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Prologue
"Everything is interaction. Nothing stands alone, a common bond entwines the whole of organic nature."
The great naturalist Alexander von Humboldt wrote these lines at the beginning of the 19th century under the impression of his first great journey to America from 1799 to 1804.
During his visit to Lake Valencia in Venezuela, Humboldt recognized that its continuous loss of water was the result of deforestation for plantations. He identified the lack of wood and water, as well as the danger of flooding due to dry soil, as a consequence of human intervention. Even then, Humboldt's insight into the interactions in nature could be applied far beyond the concept of nature.
The plantations established by the Spanish colonial rulers on Lake Valencia are an expression of the exploitation of nature, but they also point to systemic structures of exploitation, to poverty on the one hand and boundless wealth on the other. To this day, the exploitation of resources means destruction and prosperity, income and labor disputes, food and species extinction, curse and blessing.
Under the title EVERYTHING IS INTERACTION, the art festival Begehungen aims to make the complexity of the issues of resource consumption, species loss and the climate crisis visible. The festival is intended to be an inspiring place for new, forward-looking discourse - a space for encounters, exchange and creative impulses. It is part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.
Exhibition
The exhibition brings together 32 international artistic perspectives on the social, ecological and economic consequences of environmental destruction, questions of justice and power and the associated social crises. Dr. Claudia Tittel is the artistic director of the exhibition.
The exhibition is based on the works selected by the artistic director, an artist-in-residence program with European partner institutions of the exhibitions and project ideas from the worldwide Open Call.
The Open Call was reserved for artists under the age of 30, which means that almost a third of the exhibition is dominated by young perspectives.
The exhibition will include installations, photographs, drawings, sculptures as well as video and sound artworks. A good quarter of the artworks will be created specifically for the festival.
Admission to the exhibition and all events is free of charge. Begehungen e.V. is happy to receive donations.
Artists:inside:
Ana Alenso (VE)
Lara Almarcegui (NL/ES)
AWOL (Absent Without Leave) Giuliana Marmo / Belén Arellano Cañizares / Stefan Ralevic (VE/ES/SR)
Tina Bara (DE)
Ursula Biemann & Paulo Tavares (CH/BR)
Böhler & Orendt (DE/RO)
Borek Brindák (SK)
Daniel Canogar (ES/US)
Jan Fabian (CZ)
Abie Franklin & Daniel Hölzl (GB/AT)
Tim Gassauer (DE)
Elza Gubanova (UA)
Sarah Damai Hoogman (NL)
Clemens Hornemann (DE)
Anne Duk Hee Jordan (KR/DE)
Nadia Kaabi-Linke (DE/TN/UA)
Diana Lelonek (PL)
Tea Mäkipää (FI)
Gisle Nataas (NO)
Henrike Naumann (DE)
Olaf Nicolai (DE)
Uriel Orlow (CH)
Johanna M. Reich (DE)
Amparo Sard (ES)
Katharina Sauermann (AT)
Günther & Loredana Selichar (AT/IT)
Hito Steyerl (DE)
Gregor Schneider (DE)
Daniel Otero Torres (CO)
Rikuo Ueda (JP)
Anna Weberberger (AT)
Valeria Zane & Victor Nebbiolo di Castri (IT/FR)
Opening hours
Daily from 12 - 8 pm, except July 18 (5 - 9 pm) and August 14 (closing day).
Festival program
The exhibition will be complemented by a festival program with concerts, readings, lectures and performances. The works in the exhibition and site-specific circumstances will become starting points for more in-depth discussions.
Concerts
19.07. 19:00 Bikini Beach & Kochkraft by KMA Garage Rock & Indie-Rave-Punk
20.07. 17:00 Mina Richman Songs between Soul, Folk & HipHop
02.08. 20:30 Drone Operator & Joss Turnbull raster soundtrack europe 20 - 25
08.08. Yaneq rhymes and loose thoughts
16.08. 20:00 KUF jazzy Ambient-Electro, played live
17.08. 17:00 Superbusen Fictitious band, made flesh for partying
17.08. 20:00 Koyaanisqatsi, new soundtrack by The Odd Time Bend Cult film with new film music
Performances
18.07. 20:00 Gisle Nataas & Haakon Thelin Architecture As Instrument
19.07. 14:00 Valeria Zane / Victor Nebbiolo Di Castri Aural Dissipation
09.08. 20:30 Elza Gubanova & Leon Seidel Notes On Ecocide as a live audio essay
Theater & Readings
27.07. 17:00 Elisabeth Weydt Nature is right
(Supported by Zauberberg Medien GmbH)
15.08. 20:00 Climate Monologues Documentary theater by Michael Ruf
(In cooperation with weiterdenken - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Sachsen e.V.)
