With “Metamorphosis of Workwear”, the Chemnitz Museum of Industry presents a performance and exhibition in the European Capital of Culture year 2025 that powerfully connects art, history, and the present.
At its core stands a symbol that has shaped generations: the work overall. Once a sign of manual labor, it is reinterpreted in this transnational art project—as the starting point for performative fashion shows and social dialogues around the questions: What does work mean today, and how does it change us?
Eighteen international artists from six “European Manchesters”—Chemnitz, Gabrovo, Łódź, Manchester, Mulhouse, and Tampere—have created an extraordinary fashion collection. Their works link local working realities with global questions of the future, opening up a lively engagement with transformation, identity, and community.
Workwear, sauna rituals, and industrial culture encounter high-tech, upcycling, and imagination. Old jute sacks, denim, festival tents, and silk merge with 3D printing, copper embroidery, and innovative weaving techniques. The results are hybrid forms between protection, protest, and spirituality—a manifesto for sustainability and diversity, and an invitation to rethink our work environment.
The performance “Metamorphosis of Workwear” on September 20 at 4 p.m. unites fashion, movement, history, and space into a sensuous narrative that uniquely connects past and future.
The project is a cooperation between the Chemnitz Museum of Industry/Germany, the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź/Poland, and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo/Bulgaria. Additional partners for this project include the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas and Proforma in Manchester. The Textile Printing Museum and the art space Motoco in Mulhouse as well as the Rogue Artists’ Studios in Manchester also support the project.
Artistic direction is by Dresden-based designer and curator Wiete Sommer. With her interdisciplinary approach, she explores fashion as a socio-cultural medium that creates connections and serves as a tool for exchange and discourse.
Chemnitz Museum of Industry, Zwickauer Straße 119, 09112 Chemnitz
Tue–Fri, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sat, Sun & public holidays 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed on December 24, 25, 31 and January 1
Further information: www.industriemuseum-chemnitz.de
Press contact: Almut Hertel / presse@industriemuseum-chemnitz.de