Exhibition Mein Schatz [My Precious]

Werkleitz has invited ten international artists for the 2023 Mein Schatz [My Precious] festival. With eight new works created for the festival and two works that have been adapted to local conditions, they are responding to the complex mixture of questions that arise when looking at the Mansfeld region today. A film room curated by Florian Wüst in the Inspector's House and a dense program of artist talks, guided thematic walks, workshops for children, concerts, readings and much more complete the festival offer.

The participating artists are, in alphabetical order: Ana Alenso, Mabe Bethônico, Karsten Bott, Viktor Brim, Felicitas Fäßler, Juliane Henrich, Stephanie Kiwitt, Barbara Marcel, Agnieszka Polska and Egill Sæbjörnsson.

Their works are complemented by the research, texts and concepts of cultural landscape researcher Lars Fischer and curator Lena Reisner.

The 2023 festival will take place at a location with a turbulent history. Originally there was a Dominican convent here, which was secularized and largely destroyed. Part of the church was transformed into a granary for a noble estate built on the former monastic property. The poet and philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg, alias Novalis, was born here 250 years ago. Today, the former castle is home to the Research Center for Early Romanticism and the Novalis Museum at Oberwiederstedt Castle. The former granary and the former inspector's house serve as exhibition and festival rooms for the Werkleitz Festival. Large-scale installations, sculptures, video projections and delicate graphic works can be seen in the atmospherically dense rooms, which range from the large storage cellar to the church attic and have been awakened from a long slumber for the festival.