PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail
presents contemporary sculptures permanently and tells stories from Chemnitz and 38 municipalities in the region
The PURPLE PATH connects the citizens of Chemnitz with each other and with the people of 38 towns and municipalities in the region. A sustainably designed sculpture museum is being created in public spaces between Mittweida and Schwarzenberg, Glauchau and Seiffen, Freiberg and Schneeberg. Stars of the contemporary art scene such as Leiko Ikemura, Monika Sosnowska, Jeppe Hein or Michael Sailstorfer meet significant artists from Saxony such as Jana Gunstheimer, Via Lewandowsky and documenta artist Olaf Holzapfel. Chemnitz-based artists such as Johann Belz, Gregor-Torsten Kozik or Michael Morgner remain largely unknown in the West. Their works encounter international classics such as those by Rebecca Horn, who died in 2024, Daniel Buren and James Turrell.
Decentralised exhibition in Chemnitz and the region
Alexander Ochs
Curator
Julianne-Ingrid Csapo
Project management
Susan Börner
Project management
Kathrin Barwinek
Curatorial Assistance
E-mail: purplepath@chemnitz2025.de
Art and history
The PURPLE PATH becomes a storyteller: behind the foil of the installed artworks, an unknown history of the region is formulated, a narrative of mining and industry, exploitation and profit, marginalisation and solidarity, as well as a history of precarity and innovation that continues to this day.
Works by more than 60 artists can be found on industrial wastelands, at railway stations, on riverbanks or in the still waters of a millrace. They correspond with farm and textile museums, connect with castles and old churches, their organs and their art. Sometimes they also take place in illustrious nooks and crannies of UNESCO-protected old towns, which become context providers and polyphonic narrators of the history mentioned.
From work to work
Purple scouts travel along designated country roads or use a network of well-functioning buses and trains; they cycle through landscapes shaped by mining, often with wonderfully soft contours, or hike from artwork to artwork through dense forests along wildly flowing rivers. The colour purple is attributed with inspiration, creativity, magic and transformation. A new path is inscribed in the region - until 2025 and far beyond.
The works of art
Daniel Buren: 7 Farben für einen Schornstein / Sept Couleurs pour une cheminée
Maruša Sagadin: Fast legs (Marjetka), Bad mood without kiosk and kitchen (Juliana Three-Legged)
