Sound & Vision – An evening of sound art
On 18 September 2025, the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Adult Education Centre invited guests to an artists’ café at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House. The guest was composer CHEN Chengwen, the current scholarship holder.
CHEN Chengwen used his stay in Salzwedel to explore the music of St. Mary’s organ, which can be heard clearly from the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence. But that wasn’t the only source of inspiration. The city’s tonal diversity inspired him to create artistic transformations that make the atmosphere and history of Salzwedel audible.
Have you ever consciously paid attention to the sounds around you? Even in a closed room, you can hear the ticking of the clock or the noise of traffic outside the window. CHEN Chengwen focuses on these sounds that are often overlooked or considered part of everyday life: since July, he has been working at the Artists’ and Scholarship House, researching the concept of the ‘soundscape’ – the acoustic experience of different spaces. His goal is to discover musicality in the everyday sounds of the Hanseatic city of Salzwedel and transform them into new, contemporary compositions. @_AMK
He presented this implementation to the numerous guests at the Künstlercafé not only acoustically but also visually on a screen.
CHEN Chenwen plays his composition on the piano_@_Bild Verein
05.09.2025
General meeting confirmed Mirko Rathke as the new chairman of the association of the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence
On 1 September 2025, this year’s general meeting of the Association of the Artists’ and Scholars’ House in the Altmark district of Salzwedel took place. Of the 33 members, 16 accepted the invitation from the board. District Administrator Steve Kanitz and several sponsors and supporters of the association were also in attendance.
Vera Wibbeke, the chairwoman of the association, summarised the year 2024 in her report. In a vivid PowerPoint presentation, she introduced the 2024 state scholarship holders and their artistic work. Last year, there were a total of six board meetings and one general meeting.
Vera Wibbeke expressed her sincere thanks to all members, sponsors and supporters of the association, as well as to the board for their voluntary work.
She also highlighted the great work of the district adult education centre, which organises so-called artist cafés four times a year in cooperation with the board, and the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum, where last year’s scholarship holders can present their works as part of the ‘StipendiatenART’ exhibition.
After the cash audit was also completed without any objections, the old board was granted discharge for the year 2024.
This was followed by board elections. According to the association’s statutes, the board must be re-elected every four years. Karl-Heinz Reck acted as election officer from the association, and the election was conducted by open ballot. Vera Wibbeke and Heidrun Kalmbach stepped down from the old board.
Mirko Rathke was confirmed as the new chairperson of the association, with Ines Kahrens as his deputy. Inka Ludwig ran for re-election as secretary and was confirmed. Birgit Eurich is the new treasurer, and Cornelia Blödow, Kathrin Stade and Joachim Mikolajczyk serve as assessors on the executive committee.
The board now consists of seven members.
The extended board also includes the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, represented by Ms Simone Franz, and the Hanseatic City of Salzwedel, represented by Ms Antje Schwesig, as ‘born members’.
The former chairwoman concluded by looking ahead to the 30th anniversary of the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association, which will be celebrated in 2027. Planning for this event will therefore be driven forward by the new chairperson this year and next.
All members of the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association would like to once again express their sincere gratitude to Sparkasse Altmark West and the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel passenger transport company for their many years of financial support.
Here on the website, there is also membership applications, because anyone who would like to support the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association is very welcome!
Foto: @_AMK
01.09.2025
CHEN Chengwen & Tobias Klich presented the programme ‘Recognising the Other’
The Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House was once again the venue for the 30th Altmark Music Festival this year. More than 30 listeners were given a glimpse into the creative work of the current guest scholarship holder CHEN Chengwen. The Taiwanese composer presented his work ‘Erkennen des Anderen’ (Recognising the Other), played by Tobias Klich on the guitar. The guitarist Tobias Klich’s programme also included other new works for solo guitar, which were created in close collaboration with the composers Younghi Pagh-Paan (Korea), Seungwon Yang (Korea) and Farzia Fallah (Iran). Confronting the guitar with Asian sound concepts means gaining fresh new perspectives – recognising the ‘self’ through the ‘other’.
Chen Chengwen works as a freelance composer in the vocal-instrumental and electroacoustic fields. Born in Taiwan, he has been living and working in Germany since 2010. His compositions often create new listening situations by making the seemingly familiar sound unfamiliar, staging the physicality of the musicians in unusual ways, or exploring new concert forms. The focus is on acoustic thinking inspired by electroacoustic listening experiences, e.g. spectral speech analysis, spatial perspectives or the development of hybrid instrument sound bodies. Musical exploration of transcultural experiences and fluidity plays an important role. Further information about the artist: https://chenchengwen.com/
Tobias Klich is a composer, guitarist, music filmmaker and visual artist. His transdisciplinary works often explore the polyphonic connection between hearing and seeing against the backdrop of philosophical and social issues. As a guitarist, he is particularly dedicated to initiating new guitar works. More information about the artist: https://tobiasklich.com/
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The Altmark Music Festival is sponsored by the district of Stendal and the Altmark district of Salzwedel. It is funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt and receives conceptual and financial support from the Kreissparkasse Stendal and Sparkasse Altmark West savings banks. The complete programme for the Altmark Music Festival 2025 can be found online at www.musikfest-altmark.de/ and in the programme flyer. You are also welcome to attend other events at the 30th Altmark Music Festival. It will take place throughout the Altmark region from 9 August to 5 November 2025. @_AMK
@_Verein: CHEN Chengwen (right) and Tobias Klich (guitar) presented their programme at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House.
