Places of art and culture
Saarbrücken Palace, ballroom, ceiling painting, design by Gottfried Böhm, detail, 1989
freely adapted from Wolfgang Rihm, FAZ, 1998
Kleinblittersdorf, KulturOrt Wintringer Chapel, Ilka von Häfen, Thomas Rößler, Performance "Maßwerk", 2006
Culture closes loops
We have recognized that through the influence of serious contemporary art and culture, significant places in the cities and communities of the Saarbrücken Regional Association can be carefully enhanced in value. Through a wide variety of artistic interventions, a new discovery of the supposedly old, but also previously unknown, can obviously be triggered. With imagination and creativity, a cycle closes: cultural place - place of thought - place of learning. In this way, identification anchors are gradually created that influence the social and ecological change of the entire Saarbrücken region.
Peter Gillo, Director of the Regional Association of Saarbrücken
Sulzbach, AULA, front area, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir, "Feuersprung", 2009
Places of art and culture
The development of cultural identity, the discovery of cultural heritage, especially building culture, and cultural events are facets of the further development of the cities and communities in the Saarbrücken region. They are impulse generators and essential building blocks of a specific image of the regional cultural landscape.
In order to achieve this goal, cultural work is required that relates the various places of art and culture to one another, networks them, and develops and shapes them out of the respective "spirit of place". Cultural and art projects that arise in smaller regional contexts also play an effective role here. They make an important contribution to a place-based cultural profile that also makes social processes visible and at the same time establishes references to the reality of people's lives.
Art in the State Parliament, Foyer, Till Neu, "Old world view", detail, 2013
Guiding principle
It is the feeling for the flow of time and a mindfulness before the creative power of people that ignite at places that were significant in cultural history and charge them in a special way. A comparable magic is conveyed by places whose structure has developed in a creative confrontation with the building culture of the present day. We pursue the idea of networking such places and spaces - which are to be discovered in the state capital of Saarbrücken and in the surrounding towns and communities, regardless of their external differences in significance. Together with those responsible on site, we can succeed in deepening their individual expressiveness and highlighting them in an authentic way.
At a time of great social challenges, art and culture also strengthen social cohesion locally and in the region.
Saarbrücken Palace, central risalit, Franziskus Binck, sculpture "Spes" (Hope) from the 18th century (originally on the balustrade of the Ludwig Church)
Hope for [New]Orientation
An essential necessity of this idea is that artists flank this process in order to make current social issues and potentials for action more visible. Their reflections open up the opportunity to discover what connects us, to better understand "today" and to gain orientation for "tomorrow.
KulturOrt Wintringer Chapel, Liquid Penguin Ensemble, sound installation "SCHRITTE STILLE", Katharina Bihler / Stefan Scheib, 2017
Impulses from the peculiarities of the places
On the basis of a site-specific cultural guiding idea, artists and cultural practitioners from various disciplines in the Saarbrücken region engage in developing their works in a sensitive dialogue with the respective site (or the living space in which it is embedded), but also with current socially relevant topics. In addition to established art and cultural institutions, some of which are of national importance, this also includes lesser-known places.
Saarbrücken Castle, Interdisciplinary Project of the HBKSaar and the HfM Saar, "Rotations 2015", detail "Castle Fire".
Discover in dialogue
The state capital of Saarbrücken offers a multifaceted range of cultural events, some of which are located in unusual places. They are complemented by interesting projects of art and culture to be discovered in the periphery, which can enter into a fruitful dialogue with each other.
World Cultural Heritage Site Völklingen Ironworks, 5th UrbanArt Biennale® Unlimited artists' collective Mentalgassi, "Olga", 2019
Mirror image
Discovering the essences of the Saarbrücken region requires curiosity, time and leisure. So do its special places of art and culture. Artistic and creative work in the mirror of a specific living space provides information about how we define our culture of the present, use artistic forms of expression for self-perception and define the coexistence of the most diverse human groups.
In the network of places of art and culture in the Regional Association of Saarbrücken, an independent "image" of a living space grows organically through the inspiration of cultural workers, artists and local actors. Subtle and with staying power!
Saarbrücken Castle, Schlossplatz, installation by the artist group "Wegener & Zintel" on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the deportations of Jewish people from southwest Germany to the Gurs camp, 2020
Saarlandmuseum - Modern Gallery, facade, reaction to the war in Ukraine, 2022
Riegelsberg, City Hall and Gallery, Saarbrücken, Saarländisches Künstlerhaus Kulturverein Burbach, Monika Hau, "Asking for the Way", installation and project cycle, 2015/2017, detail 8
Joseph Beuys, German artist,
art theorist and professor (1921-1986)
Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Martin Riches, "Clockwork", 2016
Pia Maria Martin, À table, 2 channel projection, 2013, installation view in Saarbrücken Castle on the occasion of the exhibition "Zu Tisch! The Art of Good Taste in the Old Collection of the Saarlandmuseum, 2022
Heinrich Ostlender in "Looking at art full of life", 1962
BLIESGAUHOCKER Ambassadors of a Region - MOBILE Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau, Rudolph Schwarz and Peter Michael Lupp, Saarbrücken, Saarländisches Künstlerhaus, "Have a Seat", 2016.
Close-up is a video series to give artists from the Saarbrücken region more visibility and to promote their work. The idea for this digital platform was developed in collaboration between the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken and the Regionalverband Saarbrücken. In the third season, the project was able to gain Arbeit & Kultur gGmbH as a further partner.
The aim of this series is to provide the Saarland art scene with greater publicity in the long term and to reflect the living space also through the language of art. Artists who have dedicated themselves to experimental working methods, contemporary media and themes are thus offered a forum in which they can present their work and thoughts. Both the Stadtgalerie and Saarbrücken Castle are among the places of art and culture in the Saarbrücken Regional Association and would like to contribute to the informal network in this context as well.
The Wintringer Chapel in Kleinblittersdorf is part of the Cultural sites network. The chapel regularly hosts exhibitions, readings and music events that are thematically linked to the location.
Further information and brief portraits of all participating locations can be found on the Saarbrücken Regional Association website: www.regionalverband-saarbruecken.de/kulturorte/
The accompanying publication is available for download: Places of art and culture in the Saarbrücken Regional Association