The expanded cinema class by Clemens von Wedemeyer at Villa Esche
December 2021 will see the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the Henry van de Velde Museum in Villa Esche. To mark this occasion the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and the Chemnitz concern GGG (current owner of the Villa Esche) have invited a class of art students to take an artistic approach – from their personal and contemporary perspective – to the different narratives and historical layers which the Villa Esche brings together. Under the direction of video artist Clemens von Wedemeyer and performance artist Angelika Waniek, the expanded cinema class at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst Leipzig will work on interventions around the Villa and its park.
Designed in 1903 as a Gesamtkunstwerk by the architect and designer Henry van de Velde, the building contains the result of fractures in German history. Subsequently, many of the stories attached to Villa Esche have been obscured, overlooked, put together differently or on the basis of vague memories. For his very reason the building constitutes an image of the past and the present on the basis of which the young artists are encouraged to raise new questions.
