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Thoki Yenn / |
John Montroll / |
David Brill / |
Philip Noble / |
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Kunihiko Kasahara / |
Eric Joisel / |
Vincent Floderer / |
• Thursday, 11.6.1998, 3pm, arrival at Freising. After the umpteenth circle around the Domberg and getting lost in the one-way system we manage to find the entrance to the Kardinal-Döpfner-Haus after all. It seems to have taken longer than the entire journey from Bonn to Freising. Just as well that we have been prepared for this thanks to the infoletter and also thank you very much for the hint, that we should keep the parking ticket and not fold it!
• In my room I first admire the lovely little box on my bedside table and then I eat the chocolate inside. At 4 pm I am on my way to the Red Room for the reception. Next to me a friendly gentleman who gives me a radiant smile and I ask, "Are you somebody I should know or are you a nobody like me?" He grins and turns around so that I can read his name - David Brill. Well done! I tell him that I have lived in Sheffield for some years and next thing is an introduction to Nick Robinson from Sheffield. Oops, here I am, right in the middle of the origami world. Did I really worry about the fact, that I don't know anybody and did I really think nobody would talk to me?
• The Red Room proves to be very noble indeed with parquet and crystal chandeliers. I doubtfully look at the flower arrangements, are they real or have some origami artists been at work already? No, they are real and I have come across several more of these beautiful arrangements throughout the house later on.
• Now the music starts, two young Japanese artists play the piano and the bassoon. Paulo gives us a warm welcome. This is followed by a speech which is very witty and mercifully short. The Kreisheimatpfleger Rudolf Goerge reminds us that there is much more folding going on than you would expect. For example, everybody folds a letter from time to time before putting it into an envelope.
• Then the champagene corks pop and do we start now? No, dinner first. Very quickly it becomes obvious that the 10th International Meeting of Origami Deutschland is very international indeed. I hear many different languages in the general hum around me. Some time later Paulo mentions that 17 nations have assembled here. Our table is shared by Peter Mielke from Canada, Phillip Noble from Scotland and some people from Germany. They have also travelled some great distances, which I modestly will not mention.
• After dinner I visit the exhibition Himmel und Hölle, heaven and hell, which is an old german game involving a folded paper toy. A very appropriate name, because it is heavenly and unbelievable what people can do with a piece of paper and I would have been embarassed like hell, had I exhibited my modest attempts at origami. However, I must admit that this feeling vanished after some time.
• In "der falter" 24 Paulo wrote that Lillian Oppenheimer has laid the foundations for Origami as it is today. A festival for the senses and the heart and a contribution to pace and understanding between people of all nations. And this is how I experienced the meeting. I think, it is great that I have met a lot of people who were well known to me from pictures and their books, but most of all I was impressed by the natural and friendly way in which people communicated with each other.
• Now, back to the exhibition. First of all the work of Eric Joisel attracts my attention. What a varied display from the pangolin over the hedgehog to the sculptured heads! Although the following day Eric demonstrated on stage how to make these masks, I could not do it, when I tried at home. It looked very easy then, all you need is a piece of paper end a glass of water. However, I got very wet and it didn't work. Where was my mistake, Eric?
• There is an immense variation in the models, starting with Vincent Floderer's edible looking mushrooms to modular folding, children's books, David Brill's rowing boats, not to mention Kunihiko Kasahara's panda and Doris Lauinger's roses. Afterwards I fold and fold ... until I am completely exhausted and go to bed at midnight. And in my dreams I fold and fold ...
• And that is what we do first thing next morning. Paul Slater's amusing kissing lips are repeated at many tables during the next days. This is followed by the introduction of some models on stage presented by David Brill, a brilliant showmaster and Edwin Corrie, a competent translator. It is continued later after the celebration dinner.
• We are all a bit lazy from eating too much good food, but Vincent Floderer's show where he teaches us how to fold his mushrooms lifts us all from our chairs. It all ends with a procession from the 4th floor to a well on the groundfloor. We leave a rather wet floor and some very disturbed goldfishes, but are the very proud owners of a more or less genuine looking mushroom.
• Whereas some people seem to wake up properly after midnight - how are these Italians and French people doing it? - I can't keep my eyes open any more after the performance of Anna Barbara and Andreas Rähmis, who fold a huge book on stage. I briefly look at some of the books I have bought in Silke's well-stocked bookshop. Then I fall asleep, grinning, because I remember the young man, who walked around carrying a lot of books under one arm and a lot of paper under the other one, mumbling all the time, "I won't buy anyhing". I symphathize, I could not resist the temptations, too.
• I start the Saturday morning with a short visit to Freising and of course it starts to rain. Then I carry on with folding, folding ... lectures, demonstrations, workshops, videos ... Why can't I be in several places at the same time?
