With Waschtag, Brigitte Böckmann-Jennen has created a site-specific installation at the BioTürme in Lauchhammer. Oversized white pieces of laundry are strung between the towers, transforming the former industrial site for the duration of the Biennale.

The work evokes the environmental pollution of past decades, when freshly washed laundry hung outdoors would quickly turn black from soot and industrial emissions. The white laundry thus becomes a symbol of memory, change, and the question of how former coal-mining regions can develop new perspectives today. In doing so, the installation refers not only to the history of Lusatia but also to the ecological and social transformation processes that accompany structural change.

An essential component of the project is its participatory creation process. Even in the run-up to the Biennale, Brigitte Böckmann-Jennen sewed at various public locations in Lauchhammer —including at the bus stop on Heinrich-Zille-Straße, at the weekly market on Dietrich-Heßmer-Platz, on Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße, and in Lauchhammer-West and Lauchhammer-Ost. While sewing, she engaged residents in conversation about their personal memories, experiences, and visions for the future. These encounters and stories were incorporated into the work and became an important part of the project.

On August 8, the installation will be set up at the BioTürme. Visitors will have the opportunity to watch Brigitte Böckmann-Jennen as she hangs the oversized pieces of fabric and witness how the participatory creative process transforms into a finished work of art in public space.