the street is our gallery

August 26, 2022 to August 28, 2022

A place of art, of being together, of learning, of sharing, of creating! The ibug is an Urban Culture Festival in Germany, a lab for international urban artists and an attitude towards life!

The Industriebrachenumgestaltung – ibug for short – is entering a new round this year. From August 1, the former coloured paper factory in Flöha near Chemnitz will once again be the venue of this years’ festival for urban art and a canvas for regional and international artists. During the last weeks, the festival organizers have received 282 applications of creatives from all over the world. Soloists, duos and collectives from a total of 41 countries from all continents and a colourful range of genres from painting and graffiti, installations, sculptures, sound design and visuals to photography, textile design and much more. The artists for this year’s festival will now be selected from the applications submitted. Also 18 artists are invited who were already scheduled to participate in 2020, but were unable to do so due to the restrictions imposed by the Corona pandemic.

After a two-week creative phase and the digitization of all exhibits, the curious and art lovers can experience a temporary exhibition on two festival weekends – August 26-28 and September 2-4. In addition, a colourful festival program is planned again this year, including guided tours and films, discussions and artist talks and music. After the festival weekends, there will also be offers for school classes.

Since the first Industriebrachenumgestaltung in 2006, the ibug has developed into a world-renowned festival for urban art. Every year on the last weekend in August, a brownfield site in Saxony is opened as a temporary exhibition. The focus of the international artists is on experimenting with genres, materials and techniques as well as on the past of the lost place and its architecture. The ibug team has received many awards for its commitment, including the PlusPunkt Kultur award from the German Federal Association for Cultural Education for Children and Young People in 2010, the So geht Sächsisch ideas competition for tourism in Saxony in 2019, and the Denkzeit Event competition of the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism in 2020 for creative ideas and innovative concepts of existing or new events under Corona conditions.

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