Schließfachwelten is an installation piece made for the Begehungen Kunstfestival, a contemporary arts festival held at the abandoned swimming pool complex of the Erzgebirgsbad in Thalheim. This festival was the first in a series of events that marked Chemnitz as the European Capital of Culture 2025.

The installation consists of a series of 10 patchwork Badetücher (bathing towels) which document the social history of the swimming pool, once an important hub for the population of Thalheim. The patchworks emerged from a series of participatory workshops in which people shared their stories and memories of the pool, before combining these fragmented stories into patchworks of collective memory. 

The Badetücher were displayed in the pool’s changing room lockers during the festival, with visitors invited to open each locker and discover the stories of the people who swam, worked and played here. The installation format plays with the idea of opening an already-occupied changing room locker and catching a glimpse of someone’s personal possessions inside, only this time, the objects within the lockers convey not just a personal, but also collective story.

Following the festival, at the community’s request, the patchworks were relocated to Thalheim’s local history museum where they now form part of the permanent collection.