Georg Mühleck brought a selection of Jacques Charbonneau’s copy art.

Jacques Charbonneau’s art is of central importance for the development of copy art, as he reinterprets the photocopier not only as a duplicating device, but also as a creative tool.

While his artistic explorations of the medium began much earlier, the majority of Charbonneau’s works of works were created after 2000. His works are predominantly created using the Sharp CX 5000 photocopier, the roll originals of which he manipulates to create intricate and colorful visual effects. Using techniques such as layering, distortion and overprinting, he achieves diverse compositions and colors that cannot be achieved with modern copying techniques.

Nov. 22 & 23 from 7 p.m.
Interventions in the museum as part of the Zongtage
CopyCircleCircuit, CopyKaraoke, CopyOszillator, CopyKomposer.

The collective Raumzeitpiraten turns its attention to the character, light intensity and speed of the copiers’ light and scanning units. Each copier sounds different while it is still creating images during the sound generation of the samplers.

funded by Landschaftsverband Rheinland

Philippe Boissonnet and Jacques Charbonneau curated this exhibition with works from the archive of Jacques Charbonneau, the founder of the Centre Copie Art (CCA) in Montreal. The video gives a pretty good impression of the range of international electrographic art over 45 years. And it is admirable that Jacques has protected all these works of art for so long.

During the Mülheim “Art Views” numerous visitors came to the M.F.F. – many of them were visiting the Museum für Fotokopie for the first time. Therese and Klaus were busy for two days presenting the art and the techniques. In the picture: Therese with two computer portraits by Sarah Jackson from Halifax/Canada – one of our favorite artists. The two colorful sheets had been slumbering in an unopened envelope addressed to Klaus since 1997!

On October 31, 2024, a small but very interested group from “Work and Life” in Oberhausen visited the M.F.F. – everyone stood in amazement in front of the artworks from the “Artist & Copymachine” series. In the picture: Gesine Grundmann’s “Normally I’m not copied”

December 7, 2024 – January 16, 2025

Opening with bar on December 7, 6 pm
Workshop and launch “How to Copy Art” December 8, 2-6 pm

Weathered edges of small photos, marked by the years, reflect their stories in their black, high-gloss technological counterparts. Picture frames are piled up and stacked; angles want to be discovered by the visitor. Surfaces dissolve into their grids or are composed of words. Time and again, history and formality combine to create an exciting interplay of showing and concealing, legibility and abstraction. Tabea Borchardt complements these modes of play with collective works from TRAXX and ISCA from our archive.
Based on the medium of photography and related processes such as copying and printing, Tabea Borchardt examines viewing habits, visual phenomena and the shift in the perception of photography(s) due to changes in the media. In addition to photographs, objects, series of works as well as multimedia installations and texts are created, which come together in the Museum für Fotokopie with the zine “How to copy art?” created there and selected “Leaves from the Archive” from the museum’s collection.

The museum is open for Kunstblicken 2024:
Sat.Nov. 2, Nov. 3, 2-7pm each day.
We have works from Artist & Copymachine and Leaves from the Archive on display.

Come and visit us!

You can pick up our zine again about our copy machines!

“A history of the photocopy in chronological order
based on selected devices”

48 pages

Collected over almost 40 years and texts by Klaus Urbons
Incredibly great photography by @olekristianheyer
Editing and layout by Therese Schuleit
Not possible without: the great team at @makroscope_mh, so please leave a donation or become a member.

Supported by Landschaftsverband Rheinland

28. Oktober — 28. November

Gesine Grundmann furnishes the world with objects that tell stories of passion, possible futures, fictitious pasts, new uses or mischievous material substitutions. Things become non-things, or vice versa.

The Luxacopy CM-24 ME that we provided her with is no longer used in the everyday office environment for which it was created. Grundmann turns her attention to the high-quality material and the shape of the many individual parts hidden inside. From these originally static components, which together once fulfilled a mechanical function, Gesine Grundmann weaves a process, carefully recording every screw.

From the industrial ordinariness of yesterday, she creates a careful material archeology and reuse of materials. As a cultural technique, weaving itself is older than writing. Every weaving process is preceded by the work of spinning new meaningful, repeatable rows and creating logics. The abstracted horizontal and vertical chains in looms are regarded as rational predecessors to the first binary imaging and rationalization processes. Material, sequence and color create new patterns and images. Instead of sewing with a needle, she joins the previously squared individual parts into new originals with the help of a fine drill and wire, thus creating a new order and use. Her objects refer to the reproducibility originally used in industry and translate it into new forms.

Artists spend a certain amount of time in places for residencies in order to work and research. The Museum für Fotokopie reverses this principle. The ARTIST & COPYMACHINE format sends photocopiers to the studios of artists and collectives for a residency with the request to enter into a creative dialog. The only condition is that the photocopiers (or what is left of them) are brought back to the museum.

Artist & Copymachine is funded by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland
Text: Therese Schuleit

In the meantime, we are diligently sorting through his Kopie Kunst archive together with Klaus Urbons. Many of the items are numbered, many have been recorded, but so far the many sheets from 40 years of history are resting in their boxes. BLÄTTER AUS DEM ARCHIV/ LEAVES FROM THE ARCHIVE periodically publishes thematic strands from the archive, sorted by artists.

The Museum of Photocopying’s Kopie Kunst collection has around 850 works of international copy art in its collection, which have found their home in the new rooms. Each individual work has a close connection to the technical development of the equipment in question.
So far, these works can only be communicated if we consult them individually for our workshops. Together with artists, the collection is being reworked and linked with current art, design and scientific forms. The year 2023 has also seen an increase of over 250 sheets through donations, which need to be inventoried. Lots of exciting things to DO.

Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

This time with 2. International Biennal Electrography & Copy Art in Valencia/Spain, 1988. Video Snippets by TV 1 Broadcast, Brother MFC-L3730CDN series, Composition with Kenji Kojimas RGB-Music and Video: Klaus

This time by Stefan Helmreich – Xerophonics (2005) Copying Machines Music, Re-Upload of the originals on YouTube

Klaus D. Becker from Potsdam sent the M.F.F. a photo showing his father and an unknown man in Zurich in front of the bus belonging to the company Fotokopist from Essen-Werden. We are grateful for this unique historical document! The company was once world-famous for its reprographic equipment, which also included photocopiers. Our book “From analogue photocopying to digital workflow” contains a portrait of the company. Companies used advertising buses like the one shown here to travel to their customers, specialist conferences or trade fairs in order to demonstrate their products directly on site.

This time with Kenji Kojimas RGB-Music, Fax-Samples, Logic, Tabea’s Handscanner and Klaus Urbons

Bild und Video: Klaus

A few years ago, on the occasion of our exhibition on Edith Weyde, the editors of the Neue Deutsche Biografie asked whether we could provide information about the inventor’s life and work for one of the upcoming issues. It took a lot of work to formulate the data and facts according to the specifications, but we were of course very happy to do so for the mother of the blitzcopy and the instant photo. The 28th volume has now been published, and the pages about Edith Weyde can be viewed in the museum.

The cyanotype was developed by Herschel in 1842; it was the third photographic process, but because of its low sensitivity to light it could only be used for contact copies and blueprints. We already had a beautiful exhibition of cyanotypes in 2019 and used this simple and elegant technique in numerous workshops, especially but not only for school children. Now it was time again to prepare new papers and work with a small group in the M.F.F. to explore the possibilities of the blueprint. And we were lucky, the weather was kind to us – the sun shone for several hours.

To mark International Museum Day, Klaus is presenting the bilingual book “The Happy Misfits / Los Inadaptados Felices”, which he helped to create. The book deals with the earliest inventor of electrophotography, the Belgian Marcel Demeulenaere. With a foreword by José Ramón Alcalá, introductory texts by Beatriz Escribano-Belmar and Klaus and Demeulenaere’s autobiographical novella, this is a very unusual book about an almost forgotten, brilliant inventor. It is published by the Universidad Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca, Spain, the city where the inventor and his wife Simonetta were stranded in 1970.

