Art instead of coal: for decades, the Nord combined heat and power plant in Chemnitz was the biggest CO2 guzzler in the region. Lignite was burned here for district heating and electricity. This has been over since the beginning of 2024. In the Capital of Culture year, the plant is now an impressive backdrop for an art festival that revitalizes abandoned sites with contemporary art every year. The festival organizers obviously hit a nerve with their current show in the disused power station: around 8,500 visitors came in the first week.
In the place where vast amounts of climate-damaging CO2 were once blown into the air, international artists are exploring the interactions between humans and nature. To this end, Hito Steyerl has set up an LED wall made of beer crates with bottles and living plants in one of the former water tanks. Image and sound content is generated from the plants' bioelectric signals. Katharina Sauermann has captured the pollutant particulate matter in her pictures, creating atmospheric landscapes that document environmental pollution and make it tangible to the senses.