16.08. 17:00 Uwe Ritzer The sell-out: water, soil, raw materials
(In cooperation with weiterdenken - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Sachsen e.V.)
In addition
20.07. 14:00 Choir karaoke Singing together
25 - 27.07. & 01 -03.08. Pavilion of Fear mobile art and participation project of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
26.07. 14:00 Hör@Begehungen DJs at Kraftwerk and in the webstream
27.07. 14:00 Record Picnic Neighbors and Vinyl
08.08. 18:00 Interaction, neighborhood and energy talk
Workshops
The AWOL Collective is realizing the multi-layered and socially committed project Thirds Fictions during the festival period. This project will be continued over several weeks through workshops and their results. Festival visitors are cordially invited to participate.
Pre-registration is requested for the workshops, as the number of participants is limited to 10 people. Remaining places can be requested at the Infopoint on the day of the workshop. Please send registrations and questions to awol.s.coop@gmail.com
20.07. / 2 pm (duration approx. 3h)
"Letters to the Archive" / "Briefe an das Archiv"
What constitutes an archive and how does archiving take place collectively? By merging personal narratives with collective history, we question how the present can be archived through autoethnographic means and the reuse of materials. We invite Chemnitz residents to write letters in ink from the dust of HKW-Nord to a fictitious archive. The archive will collect their thoughts and each participant will receive a reply letter in the course of the correspondence. This creates an ongoing dialog between temporality and imagination.
27.07. / 2 pm (duration approx. 3h)
"Byproducts"
What is left over from industrial production and how can it be reused? We reflect on the importance of gypsum as a by-product of coal combustion, discuss the current impact of the energy transition and explain how this material, which is often used to build affordable housing, is cast. With the help of these plaster molds, we will jointly produce a copy of the power plant infrastructure that enables alternative heat generation.
03.08. / 2 pm (for children aged 7-12, duration approx. 4 h)
"Sounds of the Future" / "Läuten der Zukunft"
What does a power station sound like in our imagination? This workshop invites children to explore the potential of reused materials that were left behind at HKW Nord before its imminent dismantling. Under guidance, the young participants will transform discarded objects into sound devices, discovering the power of creativity in upcycling while thinking about the sounds of the future. This workshop encourages imaginative thinking and environmental awareness and offers a playful approach to the topic of sustainability.
Subject to change without notice. Detailed information on the individual program items as soon as possible.
Guided tours
Dates for public tours will be available on the website from July 9th. We offer guided tours for children, young people, with sign language interpretation and in English.
Would you like to experience a guided tour as a group? Please send booking inquiries for groups to fuehrungen@begehungen-festival.de. The price per group is 70 euros. The group should not be smaller than 10 people and ideally not larger than 25 people.
Exclusive offer:
Turn the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 into an experience for your employees. Throughout the festival period, Begehungen e.V. as the organizer offers companies the opportunity to book exclusive guided tours. The tour lasts approx. one hour and can be followed by refreshments. Food and drinks are available on the festival grounds.
The price for such a tour is 150 euros per group. The group should not be larger than 35 people. Individual arrangements will be made for larger groups.
Please send booking inquiries to fuehrungen@begehungen-festival.de.
Festival venue
The CHP plant was built in 1957. The expansion of the HKW Nord to its current size began in the early 1980s. On January 18, 2024, the lignite-fired power plant was shut down by the operator eins energie in Sachsen GmbH & Co.
The chimney of the combined heat and power plant is known far beyond the city limits. At a good 300 meters, it is the tallest structure in Saxony. In 2013, the functional building was transformed into a widely visible work of art and one of Chemnitz's most popular landmarks. The corresponding concept was developed by French artist Daniel Buren under the title Seven Colors for a Chimney.
The Begehungen art festival uses an area of around one hectare, including the historically significant cooling tower 1 and various technical facilities such as the huge metal deionized tanks. An exhibition area of more than 2,000 square meters will be created in three large halls.
The company eins energie in sachsen GmbH und Co KG is the owner of the festival site and a cooperation partner of the Begehungen 2025 art festival
Address
Dammweg 10, 09114 Chemnitz
Approach
From the Dammweg access road from Chemnitztalstraße and from Blankenburgerstraße it is about 200 meters to the entrance.
Please use public transportation, your bike or your feet to get here. Our premises are not far from the beautiful Chemnitz Valley cycle path.
