Marit's Paper World (blog)

Marit's Paper World (blog)

  • Home
  • Top 2000 blog party
  • Quirky Dutch Summer
  • Website

Haiku, Rosel & Vopo’s

February 1, 2019 By Marit 13 Comments

Goodmorning you all. First thing I want to say: when you reside in the very cold parts of the USA, please stay safe! The extreme weather you have there was even on the Dutch news… stay inside and keep yourself and your loved ones warm dears!

We did have a little bit of snow here in Zeeland last week… not enough to disorganize daily life but just enough to make the world beautiful.

Fiday haiku

Photo made by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

Malus-appeltjes
stuk voor stuk voorzien van een
winter-wonder-muts
Little crabapples
one by one they put on a
winter-wonder-hat

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart.

And do you want to know about the project I participated in? It’s quite a story, so sit down, grab a cuppa and let me tell you about it.

Add and Pass – PASSport collage project

Last December I received this message from a fellow-artist-friend, Robert Stockton, who lives in the USA.

“Hi, Marit- I belong to a Facebook group called ADD AND PASS – Passport Project run by Kevin Geronimo Brandtner who lives in Vienna, Austria. He finds old passports and sends them out to collage and mixed media artists. Each artist fills a two page spread with their art and then sends the passport to another artist to do the same. When the passport has been completed, the last artist returns it to Kevin where he has the Papiergedanken Mail Art Archive. I have just received an old passport from him which I am going to start (…) I wanted to know if you would be interested/willing to be the artist that I send it to after (…) – Robert”

He send me some photo’s of the booklet (which isn’t a passport, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute…) and I got excited right away, what a lovely project to work on! And so after Robert finished creating his spread, he send the booklet to me.

I noticed right away that this could not be a passport… but what was it then? Curious as I am, and not wanting to ‘just work in it’ without knowing the background of this booklet, I did some research. The text is in German and I am able to read and understand a little German (we Dutchies learn the language in highschool ànd I grew up/live in a touristic area where many Germans spend their holidays.)

The first page made it clear: this is not a passport but a Mitgliedsbuch which means “Membership-booklet” – prove that the person was member of the FDGB (a trade union.)

The booklet belonged to Rosel Kühn. Rosel was born on June 26, 1936 in Labschütz (Austria) and the booklet was given to her (“eingetreden”) in 1948 by FDGB in Geithain (East Germany.) Given her birthdate I figured she could still be alive so first thing I did was to search for this person on the internet. However, Rosel was only 15 years old when she received this booklet and Kühn must be her maiden name…. chances are big that she married and used her husband’s name from that moment on. I spend a few hours searching the internet but her name didn’t pop up anywhere so I shifted my focus to the FDGB.

“The Free German Trade Union Federation, in German Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB), was an East German organisation that existed between 1946 and 1990. (…) On paper the FDGB was the umbrella organization for about fifteen individual trade unions.” (~ Wikipedia ~)

OK, so now I got an idea of this booklet and it’s purpose back in the days… so I flipped to the next page where Robert created his two-page spread on.

Do you notice that Robert tries to paint a picture of Rosel’s life by ‘making up a story’ about her brother Klaus? I love this idea of “(…) artists creating a collaborative image in book form, even though it is fictional, of who this person might have been.” as Robert discribes it…

…and then I flipped to the two-page spread I was about to create on…

HUH? Stamps?
Back to the computer and back to translating German into Dutch, as there’s a handwritten text on the right page…

“Fräulein Rosel Kühn war vom 26.5.50 – 31.3.57 Angehörige der Deutschen Volkspolizei und brauchte [lt.? It.?] Vertrag mit dem Bundesvorstand und FDGB wahrend dieser Zeit keine Bestrage zu bezahlen.” 

In short that is: “From 1950 to 1957, Miss Rosel Kühn was a member of the German Volkspolizei [German People’s Police] and during that time she was exempt from paying dues to the FDGB”

I spend a few hours more at my computer, reading about the DDR (East German) the Deutsche Volkspolizei (popular known as “Vopo’s”) the Iron Curtain and the Berlin wall… (which I remember well ‘falling’ in 1989, I was 26) – I didn’t know much about the history and was highly surprised my beloved immediately said “Vopo’s” when I mentioned the Volkspolizei… I just learned about it and it turns out he knows a lot about German history all along!

Anyway, during my research an idea grew in my head on how and what to create on these pages with respect to its history… not covering up the text and illustrating the fact that Rosel ‘was a Vopo’. Here’s the finished spread, and I will tell you how it came together…

  • Photo transfer. The woman’s face is a photo of the actress Sonja Sutter who played a leading roll in the movie “Frauenschicksale”(Destinies of Women) – an East German film,  released in 1952. This film sold more than 5,100,000 tickets. It was produced as a propaganda film which compared the lives of women in the two sides of divided Germany. The women in East Berlin were politically aware and organized while those in West Berlin were vain and materialistic.”
  • Printed: German text “The longing for happiness is overpowering,” phrase used in a review about the film.
  • Picture of a woman police with flag: by the time I started creating this spread my beloved’s interest was aroused as well and he found me the picture of a woman “Vopo”
  • Stamped arrows, pointing to the handwritten text in the booklet.

