40 years of town twinning with Manchester

The cities of Chemnitz and Manchester have been twinned for 40 years. This anniversary is to be celebrated on 3 and 4 November in Chemnitz together with the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, Yasmine Dar. In addition, contacts will be revitalised and new ones established at various events.

On Friday, 3 November at 9.30 a.m., there will be a city tour of Chemnitz in the historic tram together with Mayor Dagmar Ruscheinsky. This will include a visit to the Stadtwirtschaft intervention area. Media representatives are cordially invited to this event. Please register by 31 October at pressestelle(at)stadt-chemnitz.de due to space restrictions.

Afterwards - on Friday, 3 November at 12 noon - Lord Mayor Yasmine Dar will sign the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz in the presence of Lord Mayor Sven Schulze.
Media representatives are also cordially invited to this event in the Wandelhalle of City Hall.

On Friday, 3 November at 7 pm , Lord Mayor Yasmine Dar and Lord Mayor Sven Schulze will attend a vernissage in the Wirkbau. The background to this is an artist-in-residence programme that took place in both cities to mark the 40th anniversary of their town twinning. Artists from Chemnitz and Manchester visited each other to work creatively in the respective city. The exhibition in the Wirkbau shows the works that were created during the residency in Chemnitz. Admission to the vernissage is free. Representatives of the media are also cordially invited.

On Saturday, 4 November at 2 pm, Mayor Dagmar Ruscheinsky and Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, Yasmine Dar, will plant a twin city tree in Moritzpark (on Falkeplatz, opposite the Uferstrand). Representatives of the media are also cordially invited to this event.

On Saturday, 4 November at 3 pm, Mayor Dagmar Ruscheinsky and Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, Yasmine Dar, will meet representatives of the city community for tea and coffee in the Green Salon in the Town Hall. People and organisations that are already involved in the town twinning, such as the German-British Society and Begehungen e. V., as well as stakeholders who could cooperate with Manchester in the future, such as Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz Adult Education Centre and Chemnitz Sports High School, had the opportunity to network. Participation was by invitation.

Media representatives are also cordially invited to this event in the Green Salon of the town hall. Please register by 31 October at pressestelle(at)stadt-chemnitz.de.

Photos by Chemnitz photographer Johannes Richter from his residency in Manchester will also be on display in the exhibition room of Chemnitz Town Hall. The exhibition will be open until the end of the year during the opening hours of the town hall.

Accompanying programme of the twin cities:

The 40-year town twinning between Chemnitz and Manchester is an opportunity for cultural professionals from both cities to offer an extensive accompanying programme. This includes an artist-in-residence programme, exhibitions, concert evenings and a performance.

Programme in Chemnitz:

18 October to 5 November - artist residencies

The visual artist Astarte Cara and the artist duo Louise Adkins / Jonathan Purcell, who work in the field of performance photography, are guests from Manchester. All three artists will stay in Chemnitz for a fortnight. A special feature of the project is Astarte Cara's stay. She will take part in an artistic exchange in an artist tandem with the Chemnitz painter Lydia Thomas and the Chemnitz-born artist Florian Merkel.

3 November, 7 pm, Wirkbau - Vernissage

Chemnitz Manchester 40

Presentation of the works created during the residency in Chemnitz. Admission free of charge.

3 November, 9 pm, Atomino - concert/party

Manchester at the Atomino

The Atomino club is collaborating with the legendary "Soup" - one of the most established clubs in Manchester. The colleagues from the island are sending two live acts, DJs and visuals to Chemnitz. Priceless Bodies and bunny hoova will be on stage, while itsnatevendahk will be DJing the dance music. Malik Jama (Venture Arts) will contribute visuals. Admission: 10 euros.

5 November, 12 to 6 pm, Wirkbau - talk and exhibition

Chemnitz Manchester 40

Presentation of the works created during her residency in Chemnitz. At 3 pm there will be a talk with the photographer Johannes Richter about his stay in Manchester. Admission free of charge.

10 November, 6 pm, Weltecho - Performance

Video art and dance in dialogue

Horace Lindezey has been a practising artist for more than 30 years and is a talented illustrator, textile artist and ceramicist who also works with media art. For the Kammermachen festival, Horace Lindezey is collaborating with Rafał Dziemidok for a performance about family histories and traditions.

Venture Arts in Manchester works with learning disabled and neurodiverse artists to create new contemporary art. Their work is represented in many major galleries, including at the Venice Biennale in 2022.

Programme in Manchester

11 to 30 October, residencies for artists

Visual artist Sara M. T. Richter-Höhlich and photographer Johannes Richter (no relation) travelled from Chemnitz to the British metropolis. The two artists worked independently on site-specific works in which they emphasised the similarities and differences between the two twin cities. Sara M. T. Richter-Höhlich's stay is conceived as a tandem project. She will be working in an artist tandem with Manchester-based artist Darren Nixon.

27 October, 8 pm, SOUP - exhibition - concert/party

The works of Johannes Richter, Sara M. T. Richter-Höhlich and Darren Nixon will be presented in the spacious bar area. Alongside Manchester acts Priceless Bodies and Marco Woolf, the club will be presenting an artist from Chemnitz for the first time. Peter Piek, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, painter, author and performance artist, was born in Chemnitz in 1981 and is now at home all over the world.

28 October, 2 to 8 pm, Longsight Art Space & Crowcroft Park - Ceremony/Dinner

A tree will be planted in Crowcroft Park to mark the town twinning anniversary. This will be followed by a dinner at Longsight Art Space.

Contact persons:

Frank Weinhold (0176 60021167) is the contact person for the residency programme and the exhibition in the Wirkbau or for contact with the artists. Randy Fischer (0179 6610298) is best placed to provide information about the concert at Atomino and the collaboration with SOUP. Heda Beyer (0152 28249922) can provide information about the performance and the collaboration with Venture Arts.

Town twinning between Chemnitz and Manchester:

1983: A friendship treaty was signed on the initiative of the UK-GDR Friendship Society (Manchester branch). This was followed by meetings between children's groups, young people and trade unions, but mostly in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

1989/90: Relationships were severed as many members left the friendship organisation for political reasons after the fall of communism.

1991: Resumption of official contacts through a visit to Manchester by the Lord Mayor of Chemnitz, Dr Dieter Noll; over 20 school sponsorships, contacts between the industrial museum and art galleries, joint EU film project with unemployed young people.

1993: Organisation of a Manchester week in Chemnitz to mark ten years of partnership.

In the following years, regular school exchanges and sports meetings took place. The Boxing Club Chemnitz 94 e. V. maintains contact to this day

2003: An updated version of the town twinning agreement is signed.

2017: "Message from Manchester" - exhibition by four artists from Manchester at the Schönherr-Fabrik as part of the CWE's RAW Festival since 2018: participation of dance companies from Manchester at the TANZ I MODERNE I TANZ festival

2018: Delegation trips on the occasion of the Capital of Culture application and the celebrations for 100 years of women's suffrage

Joint projects between the industrial museums in Chemnitz, Mulhouse, Manchester, Lodz, Tampere, Brussels-Molenbeek and Gabrovo "European Manchesters" are planned for 2025. There will also be new school sponsorships and existing ones will be revitalised.

The press release was updated on 27 October 2023.