• We also send 100 balloons for Lillian Oppenheimer into the air to celebrate her 100 th birthday. It does not rain for a change and the inevitable group-picture is taken.
• In the evening it is show-time again. It starts with Vladimir Chernow and Leonid Fedorovich, who arrived in a van in Freising after a 3 day journey. They have brought their marionettes, made from wood, metal and, of course, paper and their temperamental show ends with a thundering finale where many spectators dance with the marionettes. And the show goes on. Did you ever try to find a person you don't know, following the description by another person who does not know this person either? Well, it works and quickly five couples find each other and enter the stage, including me and Gabriele. The attempt to fold a crane together when one person is allowed to use the right hand only and the other the left one causes a lot of laughter and cheering. Doris and Elfie win the competition and we end up 4th, but it was good fun.
• The climax of the evening is the paper tower competition. Five famous folders choose five helpers each and they are requested to build a tower with 200 sheets of writing paper within 30 minutes. The winning team is the one with highest tower under the condition that it stays upright for at least a minute without any support (the tower, not the team). The team with K.-D. Ennen and Nick Robinson wins by a narrow margin and everybody is in high spirits. Only I start to feel tired again. How on earth do the Italians ...
• When I wake up some time around 4 o'clock in the morning I can still hear talking and laughter drifting over from the aula at the other end of the floor and I really envy their stamina.
• Sunday morning we have to say good bye, it is a long journey to Bonn. But it is only a year until we meet again in Hildesheim and until then I will practise the many new models I have learned.
• Many thanks to Silke and Paulo and their undefatigable helpers, the enormous amount of work and effort on your side was worth it, it was simply wonderful! I am sure that Origami Deutschland and our convention in Freising have made a contribution to the spreading of friendship and peace in the sense of Lillian Oppenheimer.
Angelika Stolze-Caster
• It is always a delight to visit the old cathedral city of Freising which clusters round the foot of a steeply sided mountain called the Domberg. The top is crowned by the Dom or cathedral, which is quite plain outside, but a richly ornate confection of Bavarian Rococo inside. The town is gracious and full of old buildings jostling with smart modern shops. A wonderful old hotel, the Bayerischer Hof stands in the main street, a welcome hospice, where I, and several other paperfolders stayed both before and after the Convention. Behind the main street there are fascinating alleyways to explore, along one of which, called Fischergasse, flows a clear stream, racing to join the main River Isar at the other side of the Domberg. Paulo Mulatinho and Silke Schröder, the founders of Origami Deutschland live in Mittlerer Graben, another a narrow alley near the centre of the city and it is always exciting to climb the stairs to their apartment, to visit their magical origami world and to discover who might be visiting them from the wider world of Origami.
• I arrived at Munich airport via Amsterdam at about 11 pm on Wednesday, 10th June 1998 and was met my Heinz Strobl, a former president of Origami Deutschland and a genius at folding paper strips. David Brill arrived from Manchester at almost the same time on another flight. To our great pleasure, Heinz had brought with him, to greet us, Thoki Yenn, from Denmark, who had arrived earlier. We had not seen Thoki since the meeting at Otsu in Japan in December 1994 and it was wonderful to see him again, full of life as ever. The airport is only about five miles outside Freising and Heinz soon drove us to the Bayerischer Hof for the night. Dave and I decided it was not yet time for bed and went out to find a cafe, still open just acoss the road., where we sat drinking and talking until the waitress started lifting the chairs on to the tables.
• The next morning, Dave Brill and I met for breakfast and were pleased to be joined by Eric Joisel and Vincent Floderer, the origami sculptors from Paris. Then Kunihiko Kasahara from Japan joined us. Already, the convention had begun.
• The convention was to be held at Kardinal-Döpfner-Haus, formerly a convent, but now a church conference centre on the top of the Domberg and next to the Dom itself. We were relieved when Eric offered to carry our luggage up the steep hill in his car. The convention was not due to start until 4 o'clock that afternoon and Thoki and I decided to visit the cafe across the road to talk. He is a man of fascinating ideas and our conversation ranged not only over the many years we have known each other and about origami in its many aspects, but also touched Pythagorean mathematics, the pyramids, chaos, folding the Silver Rectangle and countless other subjects which hover round the central one of paperfolding. We continued talking so long that we stayed for lunch, before indulging ourselves still further by finding a taxi to take us up the steep, twisting roads to Kardinal-Döpfner-Haus.
• At the gatehouse a lady handed to us the keys to our rooms and we crossed the square courtyard to the entrance and then took the lift to our rooms. In the foyer, there was a small fountain playing into a pool with goldfish. Although called a "house" it was really a fine hotel and I was impressed by the way it had been refitted with morble stairs and beautiful woodwork; everything done to the highest standard. Every room had its own bathroom with a shower. And in Germany, the showers always work!
