City on a River – Ebbs and Flows

The formative significance of a river for a city is significant with the Rhine for Düsseldorf. However, the small river Düssel gave the village its name, just as Chemnitz was founded on the river Chemnitz. Industrialisation caused the cities to grow, the riverbeds were straightened, narrowed, often built over and degenerated into rivulets. Flood protection and the need for water in the cities prompted a rethink.

In the exhibition and accompanying programme, artists from the two twin cities showed how they understood the flowing and streaming of things and thoughts, the bridging and connecting of opposites, the overcoming of borders, migration flows and social developments in the "river of time". Boats, bridges, images of traces, conditions and developments were motifs that played a role in the multimedia artistic realisation in the form of objects, sculptures, installations, images, videos and performances.