About
The accompanying and discourse programme serves as the central anchor for exchange within the Biennale. It plays with the construct of "East" as well as with fire. What considerations are incorporated into these collective terms? To whom, about whom and with whom are we speaking?
The journey begins with the exploration of the borderland of Europe and much that lies along the way. In our luggage we carry the quest for language, the search for understanding, and the acceptance of complexities.
Through a variety of lectures, panels, workshops, performative evenings, and culinary events, we aim to understand the Biennale more and the world a bit less. Be part of it! Urgency is needed in a world that may not exist tomorrow. The challenge is to understand what the European constitution is and how we collectively shape it.
Welcome to the discursive storm of images, the tragic glimmer of hope, the searching beacon of light.
Further Information
Entry fees
Sauna on the rooftop garden of Hall G
Proximity and distance
Welcome to the official opening of the 2024 POCHEN Biennale!
3 pm – Opening of the Youth Art Exhibition with the Amt für Wunschentwicklung collective / Location: Wirkbau, Hall A0
5 pm – Performance, “Hard Style”, by artist Henrike Naumann / Location: Town Hall
Together with De Nischelhupper and Chem-Valley Line Dancer Chemnitz e. V., Naumann will use her performance to bring to life “The Mechanisation of Agriculture”, a hidden mural by the artist’s grandfather, Karl Heinz Jakob.
7 pm – Opening of art exhibition / Location: Wirkbau, Hall C0
8:15 pm – Music performance by artist Jack Dove / Location: Wirkbau car park
9:15 pm – Aftershow / Location: transit / Reichenhainer Straße 1, 09111 Chemnitz
A map is a tricky thing. It's easy to be manipulated. A mental map is even more tricky. It represents our perception of a given. When physicality doesn’t exist anymore our memory becomes more important. This is when mental maps gain their full strength. But to make mental maps visible, you must talk about them. The Ukrainian artists Yevgenia Belorusets, Vova Vorotniov und Bohdan Bunchak will come together in a conversation with Alona Karavai to discuss their improvised mental maps.
The event is captured in painting by artist Lenia Hauser, who reconstructs a mental map in real time.
The event will be held in English.
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian artist, photographer and lecturer at the Bauhaus art school, where he built his first Light-Space Modulator in the 1930s and subsequently declared the 21st century to be the “Century of Light”. In this interactive tour with art mediator Zsófia Puszt, attendees will learn more about the Hungarian avant-garde art movement and understand how this ties in to our exhibition.
The event will be held in German.
As part of his artistic practice, Vova Vorotniov uses the language of graffiti and experiments with vandalism in order to blur the boundaries between what is art and what is not. He has developed a work especially for the POCHEN Biennale which responds specifically to the venue in which it was created. The Ukrainian artist will discuss this work along with other topics during this session.
The event will be held in English
Nowadays, during the war, young people in Ukraine are confronted with numerous challenges and changes in their daily lives. War-related events have a significant impact on their physical, emotional and social well-being. The TVORY! network helps young people by providing resources, spaces and opportunities to overcome the challenges they face. At the Pochen Biennale, TVORY! will present its way of working.
The event will be held in English.
Coming to terms with the past –or its failure–in Russia and Germany has played itself out on the bodies of Ukrainians in this war. Before she was killed by a Russian missile, novelist Victoria Amelina wrote an essay about her native Lviv, a city in the “bloodlands” haunted by a history of human atrocity. It was not only Russians who had turned away from past generations’ guilt. She encountered the denial that anything bad had ever happened in her own country as well–and she found it alienating: a home would only be a home when the ghosts were invited for breakfast.
The event will be held in English.
The urban landscape of Chemnitz – formerly known as Karl-Marx-Stadt – still bears the vestiges of its socialist past, especially in the city centre. The influence that this past continues to have on the present, the traces it has left behind and the manner in which the city’s former identity is remembered both in public and private spheres is the main focus of this tour, led by art historian Jeannette Brabenetz.
Registration at info@pochen.eu
The event will be held in English.
