Moving Sheets

Dance in the Poster

14/02/—27/04/25

 

Anna Berkenbusch, Walter Ernst Böhm, Günter Karl Bose, Reinhart Braun, Erich Brechbühl, Feliks Büttner, Gerhard Bunke, Elżbieta Chojna, cyan, Jerzy Czerniawski, Jo Fabian, Detlef Fiedler, Bernd Frank, grappa design, Juozas Galkus, Karl Domenic Geissbühler, Steff Geissbühler, Frieder Grindler, Uwe Häntsch, Heinz Handschick, Jürgen Haufe, Hartmut Henning, Fons Hickmann, Hans-Georg Hoppe, Oliver Iserloh, Dietrich Kaufmann, Kathrin Kegler, Günther Kieser, Jelena Kitajeva, Werner Klemke, Andreas Klose, Otto Kummert, Burckhard Labowski, Pablo Lavalley, Holger Matthies, Maximage, Pierre Mendell & Klaus Oberer, milchhof:atelier, Jutta Mirtschin, Hermann Misersky, Adeline Mollard, Maria Mucha-Ihnatowicz, Rolf Felix Müller, Frank Neubauer, Francisco Nieva, Minoru Niijima, Nous Travaillons Ensemble, Claudia Oelert, Andrej Panfilow, Manfred Paul, Čestmír Pechr, Volker Pfüller, Kari Piippo, rosalie, Katrin Schek, Peter Scholl Design, W. Schtschapow, Hajo Schüler, Uwe Sinnecker, Stefan Stefanescu, studio VIE, Waldemar Świerzy, Anusch Thielbeer, Juliane Umbreit, Eva-Maria Viebeg, Andreas Wallat, Ekkehard Walter, Daniel Wiesmann, Ute Zscharnt

 

In its centuries-long history and regardless of its sometimes national variations, dance is, in its most general definition, the primal human need to move to music, in orderly movements of the body in space and time. Whether this is characterized as folk, social or show dance, whether the dance performance takes place in front of an audience or is just for self-satisfied social enjoyment, this is also crucial for the functionality of the two-dimensional poster – because it too is designed to be seen. In 1996, the graphic artist Almir Mavignier also said: „You should look at a picture while sitting down, but when you perceive a poster you move.“

 

So are posters particularly predestined as a recording and advertising medium for any fleeting dance event due to their mostly moving reception? Which movement notations or motif abbreviations of dance make it onto the poster surface when they serve as a lure for events of classical ballet, dance theater and contemporary dance?

 

Organized not chronologically, but loosely thematically, the selected posters cover the entire spectrum of possible translations of dance: Over the decades, the photo poster with its multiple exposures seems to have dominated the international design scene. Movements are often traced and conveyed through vibrant and pixelated color areas, arrow symbols and rousing line curves; occasionally, a lively, agile typography takes the lead role on the page. And in terms of motif, sometimes just the reduced reproduction of a pointe shoe is enough to advertise the ballet evening unambiguously.

 

The exhibition brings together posters from the 1960s to the present, mostly from German-speaking countries and occasionally interspersed with international poster art from Poland, Finland, Russia and France. It draws on the holdings of the museum’s own poster art collection, which is supplemented by some award-winning positions in German-language poster design.