Stefan Schmidtke and Andrea Pier about frustration and joy, disappointed Chemnitz, questionable Purple Path dimensions – and sweet porridge
The first works of art on the Purple Path art trail have been set up, and this year celebrations were also held under the brand “European Capital of Culture”, the title that Chemnitz will bear in 2025. Nevertheless, there are those who are disappointed, who do not feel involved in the preparations for the Capital of Culture year, others ask whether there is enough money – especially in times of war and inflation. Stefan Schmidtke has been managing director of the Capital of Culture GmbH for almost a year, and Andrea Pier joined as commercial director in September. Katharina Leuoth and Jens Kassner spoke to them.
Freie Presse: Mr. Schmidtke, are you still in good spirits?
Stefan Schmidtke: I’m always in a good mood! I really enjoy this work. It’s about very complex tasks, but I’m a tinkerer and don’t give up.
Free Press:
But people around you say that you are frustrated.
Schmidtke: Some people show up at our door at 8 a.m. with ideas for the Capital of Culture. Many others write letters, some unpleasant ones. So there’s a constant flow coming our way – not everything can be solved immediately, that’s frustrating.
Freie Presse: Over the course of the year you were often heard to say: Give me until the fall, I first need a team before ideas can be further developed. In 2023 you want to have 30 employees. How much is it now?
Andrea Pier: We have 18 permanent employees and many freelancers. We are particularly well positioned in administration. In the area of marketing and communication we currently only have one employee. However, the team should be in place by spring 2023.
Free Press:
Some mayors, whose municipalities are part of the Capital of Culture region, and some cultural workers are dissatisfied. You say Mr. Schmidtke hasn’t visited us yet, we’d like to take part in the Capital of Culture, but aren’t involved.
Schmidtke: The Capital of Culture year has a program that is set out in the bid book (the application book with which Chemnitz received the Anm. d. Red.) is fixed and confirmed by the EU. The job of our GmbH is to implement this program. This does not mean that all ideas from the bid book have to be implemented and that no new ones are added, on the contrary. But it also doesn’t mean that we go everywhere with a wheelbarrow full of money. There is a clearly regulated procedure for how we start implementing the individual projects, when and with whom, including with the 38 municipalities that make up the Capital of Culture region. There was an orientation meeting with the mayors of the Capital of Culture region in Thalheim in September. Next week we will also be presenting a public tender procedure in which interested parties can submit applications for funding for their own ideas next year. In addition, as of November 1, there will be two regional managers in Oelsnitz in the Ore Mountains who will take the program to the municipalities. This regional management also supports the Friends of the European Cultural Region Chemnitz 2025 association. It’s like sweet porridge in a fairy tale, someone forgot to say “stop”. It hurts me that this misunderstanding – that we could take up new ideas every day – is in the world.
Freie Presse: What is the status of the assessment of the projects listed in the bid book by the GmbH?
Schmidtke: Since March we have met around 50 project partners personally and are in the process of capturing the brief ideas in the book in the form of elaborate content concepts. There are now a lot of appointments with those responsible for the concrete planning.
Free Press:
There are also urban planning projects, for example parking areas are to be created, fallow land rehabilitated and the banks of the Chemnitz redesigned. Residents ask themselves: Shouldn’t we already see that something is going on there?
Schmidtke: You have to ask the city administration. It is always confused: Our GmbH is responsible for the program, the city for the intervention areas, i.e. urban development. But I know that there will be no delay, these projects will be tackled more intensively from the spring.
Free Press:
What was noticed and well attended were the numerous events in spring and summer that took place under the “Capital of Culture” brand. However, it is hardly understood why the hat festival and the art festival “Begehungen” are referred to as “Capital of Culture” – the festivals already existed before.
Schmidtke: It’s really not that easy, but everyone is welcome to take another look at the bid book, a lot is explained there.
Free Press:
But you can’t expect everyone to read this hundred-page work first.
Schmidtke: The events that existed before will be further developed. The “inspections”, for example, now take place in the region for three years before they come back to Chemnitz. They are intended to draw attention to art in the region. This year was the premiere in Thalheim – with a record number of visitors.
Freie Presse: But what has changed at the hat festival?
Schmidtke: In fact, we won’t get into that until 2023. But we also want the Kosmos Festival to be recognized internationally, for example, or the Friedensfahrt, the European Peace Ride, where cycling enthusiasts, for example, drove from Chemnitz to Prague and back. All this should make Chemnitz better known.
