Lara Burkhardt – Der Ölzwerg (The Oil Dwarf)

 The book »Der Ölzwerg wont im Tigel hinter der Klape (The Oil Dwarf lives in the Tiegel behind the Flap)« is special. Of all the books created over nearly twenty years by the Book Kids of Leipzig, it is an especially special one, and makes an impact at first sight on account of its exceptionally large size. Lara Burkhardt took as her starting point her fascination with the Heidelberger Tiegel platen press, which weighs a ton and makes a lot of noise while printing, and encouraged a whole family of “Oil Dwarves” to move into the old press and settle there during the course of her five-year work on the book. In a kind of story of creation the Oil Goddess Lily and an Oil Wizard play a decisive role in the tale. – In order to create the book as a limited edition a first trial was conducted using silkscreen, but failed to produce satisfactory results. Printing it on the Heidelberger Tiegel proved impossible due to the sheer size of the printing blocks. So the Oil Dwarf family in their original format were produced in an edition of 200 on a large high-speed printing press, the “President”, at the Leipzig print works »carpe diem«. For the duration of two months the Oil Dwarf and his family have moved into the dark Armarium, and hopefully will feel comfortable there with plenty of visitors. Our exhibition traces the many intermediate stages in the long history of the book’s genesis: through drawings, draft texts, linocuts and the printing plates. The show is part of the research project “Art in the museum of art – by children”, a collaboration between Kolumba and the Buchkinder Leipzig e.V (Book Kids), funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Dr. Katharina and Uwe Winnekes Foundation.

(The drawing Ain Labirint (A labyrinth) by Frederic Kraul made in the Book Kids workshop is on show in the exhibition New Beginnings until the 31st of August.)