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Editor:
Presscouncil City of Chemnitz
Pressrelease: 815

PRESENCES I PRESENCES: Art City of Chemnitz

28 June - 27 September 2020

Organiser: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (Dr Frédéric Bußmann),
Guest curators: Prof. Dr Florian Matzner (Munich) and Sarah Sigmund, M.A. (Dresden/Munich)

Brief description of the project

In summer 2020, Chemnitz will be the venue for the first international public art project in the city. More than 20 renowned artists and collectives have been invited to engage with Chemnitz and its history and society and to develop artistic projects for the urban space. The exhibition is curated by Florian Matzner and Sarah Sigmund and organised by the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz with General Director Frédéric Bußmann.

Based on the observation that there are many presences - which are also characterised by social divisions - presences that are negotiated in private spaces such as the family or circle of friends, but above all in public spaces, the exhibition project GEGENWARTEN I PRESENCES. Art City of Chemnitz from June to September 2020 explores the specific social, political and urban issues facing the city of Chemnitz. Art in public spaces can contribute to discovering hidden qualities in a city, highlighting commonalities, linking them synergistically and thus telling both forgotten and new identities and stories. In particular, art is also able to make these visible and tangible and show the people of a city alternative futures.

The exhibition project will look outwards from Chemnitz to Europe and the world. With and through the project, we will look from the present into the past and future of Chemnitz and visualise stories that have received little attention to date. From the founding of the GDR to the "Wende", a social, political and economic turning point, the city centre and the surrounding districts have repeatedly undergone far-reaching structural and socio-economic changes. For this reason, the exhibition tour in summer 2020 will cover the city centre and the neighbouring districts.

More than 20 international artists and collectives (see attached list) have been invited to develop site-specific works for Chemnitz with their interventions and sculptures, installations and performances. The themes are generated directly from the city and its contexts and articulated, debated and transformed within them. The topics of economies and ecologies, spaces and transformations, movements and migrations, democracies and regressions as well as working environments and living spaces will play an important role. The artists visited the city of Chemnitz in summer 2019 as part of a workshop lasting several days and then developed their project ideas, some of which we are presenting today as examples.

Artists and collectives involved in the project

  1. atelier le balto (Véronique Facheur, Marc Pouzol, Marc Vatinel), founded in 2001 in Le Havre (F) and Berlin
  2. Nadja Buttendorf, *1984 in Dresden, lives in Berlin
  3. Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkacova, collaboration since 2000, live in Prague (CZ) and Vyhne (SK)
  4. Else Gabriel, *1962 in Halberstadt, lives in Berlin
  5. Shilpa Gupta, *1976 in Mumbai, lives in Mumbai (IND)
  6. Patricia Kaersenhout, *1966, lives in Amsterdam (NL)
  7. Klub Solitaer e. V. (Mandy Knospe and Robert Verch), founded in Chemnitz in 2011
  8. Mischa Kuball, *1959 in Düsseldorf, lives in Düsseldorf
  9. Philip Metz, *1971 in Heidelberg, lives in Berlin
  10. Henrike Naumann, *1984 in Zwickau, lives in Berlin
  11. Olaf Nicolai, *1962 in Halle/Saale, lives in Berlin
  12. Observatorium (Gert van de Kamp, André Dekker, Lieven Poutsma, Ruud Reutelingsperger), founded 1998 in Rotterdam (NL)
  13. Ooze Architects and Marjetica Potrc: Ooze (Sylvain Hartenberg and Eva Pfannes), founded in 2003 in Paris (F) and Rotterdam (NL); Potrc: *1953 in Ljubljana, lives in Ljubljana (SLO)
  14. Lydia Ourahmane, *1992, lives in Algiers (DZ) and London (GB)
  15. Peng! Collective, founded in 2013 in Berlin
  16. Roman Signer, *1938 in Appenzell (CH), lives in St. Gallen (CH)
  17. Weltecho (Frank Maibier), founded in 2007 in Chemnitz (Ufer e. V. and Oscar e. V.), formerly Voxxx (1992-2007)
  18. Anna Witt, *1982 in Wasserburg, lives in Vienna (A)
  19. Tobias Zielony, *1973 in Wuppertal, lives in Berlin
  20. Zona Dynamic (Sandy Becker and Eliza Goldox), founded in 2013 in Berlin

Note:

The period of the exhibition and the list of artists were updated in this press release on 3 March 2020.