By Beowulf Kaiser

Cottbus A very unique poster recently attracted interest at the State Museum for Modern Art/Diesel Power Plant in Cottbus. Screen print of Renet and Frieder Grindler announcing a performance of the melodrama “Kesselflicker’s Wedding” at the Tübingen Zimmertheater in 1968. The two-act play by Irish playwright John Millington Synge (1871-1909) was first performed in 1907, but was not performed in Ireland until 70 years later because of its anti-ecclesiastical content.

It tells of the tears of a girl named Sarah, the girlfriend of young tinker Michael. The plot leads to the environment of the poorest of society, and the confidence of two lovers does not depend on the blessing of a priest, but on the constancy of love and the diligence of their hands. The play, also known as “The Penner Wedding”, was made into a radio play in 1958 and then into a German TV film in 1972 by Goetz Georg. It was offered to the public as a theater and television drama. Currently, it is not playing on local stages. On the other hand, the poster continues to be revered as an art form in its own right – currently in the Cottbus exhibition.

Like the memorable Grindler poster, the 80 or so works of art in the new exhibition at the Cottbus State Museum have their own history. It’s called “Voice of Paper – Material Reflections on Poster” and can be seen in Machine Room 1 of the former power station until February 26, 2023.

The focus is not only on the content and design of the posters, but also on their self-referentiality: what makes it different to make it on paper medium? “The reflection of the poster as a paper medium is the starting point for design ideas in poster art,” the State Museum writes.

The exhibition “The Sound of Paper” follows “Disco Not Disco” (reported by TAGEBLATT), with more than 200 works of art from the international club and concert scene, still on display until December 4. A 1990 film about the history of a prison featured more than 60 famous artists, including Andreas Fischer and Fayed Jungnickel. Photographs from the mid-1980s by Cottbus photojournalist Thomas Kleber and his colleague Ulrich Wust complement the exhibition. 11am-7pm.