"Begehungen" art festival shows protest and resistance

Whether protests against lignite mining, corona measures or the oppression of women in countries such as Afghanistan: this year's "Begehungen" festival is exploring global protest culture with 22 works of contemporary art. "We are living in a new time of protest," stated curator Claudia Tittel in Chemnitz. The exhibited works not only showed that protest has many faces and can take many different forms. "But also that protest is a powerful form of expression that unites people worldwide."

For example, an installation by Thomas Prochnow, together with photographs by Jacob Queißner and Philipp Gehrhardt, commemorates the climate camp of coal opponents in Lützerath in the Rhineland. In another room, a large number of drawings by Sebastian Jung on protests against corona measures are on display. Meanwhile, a video shows the "Armor" action by Kubra Khademi from Afghanistan, in which she walks through a street in her home country wearing a kind of armor and is harassed by men. On the one hand, armor is supposed to offer protection, but on the other, it particularly emphasizes the body, as Tittel explains. And this leads to massive counter-reactions. Other works include those by Pavel Mozhar from Belarus, Helena Her from Mexico and Shahrzad Nazarpour from Iran.

The Begehungen have been transforming vacant buildings into temporary galleries for contemporary art since 2003. This year, a former school building was chosen that refers to the history of protest. The Chemnitz school model was initiated here under the influence of the peaceful revolution of 1989/90 as an alternative to the GDR school system. The school's former gymnasium has now been transformed into an art gallery. The title of the show is "Kippeln" (Tilt) - a reference not only to the school itself, but also to the moments of tilt inherent in many protests.

This year's "Begehungen" will open on Thursday evening (August 15) and will be on display until August 23. Admission is on a donation basis. The show will be accompanied by performances, concerts and a poetic theater production of Maxie Wanders' "Guten Morgen, du Schöne". The art festival is part of the program for Chemnitz as European Capital of Culture 2025.