291 million years ago, Chemnitz was located near the equator. Under the increasingly warm and dry climate of the Permian, a subtropical primeval forest grew in a humid oasis, which was buried by the eruption of the Zeisigwald volcano. As a result, the Chemnitz Petrified Forest, which is now being excavated in the middle of the city, captured the life of a distant past in a snapshot.

At present, living conditions on earth are changing again. A species extinction is underway, caused by the rapid warming of the planet as well as other factors significantly influenced by humans. Will the plant world be able to adapt to climate change? And what can we learn from the Earth’s past for its future?

As part of the exhibition NEW ECOLOGIES Gegenwarten II, Ooze (Eva Pfannes and Sylvain Hartenberg) and Marjetica Potrč have dug an artificial crack in the construction hole in front of the Tietz, where petrified trees and their descendants, which still thrive today as living fossils, meet. Do we see in these plants of the hot past the plants of the hot future? What do climatic changes mean for our current plant world, for us humans and our relationship with nature?

Together with Sten Gillner, head of the Chemnitz Botanical Garden, and project partners Ronny Rößler and Ilja Kogan from the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, we want to discuss these questions and immerse ourselves in the plant world of prehistoric times and the future. With a greeting from Ooze, we will visit the artwork A Crack in Deep Time | Urzeit-Riss in the Bauloch in front of the Tietz.
Prof. Dr. Ronny Rößler is director of the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz and has been researching the biology of fossil plants and forests, especially from the Permian period, for decades. In a short lecture, he will introduce the ecosystem of the Permian period.

Dr. Sten Gillner is the director of the Chemnitz Botanical Garden. With his doctorate on urban trees in climate change, as scientific director of the project “Urban trees as climate ambassadors” at the TU Dresden and as a technical advisor to local authorities, he has many years of experience with trees and other plants in climate change. He will report on the challenges they will face in the future.

The evening is free of charge.
Language: German