02.07.2025
Exhibition Scholarship HoldersART
Works by Mariel Poppe and Florian Glaubitz at the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum in Salzwedel
Traditionally, the Danneil Museum provides a platform for visual artists who spent the previous year in Salzwedel as scholarship holders to showcase their work. In 2024, these artists were Mariel Poppe from Berlin and Florian Glaubitz from Münster.
Mariel Poppe
During her three-month working scholarship, Mariel Poppe has devoted herself to the theme of towers as architectural exclamation marks. Using old found bricks and miniature bricks, she builds possible and impossible tower structures that are stripped of the power of monuments: towers that are crooked and lopsided, perfectly imperfect, manneristically playful and bizarrely surreal.
Towers are perceived in particular as markers in cities and in the landscape. From above, they offer an overview; from below, they provide orientation. Inspired by the numerous, distinctive and unique towers and gate structures of the Altmark region, a series of ‘architectural exclamation marks’ has been created.
Florian Glaubitz
During his stay at the Salzwedel Artists’ and Scholarship House, Florian Glaubitz explored the urban space and the lives of the local people through photography. Caught between everyday impressions and cultural change, Glaubitz questions the dynamics of public and private life.
‘I don’t want to create just a series of individual images, but rather a cluster of impressions that show what “togetherness” can mean,’ explains the artist. His works invite viewers to see the city from a different perspective and to become more aware of everyday processes.
Many interested visitors accepted the invitation to the exhibition opening on 5 June at the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum.
The exhibition will be on display at the Danneil Museum in Salzwedel until 31 August 2025.
23.04.2025
Scholarship project ‘Inner Landscape’: Between wax, paper and cyanotypes
Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, 17 April 2025: People and their relationships with each other and with the world are the focus of the work of freelance sculptor and graphic artist Adelheid Fuss, who has been living and working in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence since the beginning of April. ‘My graphic and sculptural works often relate to each other, playing with movement and space,’ explained Adelheid Fuss at a press conference on 15 April 2025 in the studio of the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence, where she has already settled in. Small drawings are scattered across the walls, and the tables are covered with everything an artist could desire, from drawing materials and tools to wax remnants, while an unfinished sculpture sits enthroned in the middle of the room. “I work rather intuitively. I usually start with a vague idea, which then develops further as I work,‘ says the artist. During her three-month stay at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House in Salzwedel, Adelheid Fuss would like to work on a project entitled ’Inner Landscape”. Drawings, casts and impressions gained in Salzwedel will be used to create graphics and sculptures.
The first part of your work at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House focuses on sculptural portraits. These are fictional characters who, like the characters in a novel, are inspired by her own experiences and encounters in the city. Adelheid Fuss is particularly fascinated by wax and paper: ‘In the coming weeks, I will combine these two materials and try to form heads out of paper, which can be found in every home in the form of flat sheets.’
In the second part of her work, Adelheid Fuss plans a series of cyanotypes and ink drawings. These will address the theme of ‘memory,’ or rather what humans store as memories. In this context, Adelheid Fuss is particularly interested in the effects that experiences and influences have on social behaviour among people.
Adelheid Fuss has plenty of time and, above all, peace and quiet to work in the studio of the artists’ and scholarship holders’ house. That is precisely why she deliberately chose the scholarship in the Hanseatic city. ‘Salzwedel is not completely unknown to me. Even before my current stay, I was able to get to know the city at its best during a trip,’ says the artist, adding that several fellow students at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle recommended a scholarship stay at the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence because of its tranquillity and natural surroundings. But for now, she is looking forward to the Easter holidays, which she will of course celebrate with a piece of Baumkuchen.
More about Adelheid Fuss
Born in Sibiu, Romania, in 1977, Adelheid Fuss began studying Romance languages and Slavic studies in Tübingen in 1997. From 1999 to 2002, she trained as a wood sculptor in Flensburg. From 2002 to 2009, Adelheid Fuss studied sculpture at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle (Saale) under Prof. Bernd Göbel.
Since receiving her diploma in 2009, she has been working as a freelance sculptor and graphic artist. In addition to her artistic work, she has been involved in art education for over ten years, mainly as a lecturer at the Potsdam Art School. You can find out more about Adelheid Fuss and her work here: http://www.adelheid-fuss.de
@_AMK
