Dachau - Two five by two meter black panels with a filigree pattern hang from the ceiling to the floor.
What hangs like a curtain in the Neue Galerie is actually a silhouette by the artist Ergül Cengiz.
This work "düm tek tek" alone proves that paper cuts can be more than what we are used to from the 17th century, namely portrait silhouettes or decorative floral motifs.
The “Black and White” exhibition, for example, presents many facets of contemporary paper cuttings with works by a total of eight artists.
"Although very few really use scissors today, they use fine scalpels," says curator Jutta Mannes from the Neue Galerie.
Otherwise it would be difficult to imagine how Andreas Kocks can otherwise carve such fine lines in handmade paper that a relief with a 3D effect is created, or how the Dachau artist Martin Off can make his satirical, caricature-like portraits look like drawings.
A steady hand and meditative work are required for this.
That paper cuttings can also be installations is shown by Ergül Cengiz with her two oversized paper webs and Sebastian Pöllmann with the work “Leading Actors”.
“Cengiz always deals with the cultures of their countries of origin: Germany and Turkey,” says Mannes. The artist often uses the traditional girih pattern common in Islamic art, which consists of five different geometric shapes and their infinite number of possible combinations. “In places, however, the perfectly constructed pattern is disturbed, elements are missing. This creates new shapes, ”explains Mannes. Pöllmann, on the other hand, hangs ten cutouts of scenes from the Kama Sutra to form several mobiles.
Anette Schröter, according to Mannes, "a queen of German paper cutting" creates works for frames, but also cuts that are pinned directly to the bare wall.
Like the large silhouette of a dilapidated wall that is already overgrown with plants and sprayed with graffiti.
"A motif that would certainly not have made it into a paper cut in the 17th century," Mannes is sure.
Victoria Martini plays with it, however.
Based on the paper cuttings from the Biedermeier era, she also cuts out plant silhouettes.
"But these are always hybrids, artificially created crossings of different plants such as a prickly thistle and a carnivorous Venus flytrap," explains Jutta Mannes.
And so Martini frees the paper cut "from the dust of the Biedermeier idyll".
Madeleine Schollerer and Zipora Rafaelov, of whom works can also be seen in the Neue Galerie until July 25, prove that paper cutting is open to all content today.
The exhibition “Black and White - Contemporary Paper Cuts” in the Neue Galerie Dachau can be seen until July 25th.
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
mik