• During the afternoon, I took a look at the room where Silke Schröder, in her guise as bookseller, and proprietor of the Viereck Verlag (for legal reasons kept separate from Origami Deutschland) had set out books and origami paper for sale. A splendid collection, with many new books, most of which I already knew about from Origami-L. One of the most interesting was Tomoko Fuse's new book of Masks. There was also a book by Paulo Mulatinho: "Origami, Neue Ideen".
• On the floor above, people were setting out their pieces for the exhibition. With masks by Eric Joisel, and also his fantastic pangolin, paper mushrooms and other strange creations by by Vincent Floderer and a paper menagerie by John Montroll, and a collection of folds by Sebastian Kirsch, most of whole room ws already filled with very impressive exhibits. There was also a display of fascinating pop ups by Ramin Razani, the Iranian who now lives in Italy. Gradually the exhibition overflowed the room and extended the whole way along a corridor as exhibitors arrived and displayed their creatons. Apart from the incomparable Paris Origami, it was one of the finest exhibitions of paperolding I have ever seen.
• The convention opened at four o'clock with a general gathering in the Kardinal-Döpfner-Saal, an ornate room decorated in dark red for formal receptions. We were entertained to music played on piano and bassoon by two young Japanese men. Most unusual, I thought. Then Paulo gave an introductory speech (in German, of course, so it went over my head). This was followed by the formal opening speecch by Rudolf Goerge, who is the head of the local district administration. He has, himself, made a study of folded baptismal certificates, so he is knowledgeable about Origami. Then the white German wine flowed, the ice melted and the convivial weekend began. Old friends greeted each other and new friendships were made. I found myself talking to one of the Russian visitors whom I had never met before. Before long it was time for dinner in the large dining room. Inevitably, in Germany, the food was excellent. Wine, beer and soft drinks were available at very moderate cost. As always, eating together encouraged the fellowship.
• The next morning I visited Silke's bookshop as soon as it was opened and bought the books I had set my eyes on earlier, just in case they should all be bought up before I got to them.. But I needn't have worried: there were ample supplies of everything. There were, however, only specimen copies of Tomoko Fuse's new book, "Fabulous Origami Boxes" and of Fumio Inoue's "Origami Dream" no. 5. I made a note to obtain them later.
• Traditionally, German Conventions have been organized on the basis of unorganised, spontaneus group folding at separated tables.This is at the opposite pole from the highly organised New York conventions. Two years ago, at Berlin, however, a limited amount of planning was intoduced and this year this was extended. Spontaneous folding continued at about eight tables in the general meeting hall, but each day a printed programme was issued listing what particular teachers would be doing, both at specified tables in the general hall and also in separate rooms. This was an excellent compromise and I found it a great improvement. My only compaint was my usual one that so much was going on that I could only a fraction of the sessions.
• A feature of British Origami Society conventions has been Dave Brill's now traditional review of the exhibited models, and he was invited to do the same for Origami Deutschland with the aid as translator of Edwin Corrie, an Englishman, who lives near Munich. The exhibition was too big for a complete review, so selected models were brought into the main hall to be discussed from the stage. I found that this helped to concentrate on the significant models, and was an improvement on the exhaustive British system. On the other hand, beginners' models tended to be overlooked.
• The guests of honour were Thoki Yenn and John Montroll. Thoki's formal contribution was an entertaining talk exploring the relationship of paperfolding to chaos theory, mysticism, yantras and symbols. His thesis was that some folds resonate with an inherent pattern within our minds. I found it very stimulating, not so much for Thoki's conclusions a for the suggestive ideas he put forward.
• John Montrol had already visitied Europe twice before this year, at Paris Origami and at the French (MFPP) Convention at Sevres near Paris in May. He had a fine exhibition of his work and gave a teaching session which, to my great I regret, I didn't manage to attend.
• However, with so many of the world's leading folders present, the distinction between guests of honour and ordinary visitors was very narrow. Kunihiko Kasahara had an exhibition of his models and gave a very interesting talk on many aspects of regular polyhedra. I hope that he will be able to publish it. John Smith taught his dancing lady, Eric Joisel had a teaching session: not of one his masks, but of one of his famous rats. His fellow compatriot and origami sulptor, Vincent Floderer treated us to the amazing experience of mushroom folding and at one stage everyone trooped downstairs to the goldfish fountain in the foyer, to immerse in it our crumpled papers before final modelling. I inspected the goldfish the next day to assure myself that they had not been harmed.