Giulia Colombo from Italy recently asked for information for her doctoral thesis – specifically about Italian copy art. We asked her to send us her book list and it contained numerous new or previously unknown works. Among other things, Giulia pointed out the Getty Research Institute’s project dealing with the cop art of Barbara T. Smith. The artist lived in Pasadena and was one of the earliest users of the Xerox machine in the field of art. The Research Institute purchased most of her works and published the project – with stunning works by Barbara! The first book on copy art from 1978 stated that the artist had a Xerox 914 copier installed in her dining room. Here you can see how much this captured her imagination. Last October, Barbara had an exhibition at the ICA Los Angeles that received a lot of attention.

This time with Tabea Borchardt’s „Sammlungsbewegung Video I“ (2:39 min) 2020-2022 Sounds made by Scanner OptikPro Plustek, Logi “Silent Touch” plus mouse and computer noiz.

Monique Brunet-Weinmann, art critic from Canada, published the multimedia CD-ROM “Copigraphy, Elements for a global history” with LopLop in 2000 in English and French. This provides an overview of the work of numerous international artists in the field of copigraphy (copy art, xerography, copier art, electrography, etc.). The data carrier contains images, essays and comments as well as an introduction by Monique. The interactive multimedia CD was programmed with Adobe Flash and has therefore long been readable only with very old computers and operating systems. The history student Nils set about reading out all the data using an old iBook under Mac OS 9.1 and saving it as PDFs. This unique information is therefore secured for research regardless of operating systems. Anyone interested can examine the CD-ROM with the iBook at the museum upon request. Thanks for your patience, Nils!

Karin Dörre, Atti Mölders and Tubahan Riedel from the AG Mülheimer Künstler organized a successful exhibition for International Printing Day. The exhibition came to an end with a very well-attended reading of prose and texts by Ulrich Erbe, Rainer Komers and Joachim Poths. In the M.F.F. there are still some free catalogs for “The Elegance of Black and White”. The photo by Jürgen Riedel shows parts of the participatory printing campaign “Print yourself a Backbone” by Atti Mölders.

In 2022 we received an offer from Karlsruhe, an old Rank Xerox 1385 universal copier had been in an inventor’s basement for decades. We already had the device and at the time saw no way to add this milestone of early xerography to our archive. That’s why Klaus contacted various museums. Dr. Stefan Stein from the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn took over the copier for the newly designed computer printing station. It can now be seen there, fully restored. And a visit to the largest computer museum in the world is definitely worth it. Photo: HNF, Paderborn

Two small groups of visitors visited our museum and Franz John’s exhibition with Marlies Rustemeyer. In addition to the art, Nils and Klaus were finally able to demonstrate the old Xerox machine and the creation of the first xerography. Thanks to Karin Dörre, who arranged the appointment, and to Marlies for the photo.

As part of Franz John’s “RAGS ONLY” exhibition, we will be showing several films of John’s copying activities from the 1980s on February 22nd, 2024 at 7 p.m. An important tool for the artist was his hand-held copying machine, which he used to create all of the works on display in the exhibition. Duration 40 to 60 minutes, followed by an artist talk. Main films: Instant Copier Animation, 1984/85, Cricket, 1986, The Copied Gallery, 1987, Vision, 1988 – free entry, we cordially invite you.

The book “The Happy Misfits” already described, presented here by editor José Ramón Alcalá, is now available as an e-book on Google Play for €12 and in the printed edition from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. And in the M.F.F. you can browse the book. Have fun while reading!

This time with the HP Color Laserjet CM1312nfi MFP + ISF-Shadermapping, H4N Pro-fieldrecording, BV-X Multivocoder FX & Lovis Voß

Mr. Friedrichs from the company Print.com reported from Düsseldorf whether the M.F.F. would be interested in a Rank Xerox 1385 Universal. There can only be one answer to that: Of course! An example of this third xerographic photocopier from 1953 has graced our showroom since the Makroscope was founded, but it was clear from the accompanying photos that the copier also included some materials. This is always interesting because consumables have not been available for purchase for over 40 years. Print.com was generous enough to deliver the copier free of charge – on three pallets. A first inspection suggests that the copier was used creatively by the painter and sculptor Günter Krönlein, who experimented with self-mixed color toners. We thank you for this wonderful object.

The exhibition “Nello Spacio del Tempo” by Pierluigi Vannozzi at the L’Ariete gallery in Bologna ends on January 13, 2024. Beatrice Zerbini recites her poetry. Pasquale Fameli curated the exhibition of the artist, who also worked with Bruno Munari and is one of the pioneers of copy art. Congratulations!

This time with Laas Abendroth “Don’t shoot at the pianist”, 1996, box with cassette, spacer tape, photocopy on tracing paper over target with bullet and projectile. String piano, part 1 is played with the hands, part 2 with xylophone mallets. Recorded in a garage with the Sony TCM S65 dictation machine, copy 15 of 25. Video: Klaus

The world of Peter Huemer – graphics, painting and copygraphy will be shown by the gallery of the city of Traun (Austria) from January 10th to February 4th, 2024. The long-time president of Galerie Maerz, Ewald Walser, will speak about the work at the opening at 7 p.m of the artist, who died in 2022. Since the 1980s, Peter has been exploring the artistic possibilities of the photocopy medium, often in conjunction with drawing and painting. He organized a number of large exhibitions on copygraphy and, in addition to various catalogs, published the book “Image in Motion” about his own work.

In 1932, the Belgian inventor Marcel Demeulenaere (MD) patented a photographic process that had parallels to the later electrophotography aka xerography by Chester F. Carlson. But while Carlson worked with all his might to further develop his idea, Demeulenaere apparently couldn’t find the time. His numerous inventions ranged from automatic garage doors, typewriters and calculating machines to self-dialing, programmable telephones. In 1970, the inventor and his wife Simonetta were stranded in Cuenca, Spain: their car was totaled. Since the MIDE – Museo Internacional de Electrografia – was opened in this same Cuenca in 1990 by José Alcalá and Christian Rigal, a memorial plaque for MD was installed there. In the now completed book, Demeulenaere describes the journey through Spain in the form of a picaresque novel set in the 13th century (!). A truly wonderful story and at the same time a profound portrayal of human folly. The publisher is the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca, the editor is José Alcalá, introductions were written by Beatriz Escribano Belmar and Klaus Urbons, Bob Hirsch contributed translations into English and the professional reproduction of the illustrations.

In the 1990s, Franz John used a hand-held photocopier to create images of architectural artefacts. A hand copier allows the digital recording of surfaces: a digital frottage. The solo exhibition “RAGS ONLY” explores the use of this technique as part of the thematic complex Kind of Copy/Frottage.

The Museum für Fotokopie offers workshops with the hand copier on Thursdays from 4 – 7 pm.
In February, we invite you to an artist talk and film evening with Franz John.

The exhibition runs from 19.01.2024 to 07.03.2024
Vernissage on 18.01. at 7 pm

This time with Elisas Choir, Klaus Urbons, Logic, Océ 1615. Recorder & Video Klaus

Ten years ago we founded the Makroscope, Center for Art and Technology in Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany, where the Museum for Photocopy has also been located ever since. I gave a series of experimental lectures on the 75th anniversary of the invention of xerography. This old video gives an impression of the beginnings of the new edition of the museum. Happy Birthday Xerography!

Kunst im Tunnel from Düsseldorf visited our Open Copy Workshop with their educational group led by Manuel Boden, the workshop was led by Katia Stuke.

Welcome DOKUFO,

a compact electrically assisted Copyrapid version from Hungary, which found its way from Pirna to our museum.

This time with Sven Vieweg/Elektrohorror, Soundflakes: „Transparent People“ for „Metastabile Balance“ (Katja Stuke, Oliver Sieber, Sven Vieweg). Equipment: Amplifier, 2 Hifi-Speakers, 2 Tape-Decks, 2 Endless-Tapes, Plan (Pencil/Fine Liner/LetraSet on paper/29,7×21 cm/framed) c 2021, All rights reserved

This time with Oliver Sieber & Katja Stuke – Fax from the Library, Japan Edition

Georg Mühleck donated to us a truly stunning collection of his works of art created with the copier. The artist from Stuttgart was – among other things – the driving force behind a transatlantic exchange between North America and Germany. The traveling exhibition with Canadian artists “Medium: Photocopy” and the publication of the trilingual book of the same name (see “Books We Love 001”) raised the art of copiers to a high level. The joint presentation of copy art from Germany and Canada in Montreal and New York also contributed to the fact that the art form, which is more associated with the underground, received significantly more attention in this country.

