Anja Richter – författare

New Ecologies: Gegenwarten | Presences II is the title of an ambitious public art project organised by the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. The open-air exhibition aims to examine perspectives on ecological sustainability, raise awareness of climate policy issues, and explore possible fields of practice. Artistic interventions by established and internationally renowned artists, as well as young artists and initiatives from Chemnitz, will highlight the impact of the climate crisis and encourage global discourse at the local level. New Ecologies marks the first art project in an urban space in Germany to address and discuss the problem of climate change and its environmental consequences. The exhibition thus also hopes to provide a practical contribution to a broad sociopolitical debate. The accompanying catalogue documents the artworks in public space and provides important background information in texts by leading authors.ARTISTS: Irwan Ahmet und Tita Salina, atelier le balto, Begehungen e.V., Claire Fontaine, Forensic Architecture, Tue Greenfort, Haubitz + Zoche, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Klub Solitaer e.V., Margrethe Pettersen, Pochen e.V., Ooze & Marjetica Potrc, Raumlabor, Gil Shachar, Simon Starling, Simon Weckert, Weltecho mit Oscar e.V.Text in English and German.

Searching for the Face of a New Time Whether in the visual arts, literature, cinema, science or fashion–in the crises after World War I, the fascination with “types” was largely influenced by a debate that was pervasive in the Weimar period: the search for the “face of the era.” People were looking for new role models, and the portraits by artists of the New Objectivity movement such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Jeanne Mammen and Hanna Nagel testify to this. Many of the clichéd images, such as those of the “new woman” or the “worker,” however, continue to have an effect in the present, reminding us with their classification of individuals of a problem that lives on in today’s bigotry. A broad spectrum of contributors from art history, medical history, media studies, and sociology venture into a detailed investigation of the historical context of the 1920s and the complex interactions between art and its time. An installation developed especially for the exhibition by contemporary artist Cemile Sahin, born in 1990, spans an arc to the present.

Three hundred works from twenty-one countries form a European panorama of the many facets of realism in art that were ubiquitous in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. They tell of poverty and misery, economic upheaval, artistic flourishing and progress, urban culture, nightlife, emancipation and diversity.A devastating world war, the Spanish flu, poverty, global economic crisis, National Socialism – such was the 1920s. No other epoch has as many parallels to today as the period between the two world wars. This richly illustrated volume brings together treasures from across Europe, offering fresh inspiration through superb works of art that remain strikingly relevant. The eclectic period known as the Golden Twenties promises to be a magnet for visitors in Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture in 2025. Artists: Aleksandra Beļcova, Maria Blanchard, Otto Dix, Pranas Domšaitis, Stina Forssell, August Jansen, Jean Jacoby, Alexander Kanoldt, Pyke Koch, Béla Kontuly, Ivan Kos, Sonja Kovačić-Tajčević, Lotte Laserstein, Rafał Malczewski, Milada Marešová, Ubaldo Oppi, Sergius Pauser, Cagnaccio di San Pietro, William Roberts, Ángeles Santos, Franz Sedlacek, Ilona Singer-Weinberger, Ludomir Sleńdziński, Niklaus Stoecklin, Marijan Trepše, Kiril Tsonev, Gerda Wegener, Carel Willink.