OSTEN is a festival for art and mutual interest. It explores and celebrates the former East of Germany and the East beyond that as a landscape of change for people, nature and coexistence. From 1st to 16th June 2024, the festival invites you for the second time to (re)discover the city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen and "the East" with a diverse cultural program.
Bitterfeld-Wolfen is an exciting example of the fate and opportunities of a region with a history of transformation. Developments and experiences that other regions in the former East of Germany have also had are concentrated here, and the scars of the upheavals and collapses are particularly evident. From the heath landscape to the bubbling industrial cauldron, surrounded by mines and landfills, via the political change in 1989/90 to the return of nature, life with toxic half-lives and the future of energy. Where, if not here, can stories of change be told?
With the help of art, the OSTEN festival aims to stimulate an exchange about the history, present and future of "the East", also beyond East Germany, and to create encounters. What does East mean? What is specific, what is international? What can be learned from the past? What ideas and visions are there for the future? Artists and cultural institutions will explore these and other questions at the festival, together with the people of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, in theater, performances, workshops, excursions and much more. In a region where a lot of cultural offerings have disappeared since reunification, the festival invites people to join in and do it themselves in the spirit of the Bitterfeld Way. It is aimed at people from Bitterfeld-Wolfen by developing unusual approaches to the town, and at people from outside who are inspired by the special features of this landscape and its history. Visitors can get creative themselves and help shape the festival in open workshops and artistic activities.
Original Wolfen: world history in a burning glass
After the first edition at the Kulturpalast in Bitterfeld, the festival is moving to Wolfen from June 1st to 16th, 2024. This year's edition, under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Armin Schenk, is dedicated to film and fiber production in the Wolfen district. The history of fossil industrialization is concentrated here as if under a burning glass: driven by the energy of brown coal and the film euphoria of the 20th century, the Anhalt village of Wolfen first became a modern industrial town within a generation, then a prestigious National Socialist location and later a model socialist town. One of the first practicable color films is developed in Wolfen and the cult brand ORWO (ORiginal WOlfen) is born. After reunification, the sell-off and dismantling of the film factory, unemployment and emigration characterize the town. Wolfen becomes part of a landscape that we can either see as a problematic legacy or as part of the solution for a society of tomorrow.
World Wide Wolfen
On the first weekend of the festival from June 1st to 2nd, the historical connections between the film city of Wolfen and Shostka in the Ukraine and Rochester in the USA will play a special role. All three cities look back on a shared history of industrial colour film production and share the experiences of environmental pollution, de-industrialization, unemployment and the search for new perspectives.
Problems of eternity
The second weekend from June 7th to 9th will focus on the natural foundations of life: 40 years ago, one of the GDR's first environmental demonstrations took place between Bitterfeld and Wolfen. The region was considered one of the dirtiest in Europe and the toxic legacies will have to be intensively managed for a long time to come as so-called eternal problems. Nevertheless, the region now has recreational value in many places!
What comes after industry?
A third focus looks to the future: in a variety of formats, international artists from the Bauhaus Study Rooms, for example, will explore the industrial upheavals in Bitterfeld-Wolfen on the last weekend of the festival from June 14th to 16th and ask: What comes after industry?
Discovering art in places of industrial culture
At the heart of the festival is an exhibition of many artists and young artists, which invites visitors to marvel and explore independently as a course between the former fire station, the wasteland of the former film and fiber factory, the industrial and film museum and the former cinema. More than 50 works of art can be seen here!
Old fire station becomes festival center
The former Wolfen fire station has been transformed into a lively festival center - an original Wolfen exhibition pavilion on the site of the former film factory. All burning questions can be discussed here. With its water slide and pool, it is also an oasis where you can refresh yourself and continue your work afterwards with a cool head.
Come by and stay
The OSTEN festival is designed as a mosaic: It's worth staying a whole day, or even better two or three. A variety of artworks, audio walks and installations in the urban space can also be explored independently of the festival center's opening hours.
All are welcome!
Aljoscha Begrich and Susanne Beyer are directing the second edition of the festival. Aljoscha Begrich, Anne Diestelkamp, Martin Naundorf and Christian Tschirner are working on the program.
Festival OSTEN, VON WOLFEN LERNEN and ORIGINAL WOLFEN are projects of Kulturpark e.V., which has received significant support from Chemiepark Bitterfeld-Wolfen GmbH from the outset.