Britta Stalleicken from the Mülheim Adult Education Center came to visit with a group. After the renovation and Corona, she wanted to get to know the new Makroscope and museum. She brought very interested people with her who listened to Klaus’ stories. And they also had interesting things to report themselves, for example about the “Robotyper” at Krupp, which was a kind of copy-type machine controlled by punched tape. The photo was taken in front of the wall painted by children in the museum courtyard, a project by David, who also created the lettering.

This time with Field Recording Inventurgespräch in the Kunstmuseum Bochum, Angharad Williams (voice), OKI MC352 and Klaus Urbons.

Therese brought Marcus Boon’s book to the museum – is it a work about the value and inevitability of copying for human societies? Much more than that, In Praise of Copying is a philosophical reflection on strategies of copying in Eastern and Western cultures, from the past to the present. Marcus Boon is well versed in both Mahayana Buddhism and hip hop. The range of his freely available work in English is simply enormous. Even the photocopy has its tiny moment in it. ISBN 978-0-674-07252-7

The exhibition of the same name took place in the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern in 1993. Wolfgang Hainke, Niall Monro, Ann Noëll, Heta Norros, Jürgen O. Olbrich and Emmet Williams showed their current copy work there. Heinz Höfchen wrote the introduction, Dirk Schwarze contributed the text “The copy and its removal by itself”. A small, fine catalogue, which unfortunately has to be rebound. ISBN3-89422-072-4

“Xerophonics – copying machines music” is the title of a 2003 CD. Stefan Helmreich made a total of 14 pieces of music from field recordings from various copiers – and they are incredible! He later combined the sounds with animations on the history of xerography and copy art on YouTube. In the MIT Library you can read a conversation between Helmreich and Walker Downey from 2019, highly recommended. (https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/130249/thld_a_00686.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y)

New Release. You can get this beautiful zine “How to Copy Art” by Tabea Borchardt from us after our summer break from 2 Sept. and of course try out all the inspirations. Thank you, Tabea

None other than Doc Florian Caps, co-founder of the Impossible Project for the rebirth of the Polaroid instant photo, wrote this unique book. It is a declaration of love to “One Step Photography” – and much more. On the one hand, Doc succeeds in linking the history of Polaroid with that of the Impossible Project and, on the other hand, in showing the diverse aspects that this new type of photography made possible. In 2016 the M.F.F.  described that the history of the instant photo was based on the work of Edith Weyde and André Rott in our out-of-print book. ISBN 978-0-7112-3750-6

This book by Robert Hirsch is full of surprises. The well-known author of many books on photography presents numerous American artists who explored and used photography beyond “straight photography” for the first time. Well-known names like Sonia Sheridan or Joan Lyons can be found as well as the lesser-known ones, Dan Burkholder or Vik Muniz. What they all have in common is the search for new opportunities to work artistically with photographic means. In addition, the author describes how different centers founded by artists emerged on the east and west coasts. Best example: the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester N.Y. – it’s been around for 50 years. ISBN 978-0-415-81026-5

Recently performed at the Elbphilharmonie: Xerrox by Alva Noto aka Carsten Nikolai. The ballet performance of this composition in Cologne has already been briefly reported here. You can listen to the entire Xerrox Vol. 4 album on YouTube. It’s special, but quite wonderful.

This book provides the first in-depth insight into the work of the important Swiss artist, theorist, art mediator and Duchamp specialist Serge Stauffer (1929-1989). At the F+F School for Experimental Design in Zurich, which he co-founded, Stauffer developed his own theory of “art as research” and also saw himself as a “researching artist” (text excerpt from the back of the book). The Swiss curator and art historian Michael Hiltbrunner has put together this wonderful book. ISBN 978-3-85881-377-0

The most active representative of copy art and copygraphy in Austria? Undoubtedly Peter Huemer (1952 – 2022). Peter organized and curated exhibitions and symposiums, published books and catalogues. The book gives a comprehensive insight into his personal work with the medium photocopy. Always important for him: the combination of drawing and copygraphy. With its own texts and a contribution by Carl Aigner, this small book gives a good insight into the work of a copy enthusiast. ISBN 3-85415-312-07

The trilingual book “Medium: Photocopie/Medium: Fotokopie/Medium: Photocopy” was published in Canada in 1987. As Georg Mühleck, artist, curator and editor wrote, “(it) is essentially a compilation of the touring exhibition (of the same name) shown in Germany in 1986”. But it also offered an insight into the work of artists based in Germany; female artists were only represented from Canada. A novelty in the field of copy art: the essay by the Canadian art critic Monique Brunet-Weinmann, who from then on was to deal intensively with international copy art or copygraphy. ISBN 2-89314-094-7

This time with Thomas Machoczek, Toshiba BD-5021, Modular Synthesizer, Akai MPC Live II

The photocopy museum in Makroscope Mülheim, which has been modernized from the ground up, reopens. It deals with copy art, explores the technical development and the experimental phases of copy art.

The NRW Foundation had supported the museum in recent years with around €120,000. The money was used to restore the new rooms attractively, partly by the museum’s own efforts. The stucco from 1898 was cleaned and walls and ceilings renewed. A flexible lighting system was integrated.

Thus, since the 70s, artists worldwide set out to explore the “unscheduled” possibilities of replicas. (…) The museum is now part of the socio-cultural art house “Makroscope,” a vibrant playground for music, image and discourse, directly opposite the historic Mülheim City Hall. Urbons himself was involved in the construction of the center as a creative mind. In the back room, selected milestones of reproduction technology are stored on racks several meters high, right up to the stucco ceiling. Further specimens are housed in Berlin. (…) His collection is internationally recognized, for the inventory of the more than thousand works there was a grant from the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, which reflects this importance.

The Regionalverband Ruhr summarizes the latest changes in an article. Thank you!

May 5 – June 22
thursdays 16 -18 o’clock
(except holidays)

We open our archive and test with you our copiers for the ability to reproduce classic techniques of copy art such as the real copy, copy motion, copy generation and overlay (copy on copy) in single and multi sheet, series, enlargement and reduction, on paper or on foil.
As part of Ruhr Ding:Schlaf, we are collecting templates that we will transfer to sleep textiles on June 22. We are curious to see if the devices will stand up to our experiments and invite you to join us.

No registration necessary

After 3 years and 36 editions, Mari Lena Rapprich says goodbye to the project M.F.F. Radio, which was initiated in 2020. Since then, various artists have followed Mari Lena’s invitation and realized sound compositions and experiments, based on sounds that arise during the copying process and are generated by copy machines.

A big thank you goes to Mari Lena, for initiating, curating and experimenting with the copiers, and all the artists involved so far!

The museum will continue the project with other people and new copy sound radio experiments!

This time copy_pasta with:
Minolta EP 3170, Lapsteel Gitarre, Pasta Samples, Effekte + Tintin Patrone

This time with:
Canon Pixma MP160 + Roger Fähndrich
part of “Digitalisieren”, 2010

23.03. 4 – 6 pm

Experiment & discuss, this week with various mobile thermal copiers. Their handy size and roll feed of the material can copy things that not only exceed the standard format, but can also produce special new formats.

“open copy” with current very practical questions about copying techniques. After we tested our Brother last week for its ease of experimentation and we were impressed by the useful slowness of a low cost small desktop that greatly improves varieties of manipulation. Today we take a look at how a special series of Minolta copiers enables print-like results thanks to the replaceability of the toner cartridges.

8. March, 4 – 6 Uhr, Makroscope

Tomorrow our “open copy” format invites you to current hands-on questions about copying techniques. After we have tested our OKI last week for its experimental friendliness, tomorrow we will take a look at our smaller desktop copier “Brother” and systematize our test routines.

Cordial invitation to participate, our focus this time is on the creation of patterns like Bruno Munari developed them with the Rank Xerox. Can current copiers keep up?

