishers, magazines, PR and advertising.
Judith Kuckart has been working as a writer and freelance director since 1999. This year, she was awarded the title of ‘City Writer of Bergen-Enkheim 2026’, one of the most prestigious literary prizes (with prize money of 20,000 euros) in the German-speaking world. In addition, she will receive the State Capital of Wiesbaden’s literary prize, worth 10,000 euros, in November.