From China to Chemnitz

In co-operation with the Goethe-Institut in Beijing, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony offers an annual three-month scholarship. The aim of the residency programme is to expand artistic and cultural exchange with China. in 2025, the Goethe-Institut China in Beijing, together with the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, will enable an artist from China to spend three months working in Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture 2025, for the first time. Klub Solitaer e.V. will support the scholarship holders on site and organise suitable work opportunities and accommodation. The artist Xiaoyue Pu from Beijing was selected from almost 30 applications for a three-month residency.

During her stay in the European Capital of Culture 2025, the Chinese artist investigated the interfaces between plants, female cultures and the colonial structures that characterised the exchange between China and Europe. The results of her research culminated in a snack meeting.

Inspired by Meissen's "onion pattern" plate, a widely used design - derived from Chinese blue and white porcelain（青花瓷）- replaced ironically the original pomegranate motif, a symbol of fertility and good fortune, an onion, revealing both the ignorance of the craftsmen and the wider processes of cultural appropriation under colonial modernity.

The intervention reinterpreted the design of the plate by incorporating Chinese plants that were once transplanted to Saxony by colonial botanical expeditions. The plate thus becomes a platform on which food, material culture and shared history come together.