Chemnitz (dpa/sn) – With a work made of petrified wood by the land art pioneer Richard Long, the Capital of Culture 2025 is building a bridge along the Way of St. James from Chemnitz to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The circular work of art consists of numerous pieces of cedar and redwood that are millions of years old. It is to be presented to the public on Sunday with a service and a vernissage. First it will be shown for a year in front of the late Gothic winged altar in the Jakobikirche, then it will be on display in other Saxon churches on the Jakobsweg.
Santiago de Compostela is one of the predecessors of Chemnitz as European Capital of Culture and is the destination of many tens of thousands of pilgrims every year. Long left artistic traces there years ago with “Camino – Hands”. “Petrified Wood Circle”, a work from the year 2000 that comes from a Berlin private collection, is now being shown on the Way of St. James in Chemnitz.
The Brit Long, born in 1945, was represented at various international art shows and is the winner of the Turner Prize. In his first work, he stepped on a path in a meadow with his feet and declared walking to be art, explained curator Alexander Ochs on Friday about the connection to pilgrimage and hiking. Pastor Dorothee Lücke referred to the material: cedar wood is “sacred wood” and is reminiscent of the former temple in Jerusalem. At the same time there are direct references to the Petrified Forest – a sight of Chemnitz.
Long’s work is now part of the “Purple Path”, an art and sculpture parcours for the European Capital of Culture 2025. In addition, sculptures by Tony Cragg in Bad Schlema and Friedrich Kunath in Thalheim have already been unveiled in recent weeks. Numerous more will follow.
