In this exhibition, the Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst presents a selection of sixteen small format works in the most varied materials and techniques. Several of these sometimes-tiny artefacts, which can be easily overlooked, but at the same time exercise a great fascination, are already familiar from the permanent exhibition. Others have remained hidden from guests up to now and have been brought out of the depots into the exhibition spaces. The selection represents the immense variety of small objects the collection of the museum is home to.
The museum has joined forces with the “Sammlungsfotografen” (collection photographers) from Berlin, Sebastian Köpcke and Volker Weinhold, for the exhibition. The photographer duo photographs in museum collections and combines historical objects to form their own compositions. What is special about the presentation of the miniatures is the large format, with which the “Sammlungsfotografen” make the small objects visible in all their details.
Whether as doll’s house accessories or personal mementoes: miniatures are treasured because they carry us off into scaled-down worlds. Miniature worlds provide readily comprehensible reproductions of the real world, which place viewers in an unusual relationship with their size by, for example, allowing them to look at an entire village at a glance. Others, like Thumbelina, instead carry us off into the world of fairy tales.
Miniature paintings as book illustrations and portrait miniatures are among the formats of the small familiar from art history. Small-format portrait paintings made it possible to carry faces with us in the form of medallions. They could be carried in the hand and viewed up close. Micro-carvings in fruit pits were gladly collected precious objects in the chambers of art and curiosities of the European royal and noble courts.
The minuscule requires an optical device for enlargement for a better, often entirely different mode of perception. The invention of the microscope in the seventeenth century brought insights into previously undreamed-of structures in this context. This resulted in a different consciousness for the composition of the world and caused enthusiasm for the small to grow. New worlds opened up in the microscopic, which had to date remained hidden from the naked eye.
What we see in this exhibition demonstrates not only the extraordinary cleverness and ability of their creators. These little wonders also convey the great passion of the artists. This is because one can see their meticulousness and pleasure in dealing with the techniques and materials, bordering almost on obsession, in the objects. The rivalry revolving around the highest degree of craftsmanship and the wish to repeatedly surpass even oneself in terms of artistry becomes obvious when viewing the miniatures.