World War II and the devastating attacks on Japan caused deep-rooted trauma for an entire generation. One format that allowed these experiences to be expressed in words and imagery was manga and anime. The films of Studio Ghibli – and for this programme Howl’s Moving Castle – serve as a prime example of how artists opted to portray experiences of war and reflect on the personal dangers and human miseries that resulted from it. We will watch the film together and discuss its themes with the dramaturg Aljoscha Begrich, the anime critic Ryota Fujitsu from Japan and Christina Rotmann from Mangapoint Chemnitz.
The film will be shown in German. The talk will be held in English & Japanese.
During the war in Ukraine, a young woman inadvertently became an ambassador and a chronicler of the violent conflict through her often humorous TikTok channel. We follow her exploits in the film, FOLLOWING VALERIA, which shows how she fled her hometown in Ukraine for safety in Europe and has since had to grapple with fame that comes from social media while bearing the label of ‘refugee’.
A collaboration with the PERSPEKTIVEN Film Festival in Chemnitz, which raises awareness of human rights issues among young people
The event will be held in German.
Thirty-five years after the Peaceful Revolution, Pochen is partnering with the federal Stasi Records Archive in Chemnitz to shine the spotlight on young subcultures in the GDR. We check in with Jan Kummer and Beate Düber, who lead us in a quiz; original Karl-Marx-Stadt punk Kim Pickenhain, who talks about her time growing up in the GDR and how the Stasi used to treat non-conformists; and the musician SKUPPIN, who discusses the main beats of the Neue Neue Deutsche Welle.
This event will be held in German.
The number of participants is limited. Please register at: info@pochen.eu
Expanding Black looks at information spaces that have sprung up in various air corridors during the war of aggression on Ukraine. This lecture performance is based on the acoustic input of (radio) signals captured almost in real time during the war, with a host of additional archive materials for context. The core question asked by the performance: How are public spheres created and shaped?
The event will be held in English.
As part of the ‘ost in space’ project, artist Anna Schimkat – with support from Thalheim’s not-for-profit local history foundation – talks about her sound-based research work, TIMELESS MOVEMENT IN SOCKS, in which she looks at the stockings and sock production industry in the Ore Mountains and its relocation to North America.
‘ost in space’ is an artistic research programme in the Ore Mountains. In 2024, the researchers are looking at how regional traditions are preserved, transformed and exported.
The event will be held in German.
Night at the museum: This evening, we blur the boundaries of art, music and nightlife. Explore the exhibition to the dulcet tones of radio 410 and see the presented works in an all-new light. If you still want more after the exhibition, the “Back to the Roots” event at transit (just around the corner) is the place to be.
Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann discuss what it means to be “women from the East”, the happiness that comes from leading unorthodox lives, and how the past never leaves the present alone. They drink, they laugh and they struggle to find answers. Recently published as a book, the authors will present their conversation at POCHEN Biennale and participate in a discussion with journalist Julia Korbik.
Presented as part of the series of events titled ‘Thinking feminism, living feminism’ by the cultural centre Arthur e.V. and Julia Korbik. Organised in cooperation with ‘weiterdenken’, the Saxony chapter of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
The event will be held in German.
The corners, benches and parks are symbols of time as it passes. Bags under the eyes, silver sneakers, flecks of paint on baggy jeans, portable cassette stereos. A snapshot of a generation that didn’t want to get swallowed whole, that turned lost into found. A portrait of an alternative youth culture in modern eastern Germany, taking in hip hop, darkwave, skating and graffiti.
The event will be held in German.
Together with research scientists Maria Fedoruk and Iryna Kovalenko, we look at the wide-ranging consequences of the war in Ukraine on the environment and the climate. The panellists will also look at contemporary artistic interpretations of this topic with the aim of presenting a comprehensive picture of the crisis and its cultural resonance. Because there is no future without nature. Moderated by Marharyta Zhenchuk.
The event will be held in English.
Polish civil society is considered rebellious by East-Central-European standards. At the beginning of the 1980s, Solidarność smashed the one-party monopoly and helped usher in the first democratic prime minister in the so-called Eastern Bloc. The subsequent domino effect led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Law and Justice, Polish citizens used protests and self-organisation to spark a process of democratic renewal. Is Polish civil society once again a poster child of democracy in the fight against authoritarianism? Research Associate of EFBI of the University of Leipzig Piotr Kocyba, artist Renata Kaminska and curator Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka discuss the situation in Poland today.