Free Press:
The first plantings for the apple tree parade caused excitement. This project aims to bring people together by planting and caring for thousands of apple trees together. Fruit tree experts threw up their hands over their heads: Apple trees initially need a lot of water and care, and there are not as many varieties as the project envisages.
Schmidtke: (takes a deep breath) The first plantings took place when I wasn’t even managing director. It then took me a year to give this project a structure. Now we have five people, in addition to the artistic director, dedicated to this project. And we are in the process of working out a sponsorship program with the experts, the pomologists, and then launching it.
Free Press:
On the Purple Path, the art path through the Capital of Culture region, works of art are also displayed that were not created by the artists for the path but already existed, such as the first two sculptures by Friedrich Kunath in Thalheim and Tony Cragg in Aue -Bad Schlema. Does that diminish uniqueness?
Schmidtke: no That was also intended: There is a mixture. About half of the artworks already exist but are chosen to fit the region, with the other half being created locally. There are works by big international stars, but also by local artists, of which there are also stars, by the way. And about half of the artists are women and half are men.
Free Press: The curator of the Purple Path, Alexander Ochs, says that they will not communicate how much the individual works cost. Why not?
Schmidtke: It might be a good way to communicate that at the end when the path is finished. Until then, this is an ongoing business practice that should not be made public.
Free Press:
Some of the artists are selling their work in the six-figure range, so with the planned 70 works, you’re worried that the budget won’t be enough. Are you doing the math?
Schmidtke: Of course, and the works of art are not paid for exclusively from the Capital of Culture budget. This is negotiated individually for each individual work of art. Will the work be purchased, paid for in installments, or borrowed? How much is there from the Capital of Culture budget, how much can the city in question give and, very importantly, is there financial support from companies that feel so connected to their region that they can do it themselves? We are beginning to work on a sponsorship process. That is the real core of the Capital of Culture idea: that a civil society takes matters into its own hands. We really just want to push it.
Freie Presse: But the times are unfavorable for sponsoring when everyone is short of money.
Schmidtke: That may be true in general. But the room installation at the Flöha train station by Tanja Rochelmeyer with colored wall panels, for example, came from private or entrepreneurial hands. We gave a small grant.
Free Press:
But that also means that if not enough money is raised, could there be only 30 works on the Purple Path instead of the 70 previously communicated?
Schmidtke: The 70 works and interactions are in the draft by the curator Alexander Ochs, who is doing an excellent job. Now we are busy implementing this plan step by step.
Free Press:
To what extent do war and inflation affect your work?
Pier: These problems drive us as much as private households. We too are struggling with price increases and higher energy costs.
Schmidtke: We were currently unable to launch a scholarship program for Ukrainian and Russian refugees planned with the art collections. We had to set aside the money because we needed it for running costs.
Pier: For example, we also saw the effects of the war on the European Peace Ride: Ukrainians wanted to ride there, but then couldn’t take part because they were defending their country.
Free Press:
How do you perceive the Monday walkers and demonstrators, some of whom are anti-democracy?
Schmidtke: Through the workshop for culture and democracy from the bid book, we will keep a wide range of offers open for clubs in sports and culture and other initiatives that can obtain funding and advice for projects that strengthen urban society. We want to enable courage.
Pier: We also see again and again how dialogue can help. There are also many great experiences, for example, when building the works of art on the Purple Path with local craftsmen and construction companies. Not everyone is open to modern art and the idea of being a Capital of Culture. But as curator Alexander Ochs reports, building the works of art together has already led to many good conversations.
Further information on the projects of the Capital of Culture year can be found at:
» www.freiepresse.de/chemnitz2025
» www.freiepresse.de/c2025
Stefan Schmidtke
Initially working as a director and dramaturge, Stefan Schmidtke increasingly worked as a cultural manager, creating and managing the program for Tallinn, the capital of culture in Estonia, from 2008 to 2010. He was born in Döbeln in 1968. Since December 1, 2021 he has been managing director for the program of the “European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH”. |kl
Andrea Pier
Andrea Pier worked for Stage-Entertainment, a company that produces musicals, for example, for over 20 years, most recently as head of human resources for over 1300 employees. Born in Bielefeld in 1969, she comes from a theater family. Since autumn she has been the commercial director of the “European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH”. |kl