Artistic celebration of "9 October 1989" along historic demonstration Route

On 9 October 2009 all activities in Leipzig will be focused on the city's commemoration of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. After prayers for peace at St Nicholas’s Church the high point and official close of the event will be a Light Festival from approx. 18:00 to 24:00 hrs. Along the historic demonstration route around the inner ring road the City and Location Marketing Department of Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH (LTM), the City of Leipzig and the Autumn ’89 Initiative will be organising a commemorative walk covering twenty-one stations. For the event the inner ring road will be closed to traffic and the streetlights will be dimmed.

The Light Festival is based on the theme of the 20th Anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution and European Unity. It involves architects, lighting planners, designers and artists from a number of European countries. The ‘9th of October’ will be the central theme of the artistic activities, with around 20 creative interpretations of the Peaceful Revolution using the media of light, audio and video. Musically, Light Festival will be accompanied by a choir, orchestra and soloists under the direction of Jürgen Wolf, Cantor of St Nicholas’s. The 2009 Light Festival is a commemorative event, but it also goes well beyond this in acting as a symbol for unity, peace and the breaking down of borders. The route of the demonstration is divided into stages: from Augustusplatz Square it continues along the inner ring road to the former headquarters of the State Security Police, today a museum at the "Runde Ecke". The stations along the route are dedicated to the themes of uncertainty, breakthrough, passage to freedom and revolution.

In addition to the Peaceful Revolution and its significance for Leipzig, the thematic content of the Light Festival also covers the European dimension of the autumn of `89, and Leipzig's twin cities have therefore been invited to participate with their own projects. The cities of Frankfurt am Main, Hanover, Lyon, Krakow, Brno and Travnik are contributing to the commemoration with their own events. The general artistic direction will be in the hands of Jürgen Meier who has, together with the participating artists, dedicated himself to the themes of freedom, democracy, non-violence and civic commitment.

Well-known international media artists to create a new format in Leipzig

The projects, activities and installations which make up the Light Festival will provide a multi-facetted commemoration of the Peaceful Revolution in the autumn of `89. For the anniversary year of 2009, invitations were sent out to prestigious international artists who were working in Leipzig before 1989 or became involved with Leipzig in the Nineties. What all the projects have in common is their relationship with the events which took place 20 years ago. At both the informational and the artistic level the artists who are taking part aim to go well beyond the event in itself in reinforcing awareness of the Peaceful Revolution and the impact which civic action can have.

The main protagonists of the Light Festival will therefore be the citizens themselves, who will play an active role in the city when they march from Augustusplatz Square to the "Runde Ecke". "The aim of the Light Festival is to actively involve sections of the city and to create a relationship with the historical events of '89. The Leipzig Light Festival is to create a new format, whose content and aesthetic impact will change the way the inner-city is lit once and for all," confirms Artistic Director Jürgen Meier. The impact of the artistic intervention in the structure of the city will last well beyond 9 October 2009 and leave its traces in the Leipzig city centre. For example in an accompanying workshop students from Leipzig's College of Technology, Business and Culture (HTWK) are working on projects for illuminated objects which will become part of the Light Festival and then remain in the location where they are displayed, while for the lighting installation at the Wintergarten high-rise building the lighting planner Uwe Knappschneider has developed a sustainable design.

10:00 hrs
Inauguration of the 'Freedom Bell' (Grimmaische Str.)

11:00 to 13:00 hrs
Festive ceremony in the Gewandhaus

17:00 hrs
Prayers for peace in the St Nicholas’s Church

18:00 to 23.30 hrs
Light Festival

20.30 hrs
Festival concert in the St. Nicholas’s

18:00 to 19:00 hrs
Candlelight display -the people of Leipzig create the words "Leipzig '89" on the Augustusplatz Square using thousands of candles

19 hrs
Leipzig's Mayor Burkhard Jung and the city's official guests welcome all participants on Augustusplatz Square

Approx. 19.15 hrs
Start of the procession around the city-centre ring to the museum at the "Runde Ecke"

Approx. 21 hrs
Concert by the choir and orchestra under the direction of St Nicholas’s Cantor, Jürgen Wolf on the stage by the museum at the "Runde Ecke" (duration: approx. 1 hour)

23.30 hrs
The demonstration route is open for individual activities

After prayers for peace in four Leipzig churches on 9 October 1989, some 70,000 people gathered in the city centre carrying candles in order to demonstrate for their human rights and more freedom in the GDR, in spite of the threat that police would be ordered to open fire on them. Thousands of police and soldiers were in position, ready to break up the demonstration by force, but everything proceeded peacefully. As a result these events, which came to be described as the Peaceful Revolution, became a major milestone on the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to German reunification and to a unified Europe.

"This year we have put together an ambitious programme centred around "9 October". The highlight and closing event of the programme will be the Light Festival, which aims at creating an emotional experience that will, above all, appeal to young people. After all, we now have a whole generation who did not experience the autumn of `89 and have no active memories of it. In addition, with the Light Festival we hope to create a fitting commemoration which will attract attention both at home and abroad. For this reason we have invited, among others, representatives of the LUCI network to Leipzig as well as 35 mayors from all around the world. I'm sure that the Light Festival will be well received by the people of Leipzig and all our guests."

Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH
Stadt- und Standortmarketing
Marit Schulz und Roland Stratz
Richard-Wagner-Straße 1, D-04109 Leipzig

Fon: +49 (0)341 1246890
Mail: r.stratz@leipziger-freiheit.de
Mail: m.schulz@leipziger-freiheit.de
Web: www.leipziger-freiheit.de