20th Chemnitz Museum Night with Night Tour of Modernism
More than 9,100 curious visitors on a nocturnal excursion
At the 20th edition of the Chemnitz Museum Night, more than 9,100 curious visitors took up the offer to embark on a nocturnal excursion through Chemnitz as a city of modernism and be inspired and inspired by an extraordinary night-time museum programme at a total of 30 locations.
The guided tours on the architecture and history of the buildings built in the modernist style were particularly popular during the "Night Tour of Modernism", which offered a multifaceted programme at 18 stations to mark the "100 Years of Bauhaus" anniversary. While the Ikarus bus tours of the tram museum provided a good overview of the many architectural traces of modernism, participants learnt many details about the architectural features of the former Schocken department stores' and the historic multi-storey car park on Zwickauer Straße. In the Chemnitz municipal swimming pool, more than 600 interested visitors also explored rooms that are normally closed to the public on historical tours and technical tours. Here and at the Museum of Saxon Vehicles Chemnitz, joint tours were offered for deaf and hearing visitors.
In the Chemnitz Art Collections, the extensive holdings made it possible to take a special look at the artistic activities of the little-noticed women at the Bauhaus. The exhibition "Bauhaus. Textiles and Graphics" focusses on textiles created in the weaving workshop between 1919 and 1933. Ten original photographs of the Chemnitz-born Bauhaus artist Marianne Brandt, who was appointed deputy head of the metal workshop in 1926, were on display from her time at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In her home in Heinrich-Beck-Straße, the Marianne Brandt Gesellschaft e. V. association presented the legendary Bauhaus objects in the newly designed study collection, which was opened by a discussion with the association's honorary chairman, Prof. Karl Clauss Dietel. In the special exhibition "Bau1haus - Modernism in Chemnitz and the World" at smac, Berlin photographer Jean Molitor was inspired by the architectural impact of classical modernism worldwide.
Playful, experimental, material-based work and learning at the Bauhaus could be experienced at the German Games Museum Chemnitz under the motto "Timeless Play - 100 Years of Bauhaus Games Design". Other creative programmes and workshops were offered at the art collections, the Industrial Museum and the TIETZ. In the Insectarium of the Chemnitz Natural History Museum, which opened 40 years ago, visitors of all ages were able to realise their creative animal fantasies.
As part of the 30th anniversary of the "Peaceful Revolution", the Chemnitz Stasi Records Archive, together with the Lern- und Gedenkort Kaßberg-Gefängnis e. V. association, focussed on the topic of "Escape from the GDR" with the support of contemporary witnesses. A special attraction here was the live assembly of an escape aeroplane. Original documents from the autumn of '89 were also on display in the Chemnitz City Archive.
But there were also exciting glimpses into the future. For example, "Smart Materials: Magic Materials for the World of Tomorrow" was presented in the Klaffenbach moated castle. And at the Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf railway site, exhibitions and activities also gave a foretaste of the 4th Saxon State Exhibition of Industrial Culture in 2020.
Once again this year, many volunteers assisted the organisers in the participating museums, galleries and institutions to make the Chemnitz Museum Night a success.