The Ganzfeld "Beyond Horizons 2025"
James Turrell's work type "Ganzfeld" refers to immersive light installations in which homogeneous, coloured light and the absence of visual boundaries create a complete dissolution of spatial orientation. The term "Ganzfeld" comes from the psychology of perception and describes a state in which the eye no longer perceives any differences or depth information. Turrell uses this principle to make seeing itself a sensual and meditative experience and to fundamentally change the perception of light and space.
The new work consists of two interconnected areas of unprecedented size: the so-called Viewing Space, 16 metres deep, 7.5 metres high and 10 metres wide, and the Sensing Space, 4 metres deep, 9.5 metres high and 11 metres wide. The Viewing Space serves as the first perceptual space in which viewers enter and experience the light field, while the Sensing Space is a spatially open area that allows the walls, floor and ceiling to dissolve and reinforces the "Ganzfeld" effect. The lighting programme, which is divided into twelve sections and specially designed by the artist, changes in colour and intensity over the course of an hour, allowing viewers to experience the space continuously.
About the artist
James Turrell (*1943) is one of the most important Land Art artists of our time. He grew up in a Quaker family in a strictly religious environment. The inner light is at the centre of the Quaker faith. This idea still feeds James Turrell's work today. He began his work on light spaces in 1966.
Since the 1980s, Turrell has been realising "Skyspaces", walk-in sculptures that open up a view of the sky in the tension between light and space. Since the 1970s, the artist has been working on his main work, a system of rooms, tunnels and shafts underground in the "Roden Crater", an extinct volcanic crater in the Arizona desert.
Important works by Turrell have been installed and shown in museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and on the Japanese art island of Naoshima.
press photos: James Turrell, Beyond Horizons 2025
james Turrel, Beyond Horizons on purple-path.de
Information for a visit to the site
The work is located on the grounds of KohleWelt - Museum Steinkohlenbergbau Sachsen in Oelsnitz/Erzgeb.
Time slot tickets can be booked via the online ticket shop.
The number of visitors per time slot is limited to around ten people to enable an intensive experience of light and space.
On the first Wednesday of every month, visitors have the opportunity to book a free time slot in the mornings.
further visitor information & link to book tickets
The PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail
The PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail designed by curator Alexander Ochs is one of the major permanent projects of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. With the works of over 60 international and regional artists, a unique exhibition of contemporary art in public spaces has been created between Chemnitz and the 38 municipalities of the Capital of Culture region since 2022, creating a symbolic bond between these locations.
Works at the PURPLE PATH include pieces by Alice Aycock, Sean Scully, Olaf Holzapfel, Bettina Pousttchi, Jay Gard, Tony Cragg, Leiko Ikemura, Friedrich Kunath, Osmar Osten, Jeppe Hein and Nevin Aladağ. Through their form, materiality or history of creation, the works establish a link to the respective locations where they were installed and create a connection between past, present and future.
The mining industry that began in the region more than 860 years ago, the subsequent industrialisation and its decline, the change of political systems, gave the PURPLE PATH its history, its energy and its unifying narrative: "Everything comes from the mountain".
The artworks can be found at and in railway stations or churches, on former mining and industrial wastelands, on meadows, in streams and ponds, in parks and town squares.
In addition to the permanently installed works, successful temporary exhibitions took place during the Capital of Culture year. These included, for example, the mirror installation "The Universe in a Pearl" by Rebecca Horn in the Hospital Church of St. George in Lößnitz in the Ore Mountains, which has attracted a good 20,000 visitors since spring 2025. The work can still be seen until 30 November. The exhibition "Entanglements: On the role of textiles in art and society" with items from the art collection of the ifa Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations attracted over 13,000 visitors to the newly opened Kunstbahnhof in Flöha in central Saxony.
The exhibition "John Cage. Museumcircle" exhibition showed over 16,000 visitors the museum diversity and history of the Capital of Culture region at the Chemnitz Industrial Museum. 53 museums from Chemnitz and the region were involved and contributed exhibits.
In 2025, the PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail presented works by over 90 artists, both permanent and temporary, at a total of 70 locations in Chemnitz and the 38 municipalities in the Ore Mountains, Central Saxony and the Zwickau region.