Detail photo of the photo transfer; the stamps underneath still show through the face.

Detail photo of the handwritten notes in the booklet.

Now that I finished my spread, this booklet will be on it’s way to Sweden. I contacted iHanna and she is willing to create the next spread… it’s coming your way Hanna!

It was such an interesting and fun little project to work on that I might volunteer and ask for another passport to create in…

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings today, have a great weekend. Stay warm.

Filed Under: art, Collaborations & swaps, Haiku Tagged With: collaboration, collage, FDGB, haiku, haiku my heart, mixed media, passport, PASSport collage project, Rosel Kuhn

Comments

  1. Lisa at Greenbow says

    February 1, 2019 at 1:10 pm

    The winter photo is beautiful and your haiku is perfect with it. Nothing like fresh snow to brighten a winter day.
    The passport project is interesting. Amazing that you could find out so much about the booklet. I really like what you did with your spread.
    This reminds me of the times several years ago that I was involved with a group that made books and we went them around to different people until they came back to the original maker. Everyone picked a different theme for their book. Those were fun to do.
    Have fun and stay warm.

    Reply
  2. Lea says

    February 1, 2019 at 4:24 pm

    The image of the crabapples wth little white hats is fabulous Merritt! And the journal making and research that you put onto your pages of this art piece is fascinating and poignant. Thank you for sharing them both. Love to you my friend! Wish we could share an artichoke together!

    Reply
  3. A ShutterBug Explores says

    February 1, 2019 at 4:32 pm

    Oh the crab apples in the snow ~ divine photo and what gorgeous collage art work ~ ^_^

    Happy Friday to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

    Reply
  4. Mark says

    February 1, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    Winter-wonder hat! What a delightful image, Marit. Thanks for this precious little gem.

    Reply
  5. Robert Stockton says

    February 1, 2019 at 5:49 pm

    OH MY GOODNESS, MARIT! The amazing research and incredible discoveries you have made about this little booklet! You have done much to illuminate some very dark corners of history. Your two-page spread is visually stunning and tells a story that causes Rosel’s past, as well as East/West German history, to come alive. Wondrous!

    Reply
  6. Lynette (NZ) says

    February 1, 2019 at 9:06 pm

    What an amazing story! Enjoyed reading all your research and love the spread you created – so meaningful. Have a fantastic weekend.

    Reply
  7. Becki says

    February 1, 2019 at 11:03 pm

    I originally came for the haiku, but the story of the not-a-passport is fascinating! I love how you did your art spread to preserve her written note.

    Reply
  8. Marie says

    February 2, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    Dear Marit, what a fascinating story and such a wonderful spread you created! One can actually feel the spirit of a long gone history

    Reply
  9. Jenny says

    February 2, 2019 at 8:37 pm

    Geweldig project Marit. Wat goed dat je zoveel info boven water hebt kunnen krijgen over Rosel en wat heb je er iets moois van gemaakt.

    Reply
  10. Monica Smith says

    February 4, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    That is a fantastic a wonder piece of art. What a way to tell a story.

    Great post today
    LOVE
    Love
    your positive attitude to life, sorrow and loss.

    Reply
  11. Nel (Florenel) Wisse says

    February 4, 2019 at 9:26 pm

    Wat geweldig leuk zo’n idee en zeker ook dat je het onderzoek ernaar deed. Het resultaat is heel sprekend, niet in de laatste plaats omdat de stempels nog te zien zijn. Supermooi.

    Reply
  12. iHanna says

    February 5, 2019 at 11:42 pm

    Oh wow Marit, I love all the background history you’re giving this project, but it also makes me nervous. I doubt I’ll live up to creating something as important & cool in my style, as I’m more of a pink rainbow girl… But we’ll see what I come up with. Thanks for asking me, I look forward to seeing yours and Robert’s spreads in person!

    Reply
  13. rebecca says

    February 8, 2019 at 7:31 am

    your winter haiku is magnificent! just perfect joyful beauty- thank you friend!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

FacebookInstagramE-mailRSS Feed

My art can be found in galleries on my website.
Unless otherwise stated, all photos, images, thoughts and stories on the website as well as on this blog are my own (Marit Barentsen aka Marit's Paper World.) If you see something you want to share, please link back to my site to give credit where credit is due. If you have questions about using my work, please contact me. Thank you!

kronieken 2023-workshop

 

“KRONIEKEN”
de grote, online art journal
workshop in het NEDERLANDS
December 2022 – December 2023


klik voor info en inschrijven

Categories

Archives

Old blog

To my old blog: nov. 2008 - dec. 2010

Copyright © 2023 · Marit's Paper World ·