Together with the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH and the Regional Management European Cultural Region Chemnitz, the PURPLE PATH team and local partners, the churches in the region are organising the exhibition series "Altar Wrappings - Interventions on the Passion".
The participating artists take up the tradition of covering the altars during the Easter festivities between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Instead of black or traditional Lenten cloths, they develop their own formats and use different media such as painting, drawing, photography or installation.
The works of art created as altarpiece coverings become part of the liturgy of the churches on the one hand, while on the other hand they are freely accessible to the public, creating public spaces of art.
The Berlin artist Sabine Herrmann and the Chemnitz artist Michael Morgner will kick things off on 22 February 2023. Sabine Herrmann created the large-format work "Witnesses without text" for the apse of the Catholic Provost Church of St John Nepomuk on Chemnitz's Kaßberg. Michael Morgner's expansive work "Ecce Homo - Siehe, der Mensch!", created for this purpose, covers the 1560 altar retable in St Mary's Cathedral in Freiberg. The Passion series is curated by DAS KOLLEKTIV Herrmann Killisch Rheinfurth.
The artistic presentations are accompanied by an extensive programme.
A collaboration between Kulturhauptstadt Europas Chemnitz 2025 GmbH, Regionalmanagement Europäische Kulturregion Chemnitz, Kulturkirche 2025 - ecumenical association of churches in the Capital of Culture region, St. Marien Freiberg Cathedral Parish.
