INDUSTRIE.STADT.BILD
06.12.2024 – 01.02.2025 | ZfBK at the Kulturpalast Dresden
An exhibition in co-operation with the Chamber of Architects of Saxony
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 13:00 – 18:00
Free admission
Saxony’s industrial heritage in new perspectives
In December 2024, the ZfBK Saxony will take a look at the built industrial heritage in Saxony from the unusual monumental perspectives of our photographer Jörg Dietrich. This ties in with the Year of Industrial Heritage 2020 and brings an exhibition project from western Saxony to Dresden for the first time, on loan from the Werdau Town and Steam Engine Museum. ‘Industrie.Stadt.Bild’ toured Reichenbach, Glauchau, Crimmitschau, Plauen, Zwickau and Werdau in 2020-22, mainly as a showcase exhibition. In addition, the ZfBK is showing further industrial portraits by Dietrich from exhibition projects such as the ‘Industrie.Kultur.Bauten’ exhibition project in Leipzig, from the ‘Augen auf ibug’ project, as well as new industrial panoramas that are being shown here for the first time.
Saxony is one of the nuclei of industrialisation in Germany and was one of the most densely populated, industrialised and prosperous regions in Europe at the turn of the century before last. It was a time when Chemnitz was referred to as the German Manchester. The many challenges and setbacks that Saxony has faced since then have had contradictory consequences for its historical architecture. On the one hand, the historic buildings rarely had to make way for more modern buildings or were built over by factory expansions. On the other hand, since reunification, many buildings have stood empty and fallen into disrepair or been demolished. As a result, we see a diversity of historical industrial architecture in the Saxon cityscape that is unrivalled anywhere else in Germany, while at the same time this architectural heritage is more threatened than ever in many places after more than 30 years of reunification.
Multi-perspective panoramas (Streetlines)
The building and cityscape perspectives in the exhibition provide an unusual view of industrial architecture thanks to special technical processing. Instead of depicting the typical view from one point of view, the panoramas were shot from several positions along the respective street front. Processed into a seamless panoramic view – the so-called streetline – the entire façade view of the sometimes oversized industrial buildings can be experienced, which otherwise cannot be viewed as a whole due to narrow streets, obstructions or sheer size.
“Industrie.Stadt.Bild” is already the second exhibition project by Leipzig photographer Jörg Dietrich to be presented at the ZfBK. In December 2020, however, the cooperation with the Goethe Institute – ‘Germany Street Fronts’ – could only be partially admired in the shop windows. On 8 January 2020, Dietrich will be present for a lecture presentation and provide insights into his work.
