On the way to becoming European Capital of Culture 2025

Eight mayors from the region invite twelve international artists

Chemnitz and the region have applied for the title of European Capital of Culture 2025. 28 towns and municipalities between Freiberg and Schneeberg, Limbach-Oberfrohna and Augustusburg support the Chemnitz bid.

To mark the occasion, the mayors of the towns of Annaberg-Buchholz, Aue-Bad Schlema, Augustburg, Freiberg, Limbach-Oberfrohna, Oelsnitz and Mittweida are now inviting a total of twelve international artists from the art metropolis of Berlin to make short flying visits to present the region.

A large, sustainable sculpture tour connecting many towns in the region is planned for 2025, centred around works by artists such as Tony Cragg, Leiko Ikemura, Alicia Kwade, James Turell, Sosnowska and Leonora Salihu. Old narratives of the Erzgebirge, which say that "everything comes from the mountain" and that people "think with their hands", seem like a reference to the materials of the artworks that have been mined and extracted from the earth of today's UNESCO World Heritage Site over 800 years. Silver, tin, iron, kaolin and cobalt, coal and uranium become art, the miners' metaphors of light become their material. An eventful history of innovative entrepreneurship and the labour movement since the 13th century, of permanent renewal and crisis right up to the upheavals of the 20th century become the backdrop for numerous exhibitions at various (also historical) locations.

The Austrian sculptors Uli Aigner, Christina Doll and Karolin Schwab, who was born in Rostock and works in London, will take part in the journey itself. Photography is represented by the Russian Anastasia Khoroshilova, the Israeli and representative of the 'Third Generation' Benyamin Reich and Andreas Mühe, who was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt. The artistic media of video and 'concept' will be represented by Donata Wenders, Konrad Mühe and the Turkish artist Cokcen Dilek Acay.

An extensive programme with specific art activities is planned for the cities mentioned in close cooperation with the local activists and the heads of the individual cities, including visits to magnificent mountain towns, museums and churches, world heritage sites and 'lost places'.

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