We will open our archive and test with you our youngest copier for its ability to reproduce classic techniques of copy art such as the real copy, copy motion, copy generation and overlay (copy on copy) in single and multi sheet, series, enlargement and reduction, on paper or on film. We are curious if it will stand up to our experiments and invite you to join us.

Thursday 2 March 16-18 h
Invitation, workshop

This time with:
Oki ES8473 MFP, Brother DCP- L2530DW, contact microphone, ultrasonic microphone, Samson MDR624 Mixer, Ibanez Analog Mini Delay, Boss BF 3 Flanger + Carolin Gerstberger

Since 2022, the Inventory Talks have been taking place at the Kunstmuseum Bochum, which deal with classifying and de-classifying as well as fundamental questions of collecting and de-collecting. On March 1, 2023 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. we will talk about the history and the reorientation of the M.F.F. Museum of Photocopy. We are pleased about the invitation and are looking forward to the Inventory Talk next Wednesday.

On the occasion of the Day of Printmaking, Mülheim artists are showing works that were created using traditional printmaking techniques.

Tubahan Riedel often begins with printmaking techniques and continues the works in a painterly or collage manner. Helmut Koch deals with mathematics from an artistic point of view. Marianne Goldbach has developed her own form of abstraction, which is characterised by the superimposition of several plates, forms and colours. For his exhibited etchings, Imre Vidék resorts to the technique of printing “au vélin” (German for “on silk paper”). Joachim Poths shows, among other things, a lithograph, an artistic multiple of an installation from 2011. “Lithography today” documents a constructive collaboration of the Mülheim art scene in and around Imre Vidék’s studio.

15 March brings the art of printing to life as an intangible cultural heritage of the German UNESCO Commission in a variety of events.

Exhibition opening 11 March at 5 pm IntroductionJannine Koch.
Workshop for etching with Marianne Goldbach and Tubahan Riedel: 17 03 from 3 – 6 pm Pre-registration info@agmk-mh.de.
Guided tour 26 03, 5 pm

Opening hours: fr 5 – 8 pm, sa + sun 2 – 7 pm
Admission and all programme items are free.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the radical potential of copier art and quick printing was embraced by artistic communities across the Bay Area. Creative hubs such as North Beach’s Postcard Palace, the San Francisco Art Institute, and Mama Bear’s Bookstore in Oakland provided materials, training, equipment and opportunities for retail sales. The 1980s and 90s ushered in an expansion in the way artists and individuals utilized copiers. Copy shops and community spaces such as public libraries continued to play an important part as hubs for artistic activity. Copier artists began creating art that provided commentary on Reagan-era politics and larger global crises. By highlighting the activities of these art spaces and the artists who founded and ran them, Positively Charged introduces viewers to the Bay Area’s extensive network of copier artists and history of copier art in the Bay Area.

This time with:
TA Triumph Adler Dc 2222, Yamaha DD-65 + Janis Fisch

On December 13, 2022, the artist and curator Peter Huemer, Austria’s most important promoter of art with copiers, died. Peter was a longtime friend and also a companion of the Museum of Photocopy. His works and publications in our collection will always be a reminder of his art and his tireless drive. 15 years ago, when the copy art scene had practically disappeared, it was above all Peter’s regular calls that encouraged the thought that this could change again. We mourn with his family, we will miss him.

A copier from the early 1980s was offered to us by Alexander Schmitz from Wuppertal. He had discovered the analog device from the French company Regma during a company liquidation and asked if there was any interest. With a weight of 100 kg, this was not an easy decision, because our capacities are very limited. But the Japanese manufacturer KIP used the NP (New Process) technology invented by Canon and this was not yet represented in our collection. And so, thanks to the owner Norman Grünewald, we were able to bring the copier to Mülheim.

André Chahil from Hamburg announced that Ueli Fuchser’s “Global Art Fusion” with Beuys, Higashiyama and Warhol is shown in the “Delivery in art” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art in Seoul (MMCA), Korea. Mr. Chahil supplied texts, serigraphs, a catalog and photographic material. The exhibition can be seen until the end of January 2023. Thanks to the initiator Ueli Fuchser, we have a serigraphy and the original test fax of this unique fax work of art in our collection. Photo courtesy of Chahil Art Consulting. Thank you very much!

This time with:
Modular Synthesizer, MINOLTA EP 4233 + Jan Ehlen

This time with:
Canon CanoScan LiDE 210, Midi-Keyboard, Computer + Erik Mälzner

For next year the M.F.F. offers a temporary position for curators. With the Museum für Fotokopie, we run a unique collection on copy art and the history of photocopying technology, which Klaus Urbons built up over almost 40 years. The reopening is scheduled for the first half of 2023, after almost three years of renovation. For this project we are looking for a person who – in close cooperation with the museum team – will take on curatorial and project management tasks within the limited project period.

A book has been published by MMKoehn Verlag in Leipzig about Klara Meinhardt’s work in the fields of cyanotype, photography and sculpture. In our exhibition “Kind of Copy: Cyanotype” from 2019 Klara was represented with some cyanotypes. A conversation between Annekathrin Kohout and Sarah Sigmund and an essay by Hannah Beck-Mannagetta provide insights into the artist’s work. The beautiful book – printed in duotone plus black – is supplemented by Klara’s catalog raisonné. You can order it directly from the publisher – via the link. We congratulate!

The musician Frank Bauer from Düsseldorf donated the M.F.F. his collection of around 100 zines from the 1980s. This is a great addition to our museum collection, which previously only contained a few zines from that period. The fanzines or zines impressively show how the widespread availability of copiers offered a mouthpiece, or rather an inexpensive instant medium, for the unrestrained creativity of the punk scene.

Joel Swartz is one of the pioneers of American copy art. He was one of the first artists to use the old Haloid-Xerox equipment, which was not yet automated. This interview took place on October 1, 2022 at artist Tom Carpenter’s home near Rochester.

This time with:
Oki ES8473 MFP, Minolta EP 3170, Minolta EP 4233, Octatrack, Modular Synthesizer + Thomas Schröder

The Rapid Publisher – Nico Bergmann and Torben Röse – present on Friday, October 28th. from 7 p.m. to midnight and on Saturday, October 29th, 2022 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. their book ALL COPIES ARE BASTARDS in the Gemeinde Köln, Ebertplatzpassage, Laden 7, 50668 Cologne. After two years of work, this work shows the best pages from the series of now well over 20 zines that The Rapid Publisher created as part of their copy parties with the visitors of the events and their copier. It will be exciting!

The Ballet of Difference at the Schauspiel Köln presents XERROX VOL. 2 in the dance DEPOT 1. The work is based on the composition of the same name by Alva Noto. With the choreography by Richard Siegal and the light art by Matthias Singer, the Ballet of Difference creates an interdisciplinary work of art. It’s worth it!

This time with:
Xerox WorkCentre 5687, Xerox WorkCentre 7556, Xerox Colour 560, IDRAL 4850, Canon iPF 785, a lever cutter, a paper cutting machine, Effekgeräten + Kathrin Grzeschniok, recorded at Copyshop Fhain

The daughter of the Swiss artist Bruno Heller, Barbara Heller Weber, offered the Museum für Fotokopie a selection of her father’s works that he had created since the 1980s using the copier as a central tool. Heller called his almost exclusively black and white works “transparent montages” because he usually assembled the works, which often appear like stage sets, from individual elements that he had produced with the copier in sometimes complex processes. Barbara Heller Weber and Michael Hiltbrunner, art researcher, cultural anthropologist and curator, personally brought the works to Mülheim. There were also two excellent catalog books on Heller’s work. One has to see these copy works in the original to recognize the masterful chiaroscuro. The museum and Makroscope say thank you very much.

Events have recently been taking place again in the Makroscope and the M.F.F. can be visited again, currently still restricted. After an extensive conversion of the room, the Museum for Photocopy is still in the middle of the reorientation as well as the construction of the archive and the new permanent exhibition. The reopening of the M.F.F. and a resumption of the museum program is scheduled for spring 2023. Until then, we invite everyone to look over our shoulders at work. The M.F.F. can be visited by appointment every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Just write an email to info@museum-fotokopie.de or klaus@museum-fotokopie.de. See you soon in the newly designed museum room!