The event will be held in German
With far-right and right-wing populist associations and parties on the rise – especially in eastern Germany – antisemitism is gradually becoming drastically normalised once more. Since 7 October 2023, the world of art and culture throughout Germany has become a space in which Israel-centred antisemitism is a topic of negotiation. During this panel discussion, Leon Kahane, Hanna Veiler and Vladimir Shikman will speak with art historian Mira Anneli Naß about how art can help draw attention to and convey current experiences in and perspectives on Jewish life, especially in Eastern Germany.
The event will be held in German.
The NSU Monologues is a documentary-style play featuring verbatim testimonies. It tells of the years of struggle faced by three families of victims of NSU attacks. Drawing on interviews, court documents, public talks and other materials, this play offers an intimate insight into how family members had to fight for the truth in an era where right-wing extremism is on the rise. It does not get more topical than this.
This event is supported by the pilot scheme for a documentation centre on the presence of the NSU in Saxony (PilotDZ).
The event will be held in German. There will be English and Turkish subtitles.
PilotDZ is a documentation centre focusing on the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Saxony that is set to open in Chemnitz in 2025. Its aim is to reappraise far-right acts of terrorism by the NSU and to empower those affected by far-right violence. Starting from the site where the PilotDZ will be built, we will walk to the Wirkbau and gain new perspectives on the history of the NSU and the influence it has had on life in Chemnitz.
Registration at info@pochen.eu
The event will be held in German.
The urban landscape of Chemnitz – formerly known as Karl-Marx-Stadt – still bears the vestiges of its socialist past, especially in the city centre. The influence this past continues to have on the present, the traces it has left behind and the manner in which the city’s former identity is remembered both in public and private spheres is the main focus of this tour led by art historian Jeannette Brabenetz.
Registration at info@pochen.eu
The event will be held in German.
Directed by Julika Mayer, the current production of atmen / ka:putt at Chemnitz Playhouse and Puppet Theatre focuses on the physical presence and fragile representation of things in order to uncover their inner strength: they are tender, resilient, delicate, frail, flimsy, precise and fine. Together, we allow things to collapse, grow or sit by the wayside, and we play with objects, bodies, spatial closeness and states.
The event will be held in German.
Spektakel Kollektiv Chemnitz organises young adult literature and spoken-word events in and around the city. For the POCHEN Biennale, the collective is inviting poets from all over Germany to attend this year’s exhibition and contribute their texts and perspectives to the show.
Entry fee:
reduced admission: 8-10€
regular admission: 10-12€
The event will be held in German.
This event will be held in German.
Artist Marisa Satsia sees the human body as an open-source lab for molecules and medicine. In her workshop titled “Meta[fluidic] Gems: Teardrop Candy”, she talks to us about bodily fluids, sorrow and rituals that can alleviate pain. Together, we will explore the material nature of tears and make our own teardrop candy.
This work was realised within the framework of a European Media Art Platform residency at Kersnikova Institute, co-funded by the European Union.
This presentation was co-funded by WRO Art Center.
The event will be held in English. Registration at info@pochen.eu
Moderators Gabi Reinhardt and René Szymanski will be speaking to the nazi parole removing activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm in an informal setting about personal stories, a very special job and what it’s like for a woman to work in this field. A little glitz and glamour, genuine encounters and entertainment guaranteed!
This time around, it’s all about a woman who can keep her cool in dicey situations…
The event will be held in German.
Together with cultural scientist and museum director of the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig Dr. Uta Bretschneider and media art expert Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka, we embark on a journey of the exhibitions at Pochen. Grab your seat, discover different perspectives on this year’s works and join the discussion – whether during the exhibition itself or later on in the afternoon.
The event will be held in German.
On the final evening of the festival, Pochen and artist Paula Erstmann from Bündnis Feuer & Flamme warmly welcome everyone to sit by the brazier. We’ll be throwing our hopes and dreams into the fire and watching them get carried into the sky by the smoke. We will roast, cook and broil by the light of the flames, warm ourselves on this cool October evening and digest the past four weeks of the POCHEN Biennale together.
The event will be held in German.