Open Calls

Participation and citizen involvement are at the heart of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. In addition to numerous recurring and continuous participation opportunities, there are always opportunities to get involved in individual projects, campaigns and tenders.

The Betonblühen Festival and Chemnitz 2025 invite young people between the ages of 14 and 18 to take part in the literary writing competition ‘Voices from Concrete’! From 8 to 12 October 2025, Chemnitz will belong to young ideas. At the Betonblühen Festival, young people from Chemnitz will show how loud, creative and diverse their city can be. You can look forward to five days full of concerts, art, discussions and hands-on activities – completely free of charge and at the city's most amazing locations.

 

Theme:

‘If Chemnitz were a person...’ 
Imagine Chemnitz were a person – what would they be like? Put your thoughts into words in a literary text: a short story, slam text, essay or poem.

 

Conditions of participation:

 

What can be won?

The three best texts will be presented publicly and awarded prizes during the festival. The winners will be announced on Thursday, 9 October, during the Literature and Sports Day of the Betonblühen Festival at a public award ceremony. All texts will then be exhibited at TIETZ.

 

Contact & information:

festivalcrew@chemnitz2025.de 

 

Important conditions for participation:

  • Only students from Chemnitz and the Capital of Culture region aged 14–18 are eligible to participate.
  • Texts must be written independently.
  • Minors require the written consent of their legal guardians (consent form).
  • By submitting your entry, you grant Kulturhauptstadt Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH a simple, non-exclusive right of use for five years.

Disclaimer: After the deadline, the texts will be reviewed by an independent jury within Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH. The jury will select three winning texts based on originality, linguistic expression and depth of content.

In addition to the exhibition, the ‘Open Trial’ documentation centre is curating an archive that will provide a space for coming to terms with the NSU complex and its causes. The documentation centre is launching a collection campaign focusing on the NSU complex, right-wing terror, racism and migration.

In order to bring the archive to life, materials from the NSU era are being sought: personal, political or everyday items.

These could be, for example:

- Press cuttings, radio or television programmes

- Everyday objects, photos, letters or diaries

- Flyers, posters, invitations to events (especially from a migrant perspective)

- Recordings or memories from workshops, storytelling cafés or programmes

- Recordings of conversations, stories, self-made videos, audio files

- Term papers or theses on suitable topics

We do not work according to the classic archive model, in which objects are handed over permanently. A photo, a scan or a brief description is often sufficient. If digitisation is not possible, a simple reference to the source is also sufficient. The ‘Offener Prozess’ team is also happy to assist with the recording of materials.

Anyone who has a connection to these topics and can contribute something is welcome to bring material. Pupils or students who are interested in these topics, members of the migrant community or victims of the NSU crimes can also contribute to the archive.

The only important thing is that the material should trigger something - memories for everyone who sees, hears or reads it in the archive.

To submit your collection items from 4 June (until 27 November), please send an email to archiv@offener-prozess.de.

Further information at ↗https://offener-prozess.de/archiv/    

The archive is not directly part of the exhibition, but will be open and accessible at the following times: 
Wed - Thu 14:00 to 16:00 and by appointment at archiv@offener-prozess.de
Address: Documentation complex, Johannisplatz 8, 09111 Chemnitz

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