The publication accompanying the exhibition Fast, Cheap, & Easy: The Copy Art Revolution (2018) at the CEPA Gallery in Buffalo N.Y. gives an international overview. More than 100 artists from the 1960s to the present were involved. They researched and used the mostly undervalued possibilities of the photocopier as a fast and innovative tool with which ideas, especially in art, can be realized, implemented inexpensively and disseminated. The publication, which is still available, contains descriptions of individual projects, artistic statements and biographies as well as numerous images and examples from artist books in the field of copy art. Robert Hirsch, Beate Reese, Kate Eichorn and Herbert Lachmayer contributed essays. The cover picture was created by the unfortunately deceased Dutch artist Lieve Prins.

This time with:
Minolta EP 3170, Minolta EP 4233, Oki ES8473 MFP, Rank Xerox LTD, Epson Perfection V750 Pro, Behringer Vintage Delay Effekt Pedal, Software: Max Msp, VST-Effekt-Plugins (MH Thump, GRM Delay, GRM Evolution) + Thomas Keiser

Tom Carpenter is perhaps the only artist who still intensely uses the old Xerox Flatplate Equipment – and creates impressing works with that analogue copying tools from the 1950’s. Look at this portrait of Necole Zayatz. Tom made the camera movable and turned it to “portrait” mode. The exposure in bright daylight was four seconds because the reusable Selenium plates have only an ASA of 2.0! Bob Hirsch made the photos. Thanks to the model, the artist and the photographer.

This time with:
Canon imagePRESS C700, Canon imageRUNNER 2625i, Imprimerie Héraldie / Vassili Gogatishvili (Die, Frace), Imprimerie Arc en Soie (Die, France) + Peter Strickmann

The copy performance initiated by Jürgen O. Olbrich took place in the Orangery in Kassel on July 19th. The occasion was the summer festival of the Association of Metal and Electrical Companies in Hesse. The district group North Hesse e. V. had invited Jürgen and as you can see, numerous visitors took part in the beautiful campaign. The photograph has been made by Mario Zgoll.

The excellent trilingual catalog of the exhibtion „Artistas y Machinas. Diálogos en el desarollo del Arte Digital“ (Artists & Machines. Dialogues in the development of the Digital Art) is now online. The exhibtion took place from Decemeber 2021 to March 2022 in València (Spain) and has been curated by Nilo Casares und José Ramón Alcala. Valencia: Ed. Generalitat Valenciana. 251 pages ISBN:978-84-482-6680-6. Trilingual edition Spanish / English / Valenciano. Catalog of the exhibition of the same name. Center of Carme Contemporary Culture (CCCC). Valencia. 2021/17/12

On May 12, 2022, the completely redesigned Océ Museum in Venlo reopened its exhibition to visitors. Attached to the Canon Customer Experience Center, the opening was duly celebrated there. A member of the founding family also welcomed the numerous guests. It’s really worth a visit. https://www.ocemuseum.nl/

This time with:
HP Envy 6020 und tibslc

The M.F.F. Musuem für Fotokopie is part of the exhibition “Murmuring of the Collection – Drawing and Graphics, Part 2” at Kunstmuseum Bochum. At the invitation of the current museum management, Noor Mertens and Sepp Hiekisch-Picard, the M.F.F. is showing works by international artists from its own collection, material from the archive and a small selection of historical photocopiers.

A modern photocopier is also available, which visitors can use creatively.

We are very pleased about this opportunity to be able to show some of the collection objects in the spacious museum rooms in Bochum.

The exhibition can be seen from Saturday 25 June to Sunday 21 August.

The opening is on Saturday, June 25 at 3:00 p.m., including the summer party.
Come around – we are here and look forward to seeing you!

This time with: Oki ES8473 and Achim Zepezauer

In the series “einszueins” the kønigliche Backstube, Zwiestädter Straße 10 in 12055 Berlin, will show Franz John’s project “Viva Maria”. The exhibition – in which a Rotaprint duplicator* also plays a little role – can be seen until August 13, 2022 during the opening hours of the kønigliche Backstube. On June 25, 2022 at 5 p.m., Franz will have a conversation with the writer Ulrich Enzensberger. A lucky coincidence brought Franz to “Viva Maria”. Opening May 14, at 5.p.m. It should be exciting. *The special thing about the Rotaprint was the political (and secret) use of the machine under Rudi Dutschke and later by the Kommune I. Subversive writings, leaflets, illegal prints, etc. emerged, which significantly shaped the student unrest of the 1960s.

Hubert Kretschmer and Jürgen O.Olbrich have jointly developed the publication “ZWEI” as part of the “KünstlerVerlegerKünstler” exhibition in the Kunsttempel Kassel, running until May 29, 2022. One of ten special editions of the booklet, each with two original collages plus a signed booklet, is also available there.

This time with:
Canon IR 2270, Soma Lyra 8, Behringer Neutron Synthesizer + Matthias Gründig

This time with:
GR-1 from Tasty Chips, Rank Xerox LTD, selfmade electromagnetic sensors examining a KYOCERA TASKalfa 5003i in a copy shop and Norman Neumann

We mourn Dore O., with whom we were closely connected. Her and the beautiful projects we had together at Makroscope and M.F.F. we will remember fondly. Our condolences go out to her two children and her family.

The Ursula and Peter Wenzel Collection has put online a website with the collected works by Jürgen, which is regularly updated. His copy works can also be found there. We congratulate!

For the opening of the new museum rooms in August 1988, José and Fernando not only brought their impressive works, some of which were created in cooperation with the sculptor Begona Sanjuan, but also an audiotape with the one and a half hour composition “Mosaicos” by Ignacio Ribas. This ran as a kind of ambient sound during the “Electrografias” exhibition. Dennis Dycks recently digitized the tape and I asked José who the author was because it wasn’t written on the tape. He wrote me that an abbreviated interpretation of the piece can be heard on YouTube – played in 2008 on the well-known organ of the Church of Saint Peter in Cologne.

The Pandemic Gazette, a 29 x 38 cm, 28 color page newspaper, has now been published by Bob Hirsch of Grand Island, New York State. The Gazette is his artistic interpretation of American press releases from the recent Covid era. We came in contact through Tom Carpenter in 2018 and together we curated the exhibition “Cheap, Fast & Easy – The Copy Art Revolution” at the CEPA Gallery in Buffalo. Bob’s overall project is called “Light Research” and he is also the author of quite well-known and successful books on fine art photography.

Pierluigi Vanozzi from Bologna sent us a copy of his catalog and the box that went with it on January 28, 2022. The exhibition of the same name took place from December 7th to 21st, 2021. Many thanks Pierluigi!

This time with:
Morphagene, Mimeophon, Beads, Schrubber, MINOLTA EP 4233 + Jan Ehlen

At his exhibition in the MFF in 1986, Franz John (http://www.f-john.de/) showed his Instant Copier Animation via video, he had recorded the tens of thousands of individual images on 8 mm film. The Berlin musician and producer Genetic Drugs provided the perfect soundtrack for this trip through the xerographic dimension. His collected works from the 80s and 90s are now available on Apple Music. The sound of Franz’ film is track no. 13. Thanks to Franz for pointing this out – the sound is fantastic – and the instant copier animation is a great piece of work that is second to none.

Constantin Dehn, interior propsman at UFA Fiction, asked in April whether the M.F.F. have a working Xerox copier from the 1980s. Unfortunately not – but as luck would have it, Klaus had already got an old Océ copier running again with the help of our super technician Bennie S. And it was from the early 80s. Mr. Dehn was enthusiastic and so the old darling was shipped to the location for the mini-series “Faking Hitler” in the old Düsseldorf tax office. The director wanted the young Stern reporter to secretly copy the forged diaries on a copier from the time. Again with the help of Bennie, a transport damage had to be repaired first, but then it was “camera off!” and our copier played along. In our collection we now have a few leaves of the fake fake. The series is currently running on RTL +

Urs Tillmanns, photographer, photo historian and journalist from Switzerland asked if a copy of the book “Edith Weyde – how a chemist from the Rhineland changed the world” was still available. Luckily Klaus had found a few copies in the museum basement. It turned out that Urs Tillmanns had also written about Edith Weyde’s invention in his book “History of Photography” – which is absolutely worth reading – and not only that, in his report he also showed an early instant photograph of the chemist, taken in 1941 from the window her laboratory at Agfa in Leverkusen. It is the first authentic image that we have seen so far. That alone was important information. But it got even better: Mr. Tillmanns donated the original picture to the M.F.F. – and we really can’t thank him enough for that.

