November 10 – November 29
Opening hours:
Monday–Friday & Sunday: 2–6 p.m.
Tuesday–Thursday & Saturday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Monday and Friday mornings for school classes & groups by appointment: mehrkens@kulturkirche2025.de
Raum: Kreativwerkstatt
Chemnitz and its surrounding region are among the demographically oldest areas in Europe — a treasure full of memories and hidden stories. In the History of Citizens project, young people interview older residents about their lives, the turning points, and the opportunities they’ve experienced. Primary school children then transform these interviews into artistic creations.
The multimedia exhibition presents video and sound installations, texts, photos, paintings, and interactive elements. An accompanying program featuring discussions, concerts, and lectures invites all generations to build bridges.
As part of Chemnitz – European Capital of Culture 2025, the project is being created in collaboration with Nova Gorica/Gorizia — preserving memories, overcoming borders, and bringing history to life for the future.
Chemnitz is one of the demographically oldest major cities in Europe. As such, it holds a treasure of contemporary witnesses who make the value and dignity of age tangible and can share instructive life stories. They have experienced and mastered the great transformations of the 20th century. The project aims to uncover, document, and preserve this wealth of knowledge and experience for the European Capital of Culture 2025.
People aged 60 and over are interviewed by schoolchildren about different stages of their lives. These interviews are then artistically interpreted by the children in literary or graphic form. The resulting video installations, readings, and artworks will be presented in an exhibition in 2025. In the long term, through collaboration with the Chemnitz City Archive, these works will become part of the city’s history.
In this way, “History of Citizens” builds bridges and relationships across generations. At the same time, it promotes international exchange, as the project is being developed in cooperation with the parallel European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica in Slovenia and Gorizia in Italy. Like Chemnitz, this city was deeply affected by the division of Europe into East and West — an event that marks its 80th anniversary in 2025. This makes the existing project partnerships between communities, schools, and even the mayors all the more significant.