• One of the nicest touches was attached to the group photograph, which had to be postponed several times because of the rain. Paulo had procured a large bunch of helium-filled red balloons and everyone was asked to fold a model and attach it to a balloon. After the photograph, we released to balloons one-by- one, in celebration of Lillian Oppenheimer's 100th birthday next October. We were told not to release them all together becuse it might confuse the radar at the nearby airport. I was a joyful occasion. Paulo met Lillian on a visit to New York and he was devoted to her.
• After the Otsu meeting in Japan in 1994, Paulo and Silke had been very honoured to meet the veteran folder and Buddhist priest, Kosho Uchiyama. At Paris Origami Yoshihide Momotani told us that that Kosho had died only a week previously, on 15th March, so Silke asked me to mark the occasion by giving a short talk about him. I traced his style of folding from that of his his father Michio and his grandmother, who was a lady-in-waiting to a noble family and who folded in the style of the Kayaragusa. It was interesting to do the research, and to disover that in Kosho, we had a link with the earlier days of paperfolding in Japan. I may post my talk to Origami-L.
• Paperfolders include people of very diverse and unexpected skills. One delight was provided by Vladimir Chernov, from Saratov in the Volga region of Russia and a friend of Sergei Afonkin. He had brought with him a collection of marrionettes, which he brought to life to music played on a tape recorder by his friend, Leonid Fedorovich. A series of long-legged spiders, crocodiles, small dogs and dolls, in turn entertained us, terrified us and amused us. The last puppet was a seductive young lady, who bopped around and in the end had the audience rising to join in an exhuberent dance on the floor. And all due to the art of suggestion!
• On Sunday morning we were treated to another very different entertainment, which also had little to do with origami, except in the way that it created very much from very little. Philip Noble is best known as the creator of the three-dimensional Flexicube folded from a single strip of paper. He is an Anglican priest in Scotland who is also a clown and very successfully uses his clowning skills to preach the gospel. He gave us a demonstration of string figures, about which he is an expert and told the story of the Prodigal Frog illustrated by a string figure played between his fingers and toes. His final story was fascinatingly told in American Indian sign language, a moving story told in beautifully explicit hand actions. Only half realising it we were being given a sermon and there is no wonder that back in Scotland, Philip leads a very successful and lively parish.
• Many were the tributes paid at the Convention to Paulo and Silke both publically and in private. The amount of work they do, both visibly and in the background is incredible. But it is the warmth of their enthusiasm that captivates everyone and brings them back to the German Convention year after year. Every person is made to feel a special guest.Out of some hundred or more people attending, we counted people from fifteen countries (seventeen if England, Scotland and Wales are counted separately).
• People began to depart on Sunday afternoon, but as usual, some remained behind and on Sunday evening those of us who remained were taken for our meal to a typical German "Brauhaus", (literally a brewhouse, but really a sort of restaurant) which has become a feature of German Conventions. Thoki Yenn treated us to a demonstration of his paper-cut animals and his scuttling mouse folded from his handerchief. We had a riotous time. We performed the colourful firework routine that was taught to us some years ago by the Spanish folders and then Eric Joisel, egged on by Vincent Floderer, revealed yet another of his talents when he enacted an unlikely fight between and Indian brave and a hippopotomus. I counted that out of 17 people sitting round the table there were no less than seven nationalities!
• For me, the Convention was not quite over. I stayed in Freising for two more days, and on the Tuesday Paulo took me and Kunihiko Kasahara and Paulo's daughter Raphaella (who is studying German in Munich before returning to Brazil) to Nuremburg, one hundred miles up the autobahn, to see the folded paper soldiers dating from about 1820 in Children's Museum at the the German National Museum. We managed to take photos of the paper soldiers, although flash wasn't permitted. Most were mounted soldiers with the horse and its rider folded from one piece of paper in a style pajarita folding. Afterwards, we saw part of Nuremburg and its ancient walls, before returning to Freising.
• The next morning I travelled by train to stay in the fine old town of Munich to see some some of its sights that I had missed on earlier visits. They included the Deutsches Museum, which is one of the world's great science museums (the section on computers particularly caught my interest) and the vast romantic Nymphenburg Palace built in the Rococo style of the 18th Century. What I found most attractive, however, was the Amalienburg, a miniature palace, which is an exquisite rococo gem built in the grounds of the larger palace.
• On my last evening I went to the theatre to enjoy a performance of authentic flamenco played by a troup of singers, dancers and guitarrists led by Paco Pena, the great Spanish flamenco guitarrist. Then early the next morning I dragged my luggage, now overweight with books, to the S-Bahn station to catch the train back to the airport and home. From every point of view, it had been an enjoyable and rewarding stay and I send my thanks and best wishes to Origami Deutschland and my hopes that they will continue to flourish in the future.
David Lister