“Essays on Leakages – Fake, Hybrid, Sites, Palimpsest” by Madhusree Dutta and Nanna Heidenreich was published in Edition: Angewandte bei De Gruyter – with essays by various authors and illustrations of some works from the exhibition “Copy it” from 2020 and a photo from Klaus’ OHP lecture.

This time with:
Panasonic FP-7742 von Stefan Helmreichs CD „Xerophonics – copying machine music“, dem Opener des Films “Chester Carlson” und dem Interview John H. Dessauers (Xerox) mit Chester F. Carlson von 1966 + Klaus Urbons

A Develop D 100 desktop copier from the 1990s, manufactured by Develop, the pioneer of the “Blitzkopie” in Gerlingen near Stuttgart, was offered to us by Dirk Gulden. We gladly agreed, because that completes a small, fine overview of the three copying processes used by this important manufacturer (Blitzkopie aka Copyrapid, electrofax and xerography).

The package that Jürgen sent from Kassel was supposed to contain ‘only’ a few manuals from old copiers that he didn’t want to throw away. But first of all, the package could not be found at the acceptance point. On the second try, it turned up – and when we opened it, the surprise came out! The package also included the “Readymade Stamps” an eight-part series of unique items. Thanks Juergen.

The catalog of the complete works, donated by Vanda Zsoldos, the artist’s widow, published in the Bocskai Muzeum, Hungary. Kadar has been very active in copy art and electrography since the 1990s, organizing an electrography biennial in Berlin and Seoul and several exhibitions in Hungary. There are two of his copy works in our collection. We would like to thank Vanda Zoldos and the Bocskai-Muzeum for this beautiful volume.

This time with:
Minolta EP 4233, Memory Boy + Mari Lena Rapprich

The exhibition “Artistas y Machinas. Diálogos en el desarollo del Arte Digital” (Artists & Machines. Dialogues in the development of the Digital Art) was curated by José and Nilo Casares in València. The Center del Carme primarily shows works from the MIDE CIANT collection. A life-size real copy of a nude from 1984 by Klaus is also included. The exhibition, which is well worth seeing, runs until March 20, 2022.

This time with:
Minolta EP 3170, Oki ES8473, Modular Synthesizer + J. Ehlen

A “ROWE 110” automatic whiteprint machine was offered to the M.F.F.  by an architectural office in Bavaria. Unfortunately we had to decline because this model is already in the collection and there is not enough space for a second copy.

As part of a course, Matthias Gründig’s students dealt very intensively with the topic of “copy” in all areas. He asked if a visit to the M.F.F. is possible, ideally combined with a workshop. Of course, Mari Lena and Klaus wanted to do that very much. In compliance with all necessary hygiene measures, around 20 students came to the museum and listened to our story. For the workshop that followed, we provided our state-of-the-art OKI and the wonderful old Minolta with interchangeable spot colors. There was joy – and a desire to experiment!

Unfortunately, it was not possible to save an continous copy from the exhibition “Sally Lunn – The Machine” by Wolfgang Hainke in the Essen Forum Kunst & Architektur. At the beginning of the 1990s, Wolfgang discovered a way of making copies of any length with his Toshiba copier, although this was not the manufacturer’s intention. He usually ran the copy work, which was up to twenty meters long, through the machine several times, using black, red and blue toner. In Essen he had pasted one of these copies onto the floor. This would have ended up in the garbage when it was dismantled – but Klaus wanted to try to get it. Moistening and peeling off didn’t work at all, the paper dissolved. Only at the end did it turn out that careful dry stripping was the best method. After all, the work could be preserved in fragments.

This time with:
Ocè 1615, Oki ES8473 MFP, Rank Xerox LTD, Minolta EP 4233, Yamaha PS200, Elerctro Harmonix Holy Stain, Tascam CDA500, Yamaha KX390 + Julian Eckstein

This time with:
Minolta EP 3170, Rank Xerox LTD 05, Oki ES8473, DAW and Einar Fehrholz

The complete library of the MIDE CIANT is located in the UCLM Library on campus. Researching there and searching for previously unknown publications was of course very important. The librarian Emilia Zomeno received Carmen and Klaus and led them to the well-stocked shelves. It was Emilia who had registered all the books there according to the international book standard. She was delighted with Klaus’ latest book and The Rapid Publisher’s zines. Thank you Emilia!

Klaus visited the MIDE CIANT, the “Museo Internaçional de Electrografia”, in the Universidad Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) in the Spanish city of Cuenca. There he met his old friend José Ramón Alcalá. José founded the MIDE in 1990 and teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts.

For four days, Klaus studied the museum’s unique collection, which is the most extensive in the field of copy art and electrography – and it continues to grow. Director of MIDE CIANT is Ana Navarette Tudela, she also heads the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Universidad Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) campus there. Dori Saiz organizes the office and the students Carmen and Clara work on digitizing the objects in the collection – a truly mammoth task. The collection is currently not open to the public, but the museum organizes exhibitions such as the current “Artistas y Maquinas” in Vàlencia and publishes. UCLM has set aside a huge air-conditioned room to house the collection. This is where most of the approximately 12,000 works of art are located.

Leopold de Rooij offered the M.F.F. three beautiful old photocopiers and an ancient Parlophone dictaphone. We already had two of the copiers, but not yet the “Blitzkopie” book combination device from Develop. But the copiers were on the Dutch coast. Luckily, Brigitte and Reiner Kleiss, old friends of Klaus, live nearby. They brought the copiers with them to Mülheim. Thanks to Leopold and to Brigitte and Reiner.

This time with:
Canon Pixma as metaphorical MuFu + Klaus Urbons

When we started to prepare everything for the renovations in M.F.F and parts of our collection has to be moved Kathrin Grzeschniok and her camera were with us. She captured this exciting moment of departure for us. A big thank you!

This time with:
Brother DCP-135C, DAW + Katharina Geling

We received a great donation of publications from the Hungarian group ARNYEKKÖTÖK (Shadow Weavers). The members Dárdai Zsusa, Szász János, Tenke István and Zsuboni Ervin have been exhibiting together since the 1990s and publishing a wide variety of formats. Now we should have almost all editions of their publications in our collection. Thanks to Tenke and ARNYEKKÖTÖK!

This time with:
Canon Lide 70, OKI MC352 + Klaus Urbons

An early Haloid Xerox copier, which had been around since the mid 50’s, was offered to the M.F.F. This copier-dinosaur which was marketed as the “Rank-Xerox 1385 Universal” until the 1970s, had apparently stood in the basement of an inventor in Karlsruhe for decades. It’s a very large machine with a repro camera, but we already have this fantastic copier and it’s the jewel in our collection. Dr. Stefan Stein from the Heinz-Nixdorf-MuseumsForum in Paderborn campaigned vehemently for inclusion in the collection there – and now the good piece is being professionally restored in the HNF and is then to become part of the permanent exhibition.

Flynn Neuhaus emailed us asking if we might be interested in a field copier he wanted to sell. The attached photos showed that it was a military copier, in a large grey-green box with stenciled writing. Inside was a Unikop exposure unit and  rare Develop manual development device from the very beginning. The exposure box can also be operated with a car battery. That was of course very interesting. When asked where the box came from, there was an amazing answer: At the age of seven, Flynn had gotten the box from somewhere – and because he thought it was so great, it stood in his children’s room for ten years! We came to an agreement and both sides were very happy. Thanks also to Gabi, in whose Smart the box just fitted.

This time with:
Oki ES8473 MFP, effect loops, walkman, fragments from The Rapid Publisher #17 + Mari Lena Rapprich

Today from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at M.F.F. a new zine from The Rapid Publisher will be created. You can simply follow the action in the stream. Due to the current easing, you even have the opportunity to knock on the door of the macroscope and submit your copy templates directly and watch them being copied. We look forward to zine # 17 and your copies!

