Blue factory

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The Blue Factory is located in the so-called "Green Villa", part of the old Leipzig train station in Dresden.

The Blue Factory is a privately owned cultural institution in the trendy Äußere Neustadt district of Dresden .

history

In December 1991, the Blue Factory opened as a free gallery , founded by Sigrid Walter, Lutz Fleischer and Thomas Haufe. The name alludes to the " blue notes " of jazz. For two of the founders - Thomas Haufe and Lutz Fleischer - it was also important to set up a factory where you could proverbially “go blue”; what one can interpret as working at leisure, without authoritarian industrial tact, and according to one's own internal law. Numerous exhibitions of domestic and foreign artists took place up to 1996.

In 1996 the gallery was closed for financial reasons. An artist association under the direction of Hanne Wandtke with u. a. the members Isolde Matkey (dramaturge), Uwe Krause , Günter Heinz , Matthias Macht (drummer) and Hartmut Dorschner (composer) took over the gallery and additional rooms in which studios were set up in the same year. In 1997, the association Künstlervereinigung blauFABRIK eV was founded as a sponsor.

As a result, the Blue Factory was transformed from a mere exhibition location to a production and performance location for cross-genre, contemporary art and became one of the most important locations for contemporary art in Dresden.

In 2000, Jo Siamon Salich (video media artist), Hartmut Dorschner and the computer company "dialogic" founded the "blueLAB" as the first Dresden interface laboratory in the BlaueFABRIK. It is an interactive work situation and experimental laboratory for computer-aided art, in which dance performances, installations and interactive concerts are developed that have been performed all over Europe (e.g. Ars Electronica in Linz, Strasbourg and Salzburg). The blueLAB was also a bridge to the Festspielhaus Hellerau , where joint productions with Cynetart and the European Center for the Arts were created.

In 2005 the Blue Factory received the City of Dresden's Culture Promotion Prize .

After Hartmut Dorschner and Hanne Wandtke resigned the board of directors, the association fell into a deep crisis and was about to be dissolved. The board of directors around Holger Knaak, who has been in office since 2010, consolidated the situation, opened the premises to other users and initiated new projects. The association has received institutional funding from the city of Dresden since 2010.

The Blue Factory housed the studios / workrooms of the blueLAB / Jo Siamon Salich (media art), Walter Battisti (South Tyrolean painter and graphic artist), Christopher Simpson (British painter), Jörg Ritter (percussionist), Matthias Macht (drummer), Martin Schulze (trombonist ). The bands Blenderman , The Roaring 420s , Sir Robin and the Longbowman and other formations had their rehearsal rooms there. The artistic members of the Blue Factory are Christopher Haley Simpson, Conny Köckritz, Dr. Günter Heinz, Jo Siamon Salich, Iris Hilpert, Philip Bremer and Richard Ebert.

In 2013 the original building had to be closed for legal reasons. After three transitional years behind the Dresden 6 main post office , the association moved into spacious new rooms in 2016 in the so-called "Green Villa", part of the old Leipzig train station .

The Blue Factory is a member of the Dresden Sound Network .

Current projects

  • The Festival of Free Improvised Music under the direction of Günter Heinz
  • The blauBÜHNE as a concert series for modern jazz and freely improvised music.
  • In Session with ... by and for students at music colleges as a practical opportunity to complement their studies.
  • The exhibition series [parablau] with artists from home and abroad.
  • The Blue Factory is also used by many other Dresden art and cultural associations as a rehearsal and performance location. B. from the Ensemble Courage , the Sinfonietta Dresden , the elole piano trio , the New Dresden Chamber Music and the Saxon Society for New Music .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 55.6 ″  N , 13 ° 44 ′ 16.5 ″  E