Limited parking is available at the corner of Dammweg/Blankenburgerstraße and at Dammweg 10 (signposted).
Park&Ride tip: Use one of the numerous inner-city parking garages and then continue from the central bus stop with bus 22 (HS Dammweg) or 23 (HS Am Glücksberg) or streetcar CB13 (HS Küchwald). These lines also run regularly from Chemnitz main station.
Participation and inclusion
Participation and inclusion are core values of our social interaction. The Begehungen e.V. team is deeply convinced that everyone should be able to visit our art festival, regardless of their background, age, financial means or physical abilities. That is why we work in several languages, offer guided tours for children and do not charge a fixed admission price. In addition, the Begehungen art festival goes to great lengths to ensure that people with mobility, hearing or visual impairments have easy and natural access to the exhibition and all programme items.
For people with hearing impairments
People with visual impairments
People with limited mobility
Cultural accompaniment
You can support the not inconsiderable costs for barrier-free measures with a donation.
About
The festival was founded in Chemnitz in 2003. It is one of the most renowned art events in Saxony and attracts thousands of visitors every year. It is also part of the official programme for the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.
For the first edition, twelve empty shops in Chemnitz's Sonnenberg district were the setting for a photography exhibition. In the following years, the festival moved to the Brühl, a largely deserted shopping boulevard at the time, for several years, grew continuously and opened up more and more to other art genres. Since 2010, the art festival has changed its venue every year.
Since then, a former prison, empty cultural centres and schools, abandoned allotment gardens, an old brewery, disused department stores, a drained swimming pool, an orphaned museum or an overgrown railway station have been locations for the festival.
The Begehungen art festival sees itself as an inclusive and accessible festival. Access to all programme items and the exhibition is free of charge. The festival is made possible by a lot of voluntary work by the members of Begehungen e. V. and many helpers.
Donation
The Begehungen art festival is largely organised on a voluntary basis by Begehungen e.V. and numerous helpers. We would be delighted if you could support this work with a DONATION. Thank you very much!
By bank transfer:
Account holder: Begehungen e. V.
IBAN: DE10 8705 0000 0710 0502 32
Institut: Sparkasse Chemnitz
Via Paypal:
Please use Paypal-Link
European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025
The Begehungen art festival is an official part of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 program.
Stefan Schmidtke, Managing Director Program of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH: "The Begehungen art festival incorporates everything that makes Chemnitz European Capital of Culture 2025 - and has done so for 20 years. "C the unseen", the motto for the program of the European Capital of Culture year, is also programmatic for the Begehungen. The festival takes place in unusual places and makes them visible.
It invites international artists and the local neighborhood to discover these places and enter into conversation with each other. The tours open up spaces and new perspectives. This is also what the Capital of Culture stands for: encouraging people to participate, creating access and breaking down barriers.
Overnight stay
Welcome to c/o56 Chemnitz - the official festival hotel of the Begehungen 2025 art festival. Your temporary home in the middle of the countryside and yet centrally located. Our hotel is just a few minutes' walk from the Begehungen 2025 festival site and offers you the ideal starting point for art, culture and city experiences. Look forward to a GreenSign-certified hotel with spacious, air-conditioned rooms, our lively Lounge56, a rooftop gym with a view over Chemnitz and an underground parking garage with 113 parking spaces and 6 e-charging stations.
Offers for festival guests:
✔️ With the promocode AKTION56 you save 15 % on your overnight stay (excluding breakfast).
✔️ With the promo code BEGEHUNGEN25 you get a 10% discount on the overnight stay, including breakfast, welcome drink on arrival and an exclusive Begehungen give-away. Bookable from 1 night, cannot be canceled free of charge*.
Enjoy art, culture and Chemnitz hospitality at c/o56 Chemnitz - we look forward to seeing you!
Partner
Reviews
2024 - KIPPELN - former CSM
2023 - et cetera pp - Castle Lichtenstein
2022 - Plansch - Erzgebirgsbad Thalheim
2021 - Leerzeit - Güterbahnhof Altendorf
2020 - Entwürfnisse Ring 8 - Kaufhalle Hutholz
2019 - Rausch - Brauerei Kappel
2018 - Jenseits von Beeten - Gartensparte Gablenz
2017 - Institut Potemkin - Kulturpalast Rabenstein
2016 - TA Lärm - Pölzig-Bau
Contact
General: info @ begehungen-festival.de
Press: presse @ begehungen-festival.de
Booking / Festival programme: booking @ begehungen-festival.de
Questions for application: application @ begehungen-festival.de