Regarding your submissions please consider:
1. preferably created on May 16
2. A5 portrait format (21 x 14,8 cm)
3. printing will be black and white
4. raw and sketchy stuff is very welcome
5. send to mail@therapidpublisher.com

We make five objects from the collection and documentary material available for download in advance, which you can use as starting and collage material.

The Rapid Publisher consists of artists Nico Bergmann and Torben Röse, who fell in love with the smell of the copy machine. Since then they have done a lot of copy actions and productions of zines. The starting point for this is always a specific place or event. In the process, they are also at all times interested in the collaborative and the chaotic. They create the framework and assemble, everyone else provides the content, the copy machine duplicates. This is how they describe it themselves: ”Every few seconds the Minolta EP2010 spits out your graphic, your text and dripping sweat. Nico Bergmann and Torben Röse pick up, staple together, give your ideas a form. One shape, one zine, in five-minute intervals, the work of God or utter rubbish. Both are good!“.

For this year’s International Museum Day, the M.F.F. Museum für Fotokopie is hosting a collaborative online event with The Rapid Publisher from Cologne. This would actually mean working in a crowded room, sociably and collectively on the production of a zine: In a collage-like manner, cut-outs from magazines, drawings, and comic-like dialogues and commentaries come together to form a new edition of The Rapid Publisher zine. The copy machine takes on the central role of the duplicator, it becomes the production and publication point. This is how Nico Bergmann and Torben Röse describe their action themselves ”The Rapid Publisher means: A room full of people, drinks all night long, your brain meets the copy machine, creates publications with your hands!“
This time, we’re transferring the action to the WWW, and we want to work on the new edition online with everyone who’s interested. The actual copy action takes place in the stream, so you can watch live Nico and Torben from The Rapid Publisher producing the zine. But more importantly, you are invited to submit your own contributions digitally in advance and during the process to become part of the release!

04/05/2021 An Olympia OF 625 fax machine, vintage 1993/94 – donated by the Schuster family from Heiligenhaus. The fax machine had served the Schusters’ joinery for decades and was just too good to throw away. Ms. Schuster brought it over personally and also added a few rolls of thermal paper. Thank you very much!

This time with:
OKI ES8473 MFP, Mackie MS1202 + Dennis Dycks

Today we took part in the online event of the LVR Musuemsberatung “Zum Umgang mit Museumsobjekten – Dokumentation und Provenienzforschung”, at which the newly designed documentation case was presented.

04/08/2021 A beautifully preserved Xerox 3107 from the 1970s was presented to the M.F.F. by Constantin Dehn from UFA Fiction, but unfortunately we didn’t have the space (and an identical copy is in the Berlin depot). Fortunately, Mr. Gaigalat from the LVR-Industriemuseum in Oberhausen was happy to include the Xerox in the copier collection there.

36 years ago the M.F.F. opened at Friedrichstrasse 59 in Mülheim and showed works by Herbert W. Franke, Roland Henß-Dewald, Rainer Malich, Jürgen O.Olbrich, Timm Ulrichs and Klaus Urbons as the first exhibition. Back then, the collection consisted of copiers, documentary and technical materials and Copy Art.

This time with:
Minolta EP 3170, interview recordings with Klaus Urbons, synthesizer + Mari Lena Rapprich

During the last few days we were accompanied by Kathrin Grzeschniok and her camera while clearing the M.F.F. – In doing so, she certainly caught one or the other story. We are excited!

04.03.2021 Die Künstlerin Andrea Esswein aus Wiesbaden schenkte dem M.F.F. einige großartige Publikationen zu ihren Arbeiten im Bereich der Copy Art. Sie arbeitete seit den 90ern im Bereich der Kopigraphie. Besten Dank Andrea!

Here it is – the newly designed documentation case from LVR Musuemsberatung. We are one of the lucky places in NRW that got such a case as a basis for our museum work and handling the collection objects.

Today the wooden structure of the former false ceiling has been removed. Now we have an uninterrupted view of the stucco of the old dining room of the “Hotel Terminus”, which was built in 1898 and in which the M.F.F. is established.

Many thanks to Simon and Jan for the support.

A lot has been going on in the M.F.F.: A large part of our collection of Copy art And documentary material could be temporarily stored in the Makroscope, as well as the library and a lot of copy materials, but most of the copiers had to be outsourced. One or the other copier just fits into an elevator in individual parts and/or weighs a few pounds more.

Big thanks to Joey, Leonardo, Jessica, Felix, Ella and Hannes, who were supporting and helping over the past few days.

Today the library has also found a new temporary location in the Makroscope. Many books, magazines, exhibition catalogs and text excerpts are still waiting in our library to be listed and also to be visible on the website in the long term.

This time with:
Océ 1615 + Klaus Urbons
With kind instru-mental synesthetic support by Kenji Kojima, NYC, USA (www.kenjikojima.com)

Thanks to the generous funding of the LVR Musuemsförderung, the NRW Stiftung and the LVR Regionale Kulturförderung, the M.F.F. Museum für Fotokopie has the opportunity to realign itself, to take the necessary archiving steps, to develop a permanent exhibition and art education concept and, above all, the premises in the Makroscope e.V. to redesign and renovate. Now it finally starts – we pack the museum for a short time and then reopen it in its new splendor. We are incredibly excited about what lies ahead and are very happy that M.F.F. will be manifested in the Makroscope in the long term!

02/21/2021 Works by Joel Swartz had the M.F.F. already shown in the exhibition “Electrophotography” in 2016, together with works by his artist friends Charles Arnold Jr. and Tom Carpenter. At that time, Joel had donated a number of his works to the museum, for which he – like the other two artists – had used the hand-operated Haloid Xerox copier. Because Joel had announced another donation of his works of art, Klaus simply wanted to ask him about his artistic career, because he belongs to the first generation of copy art artists in North America. But that was not so easy: Only after technical hurdles and a lack of experience had been overcome could the conversation with the pioneer be carried out and (at least partially) recorded. It is truly a wonderful story that Joel had to tell.

A.Chahil’s JOURNAL now published the article “Blue Renaissance? Berlin Blue and the Art of Cyanotype.” by Klaus Urbons. We are pleased to be represented with the exhibition and an exhibition view of “Kind of Copy – Cyanotype”.

This time with:
Minolta EP 4233, Tapes + Mari Lena Rapprich

January 14, 2021 Artist colleague Jons Schüttler no longer had any use for his Spirit Carbon duplicator from ORMIG. The hand-operated printer from the 1960s was designed for use by the Bundeswehr and filled a fairly large and heavy box. In addition, Jons gave a lot of colored sheets, transfer printing liquid and even the special paper. Unfortunately there is no photo (yet) of this very welcome donation, because we were busy storing the collection. Jons had used the ORMIG for hands-on street campaigns – and Klaus would very much like to do a small workshop with this stylish duplicator.

The work continues in the background – sometimes slower, sometimes faster. We continue with the M.F.F. Radio every last Thursday of the month and put our heads together (with distance) to develop new ideas and take further steps towards.

This time with:

XEROX + Mari Lena Rapprich

12/04/2020 Walter Schernstein had invited Klaus to write an article for the Mülheim yearbook about the exciting history of the Dutch company Océ – van der Grinten, whose German headquarters was located in Mülheim from 1962. For many years, Océ management had supported the Museum fuer Fotokopie with both equipment and artistic commissions. It was therefore a point of honor for Klaus to return the favor.

This time with:
Philips HC111 and Jan Ehlen

This time Ole and Klaus digitize a lot of copy art – large formats, objects, artist books and much more. Also included is Jean-François Robic’s small matchbox with eight small copies, as well as works by NoNoJa, Jürgen O. Olbrich, The Rapid Publisher, Karl-Hermann Möller, Guiseppe Morrocchi, TRAX, Pierluigi Vannozzi and others.

This time with: 

Paulo Adam, E-Drums, Minolta EP 3170 + Mari Lena Rapprich

“When Klaus Urbons first opened his photocopier museum as a private initiative the idea of collecting such everyday material must have seemed pretty outrageous to some. Today it has become an absolute necessity.”

