Week 1:

Day 1, Sunday, 25/09/22
Keyword: City tour, impression on Chemnitz, Theater visit

Or you can let the city die. Just die. The death is very natural part of life. We are dying and other people are coming. Chemnitz is dying and we are going to use a lot of money for keep it alive, not to let it die. To keep people in the city, start its new life, even when nobody wants to live here. Young people are leaving to the west, old people are dying, middle people are getting older. The history destroyed this city, the political history is against this part of the Europe. Chemnitz is lost in the globalisation and in the coming clima crisis and energy
crisis the situation is getting worse. What is actually the reason to fight for future of forgotten places and cities?
What do we need them for? For remembering history? For understand ourselves? Today, I’m not sure.

We received impression on the city through Anna’s Tour: emptiness, industrialization, decay and hope, the difference between social classes, imprints from socialist ages — keywords which we are going to reflect on later.

State of the group:
On the track of getting to know each other; talked about possible things we could do and fantasized about using empty space to host a salon.

 

Day 2, Monday, 26/09/22
Keyword: Theater guide, a conversation, walk into the city, dance workshop

Encounters with the AJZ Chemnitz Jugendarbeit and antique bookstore. Books about city. A lot of in book Antique.
The history is very well known. And the
history, the past, ist the first of sin for
present, for now.

Dance Workshop suggested by Alexey: inhabiting physically the frame of a big hanger for coats.
– Is the action of filling the small frame with their bodies and action harmonious, pleasant?
– Is this action giving sense of difficulty and discomfort?
– Is it easy to find its own space inside of a context/frame?

State of the group:
We encountered people from Ukraine, and we were still on the track of knowing each other
better. It was the day of practice.

 

Day 3, Tuesday, 27/09/22

Keyword: Self introduction (Jingyun and Giulia), museum visit, talk Practice from my side: working physically the notion of transforming and recycling each other ideas. I unfortunately didn’t take a video of it but I am planning to take one.
The practice has lasted 10 minutes.

Practice from Jingyun: an interesting practice on the way we write languages. It has been interesting to witness how languages influence our way moving. Changing directions or ways of designing/writing/drawing can somehow create discomfort but the outcome let us see how many million possibilities we have to
experience the world.

 

Day 4, Wednesday, 28/09/22
Keyword: Lex went to individual practice, Jiří, Jingyun & Giulia went to the market and more parts of the city, Reunion/Eating/Sharing

Sitting in the theatre audience brings some interesting and strange feeling of privacy and
intimity. Even if there is sitting 500 people with us and very close to us, the fact that the theatre room for audience is dark at the moment of performance brings us some feeling of privacy. In the public space, on streets or non-theatre spaces we feel different, also because light (sun light or street´s lights  in the night). That´s why it is very interesting when we can find some private moment (from side of feelings) in the public space (shopping mall) looking like a theatre (view from shopping mall to the main square Chemnitz on this picture). The sofa is making feelings of privacy also in the huge shopping mall, and you can watch human beings (actors, non-actors) on the square through the window. Who can decide that the happenings outside the window is art or reality now? Is the position of audience (me on the picture) changing the

Day 5, Thursday, 29/09/22
Keyword: breakfast at Bürgerzentrum, press conference & photoshoot, long discussion of makingoff and the residency.

The research of the city is more relevant with integrating people living there their normal life. We had breakfast with them and  talked closely with Octavio about his experience and duties in the Centre. We could pose many questions about Chemnitz and the relation of the people from the centre to the cultural context of Chemnitz.

State of the group:
During the breakfast, we talked about the possibility of doing the makingoff at Bürgerzentrum and involve the local residence in the makingoff.
We also spent long time discussing audience expectation and how we deal with it during the makingoff. We realised that we four had different motivation to create: some have the
motivation to create for others, some to create for the city and some to create for themselves.

Day 6, Friday, 30/09/22
Keyword: prison, Ausflug, cooking

Heda took us to the memorial which was used
as prison during Nazi Germany and DDR time,
the history feels really relevant for those who
come from places with similar political situation.

In the afternoon, we drove to a random place on the map and had a picnic.

State of the group:
Today is a day of Improvisation because
we had a timetable and nothing went as
planned. There is a connection with the
historical side of the city.
Discovering the suburb: We went
spontaneously to the historical place, then
made a trip to an unknown camping site,
countryside and a Schloss.
In the evening we cooked together and we
edited the logbook.