Die Fäden

Storm Cinzia has made its way east, but the paltry "storm" that came had been heavily overhyped. All trains were cancelled at a precaution, meaning few people arrived to work in the morning. All schools were closed and the university cancelled exams. But actually it was some rain and heavy wind. 

After work I joined Antony and Johannes at Kunsthalle for an exhibition recommended by Cinzia. It's half price on Mondays and deliciously empty as a result of the public transport closures. 

A fabulous exhibition! Kunsthalle again, did not disappoint. The exhibition was opened by President Macron and contains about 50 tapestries from the prestigious art students of Paris who had to learn media other than just painting (Picasso, Matisse, Miro and more). Before this, the exhibition takes you on a journey through some truly incredible tapestry landscapes, that look just like paintings. Some classical scenes featured, with Greek myths and biblical stories from the late 1800s. Then come some ordered by France, to give as presents to its colonies depicting how France's colonial rule has brought greatness. Next we walked into a room with a giant swastika, woven with 3.5kg of gold. Göring, Goebbels and every wealthy Nazi was keen to get their hands on a Parisian made tapestry from the Manufacture des Gobelins, in a classical Nazi-art design. An unfinished piece designed for an enormous library, showed a map of the globe dotted with Deutsch Ost-Afrika, Sud-Afrika, and a swollen Deutschland expanding into its Lebensraum. The 1944 had already been woven in, but the threads at the edges will remain limp and hanging, unfinished. It was pretty shocking to see swastikas so brazenly around (though with contextualising information). Johannes, who is German, told us he recently called the police after seeing a swastika sprayed on a wall. The police daubed it over that evening. 

So it was quite refreshing to then enter the modern art section, with tapestries that were wild and bright, that Hitler would have totally hated. One called "Drausen ist langweilig" (outside is boring), use a checkboard effect to block out the abstract windows and indoors were bizarre but recognisable shapes that were definitely people partying. There were examples of Op Art (optical art) with wavy concentric shapes in black and white or multicolour, all woven.

Each piece would have taken months if not years to make. The loom is ingeniously set up with a mirror in front and the artwork you are weaving behind, such that one can sit behind tying the knots seeing the work you've done and the work still to do at the same time. The threads have to be turned onto the bobbin, dyed the specific shade with natural pigments and combined to create blending effects in the tapestries. We were halfway round the exhibition, convinced that some must be done by machine, when we watched the dark-room museum video explaining how they are made - painstakingly by hand. Worse still, the weavers are not recognised for their work, as they get commissions from the artists and even in this exhibition the names were of Victor Vasarely or other famous artists who would have spent much less time painting than the weavers wove! 

Finally, there were quirky weaves from the last two decades. One was depicting a grey windows computer screen showing an image of a traditional tapestry. Very meta. Even more so was a photo-like tapestry of a pile of clothes. Using silk and wool together they can do lots of shading and create luminousity. 

Lastly, there were photographs of the tapestries in their native habitats, the Elysee Palace or other grand residences. A large Miro tapestry lay in the background of a meeting room where Macron and Merkel were deep in discussion, so European. We made a joke that they were discussing which pizza to order. 

I wish I could post more photos. I cannot choose. 

GWOTD: Unentschlossenheit - indecision (entschlossen - determined, schlossen - conclude)