Debussy said music is all about “the silence between the notes”.
In between IBUG 2017 and an uncertain conversion -perhaps into arts and crafts workshops, artists’ studios or a farmers’ market– the VEB Spezialmaschinenfabrik is packed with silence.
A silence that is thicker than dust and louder than time.
A silence that is unusual, at least for how I knew the factory.
Last summer I witnessed the whole transformation of the VEB Spezialmaschinenfabrik; I saw it going through many different statuses, but quiet.
Today I’ve come back to experience yet one more phase of its transformation by walking through its quietness.
My steps were the only noise in the still of the day.
Everything was illuminated by the aura of nostalgia.
The art, which last summer was the pulse of this crumbling factory, is now barely a wallpaper that peels off into oblivion.
Murals are faded, bleached out and crumbling, but they are all still there –and they are mostly intact.
I was expecting that plants and brambles had taken over the factory, with debris and cracks all over the place –but actually the only tangible thing inside the VEB Spezialmaschinenfabrik is silence.
A silence that isn’t empty, but the essence of music.
I’m back in Chemnitz to document the making-of IBUG 2018
Check out my latest articles and posts on social media to glimpse behind the scenes of this year edition of the festival!