This time with: XEROX 265DC from the CD xerophonics – copying machine music copyright & copyleft by Stefan Helmreich, Seeland 2003, Tablet-PC + Klaus Urbons

For the new tape release from Montel Palma on November 6th, Sebastian, Yumiko and Tobias visit us at the M.F.F. to copy the cover for the tape with our fabulous Minolta analog copier with white toner on black paper. Together they came from Cologne to Mülheim to put the project into practice. Everything worked without any problems, which is always astonishing for a 30 year old copier. It is just a shame that the colored toners for the Minolta have not been manufactured for a long time. But we still have a little bit more…

For us, it is a first major milestone in the recording of objects in archiving and yet it is only the beginning of our extensive archive. These 1000 objects consist of photocopiers, Copy Art and various documentary material. Many artists* and companions* of the M.F.F. are now systematically recorded for the first time.

Currently Mari Lena is in the process of adding prioritised documentary material to the archive and digitising it. In the first step she has looked through a number of boxes and started to sort them. She then made a first selection of documentary material such as ephemera, press articles, accompanying materials such as invitations to exhibitions elsewhere or texts about artists* and copy art, or correspondence, envelopes, photo documentations of exhibitions, people, and copy art works. These will now be digitalised in the next step.

Actually, today another “Tattoo-Brunch” at the M.F.F. should have take place again. Mari Lena and Hamnes Performance want to continue the series this year and invite different tattoo-copy-artists to the museum to think further about the concept of copying and the transfer process and to add new perspectives. Based on the exhibition series “Kind of Copy”, copy art, copier machines and copier processes as well as tattoos should be combined in the M.F.F. and shown together and take place. We’ll postpone that until next year!

Mari Lena brought us a new work by Sara Förster from Bremen: a wonderful cyanotype on graph paper. Sara Förster was part of the exhibition “Kind of Copy – Cyanotype” in 2018 and has been a close companion of the M.F.F. We are happy about this new work and also a new artist position in our archive – Thank you!

Raiko from VASISTAS asked Mari Lena a few questions about my artistic work, the Macroscope and of course the M.F.F.

Today Tabea Borchardt and Vesko Gösel were visiting the M.F.F. to prepare and create an edition of works for their joint exhibition. With our fabulous analog copier Minolta EP 4233 a series of copygraphic unique pieces was realized for their exhibition at kunst.werden. The colors chosen were black and blue toners, which the copier transferred to the paper in a single pass. The work went very quickly and the two were really happy with the result. Vesko then applied a serial structure to the sheets of paper using lino printing.

Today we received mail from Berlin: Ulli Kattenstroth, artist and initiator among others of the Mail-Art action “THE JUNGLE OF ART”, is a long-time companion of the M.F.F. and has now blessed us with a special collection of Copy Art – Thank you very much!

This time with: Minolta EP 3170, NWB RS1 after Verden (Aller), Cello, Kalimba + Mari Lena Rapprich

Today Mr. Lindenkreuz, head of the elementary school Schönmünzach, and his whole family visited the M.F.F.. At the beginning of the year we received the spirit carbon duplicator “Trommler 400” from the school. The visit turned out to be quite funny: at first the kids weren’t really interested in old copying technology until they heard the success stories of Edith Weyde and Chester Carlson. The next time they visit we will hopefully be able to demonstrate the “Trommler 400”.

Today we will show you how you can do the famous “Astoria Experiment” at home.

Today we would like to introduce you to Chester F. Carlson: He was a physicist and patent attorney in America and developed xerography there – the copying process that we all still use today in a further developed, digitized form.

This time with Schmachtenberg, Oki ES8473 MFP + Mari Lena Rapprich

Today Mari Lena is invited to First Lights about the current situation and the new tasks of the M.F.F. to speak. Also there are John Jaspers from the Center for International Light Art, Unna, Mari Lena Rapprich from the M.F.F Museum für Fotokopie, Muelheim.de and Tomasz Wendland. It starts at 6 p.m.!

Through his research on Edith Weyde, Urs Tillmanns came across our book “Von der analogen Kopie zum digitalen Workflow” and immediately wrote a review of the book – Thank you, Urs!

Today Mari Lena starts digitizing the copy art of the archive. To do this, she works her way through the already recorded collection items with the respective object numbers. At your side are a flatbed document scanner and a lot of patience for this work step – a master scan takes between three and a half to five minutes.

Little by little, each collection item is assigned an object number and is recorded in the archive, each object being assigned to the archive categories Copy Art, Technology and Documentary Material and with its essential information such as information about the artist or the manufacturer, the title and material or also included the dimensions in order to enable further information transfer and scientific work.

This time with MINOLTA EP 4233 + Mari Lena Rapprich

… and a beauty.

Today we would like to tell you more about the chemist and inventor Edith Weyde – a great woman who has significantly influenced the development of the photocopy.

The digitisation continues – Mari Lena and Ole do everything for the right round and copy information and large format copy art work.

For some time now, Wednesday has been our Archive Day. There are still a lot of boxes and folders that want to be opened – Mari Lena is currently focusing on adding Copy Art to our archive, opening the various boxes of the Copy Collection, as Klaus Urbons calls it. But Copy Art can also be found in many other places, for example on some envelopes or on the backs of letters. All this has to be unpacked and sorted, taken into the archive and repacked in durable material.

This time with TOSHIBA BD-5120, Klaus Urbons, OKI ES8473 MFP, Mari Lena Rapprich, Jan Ehlen, MINOLTA EP 4233

In our newly conceived video series “The Magic of Copying” we tell you in interview format about the M.F.F. Museum of Photocopying, the pioneers of photocopying and our heroes like Edith Weyde and Chester F. Carlson.

In the book “From the analogue copy to the digital workflow” there is also a short summary of the history of the museum and its different places and encounters on some pages. The M.F.F. had several stops and was in the meantime renamed USEUM – a place where things were not only shown and exhibited but where they were to be used much more. It has always been an essential approach of the museum to be a production site.

This year, we will again be participating in the International Museum Day – We had planned everything around the exhibition “From analogue copy to digital workflow”, which was actually supposed to open for the book release and to take up further aspects of (Rhineland) industrial history, such as the advertisements and advertising leaflets of the manufacturers and copy shops. Now we are doing everything differently: We invite you to another reading from the book and broadcast the first M.F.F. Radio.

And we take this as an opportunity to take a closer look at our new Oki multifunctional copier. Mari Lena has set up a small copying station in the museum. See you there, in the form of copies!

We are in the new Heinz magazine with a little note about our web presence. On page 6, together with the great moers festival, this year things will be different there too.

As an introduction to the newly published book, Mari Lena reads the first text of the book “Echtzeit-Kunst” (Real-Time Art) by Roland Henß-Dewald for you, from 1989. Roland Henß-Dewald and Klaus Urbons had been exchanging ideas about Copy Art and everything that had to do with copying since the early 1980s.

As part of our book release, we will go live on YouTube to present the book to you. Mari Lena will ask Klaus a few questions about his many years of research into the technical history of the Rhineland and his fascination with innovative manufacturers.

To introduce the book to you and to find out what drove Klaus Urbons over the last years of his research up to this book publication, Mari Lena Klaus asked a few questions

We continue in the background: After the pre-launch of the website we are now working on the further contents and filling the website. We are also testing new formats and media, working on the archive and digitalisation, developing gifs and playing with our new OKI multifunctional device.

Today is a good day to break new ground – Klaus Urbons is transferring the M.F.F. Museum for Photocopy and thus his life’s work between art, technology and research to Makroscope e.V.

To celebrate the day, we’re launching our website and the new online archive today! In the last few weeks we have been working with the graphic office Bas & Aer and the programmer Guida Ribeiro on our new look for the M.F.F. and our new website. From today you can view the first version online. At 19.00 o’clock the page will be released – we let the countdown run!

We, too, have to stop our operations and all planned events for the time being and postpone them indefinitely. As part of the Makroscope, this means for us not only the restriction of our weekly opening hours at the M.F.F. but rather a cancellation of very different art and cultural events. This is a great pity, but certainly necessary.

Today we are starting the year 2020 together: From now on every thursday from 4 – 7 pm