The third-year classes at GGS Zunftmeisterstraße spent a week working with Max Rüthers from Dortmund, copying, crafting and gluing to create some amazing Strolchinnen. At the museum, they also learned about the formerly slow art of copying with Therese Schuleit. We will be opening the exhibition with a ceremony on Friday, 14 November at 4 p.m.

The ‘Kulturstrolche’ is run in cooperation with the Kultursekretariat NRW Gütersloh. In 2025, a total of 13 member cities of the NRW KULTURsekretariat will be participating: Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Moers, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Neuss, Oberhausen and Recklinghausen. Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Sat. 8 Nov. 2–7 p.m.
We celebrate black toner and copy black on black on three different copiers. Side swipes at Black Friday are intentional. At the end, we hope to bind a few jet-black zines with our dark explorations. Let’s see!

13 Nov. – 13 Dec. Museum for Fotocopy
12 Nov. 4 p.m. Performances ‘Some small pieces’ at the Kunstmuseum Mülheim
13 Nov. 5 p.m. Vernissage at the Museum for Photocopying
13 December, 5 p.m. Closing event at the Museum für Fotokopie.

We cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition marking the 70th birthday of Jürgen O. Olbrich (Kassel) on Thursday, 13 November 2025, at 5 p.m.The artist has compiled a selection of his copy art series from the Ursula & Peter Wenzel Collection.

Opening hours: Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and by appointment.
Curation: Klaus Urbons

We are opening our archives and inviting you to test our copiers’ ability to reproduce classic techniques of the art of copying, such as 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.

As part of our exhibitions, we work on specific themes and regularly invite artists and specialists to participate. We are eager to see whether the devices can withstand our experiments and cordially invite you to join us.

Dates for 2025
Thursday, 25 September, 4–7 p.m.
Saturday, 8 November, 2–5 p.m.
Sunday, 9 November, 2–5 p.m., copying with the Xerox
Saturday, 13 December, 2–5 p.m.

Contribution towards expenses: £15. Please register in advance.
Come and Copy.

Manuel Boden and Patrick Rieve spent 24 hours at the museum testing the resilience of the new Canon Imagerunner and our Minolta EP. During the Between Books fair in Düsseldorf, you can purchase the zine ‘Imagerunner’ that they created during this time of squatting the museum.

Thanks to a donation, the museum now has a new, fully functional A3 black-and-white photocopier on its premises. What makes this machine special is that the scanner bar of the 1990s copier does not allow for depth of field and is not as fast as newer machines. This allows for extensive manipulation during the scanning process. Immediately after its arrival, the copier was tested extensively. The device allows you to shake your head extensively during the copying process.

The museum will be at the Between Books fair in Düsseldorf’s Kunsthalle with its zines, publications and some specially created editions. Independent art book publishers, artists, DIY and independent publishing collectives, cultural initiatives, associations and publishers of zines and magazines will meet in the rooms of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf to present their work to a diverse audience. The focus is on players from the local and regional publishing scene, supplemented by exciting contributions from other parts of Germany and neighbouring European countries.

BETWEEN BOOKS 2025
Friday, 19 September 2025, 3 to 9 p.m.
Saturday, 20 September 2025, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, 21 September 2025, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Grabbeplatz 4
40213 Düsseldorf

Carolyn Gennari (US) visited us in the summer of 2025 on a research trip. In her work, she explores the handling and artistic potential of copies made with selenium plates. Thanks to her stay, our Xerox machine is once again producing reliable copies. An edition of 10 sheets created with the Minolta EP4233 is available for purchase from us.

Thu. June 26, 4 – 7 p.m.

Thomas R. Carpenter (USA) is an artist best known for his work in the field of electrophotography, also known as “copy art” or xerography. This process, the forerunner of modern photocopying machines, uses a large format camera, magnetic plates and carbon-based images. Originally developed for reproducing office documents, Carpenter used this method as a photographic process for fine art, making prints without a darkroom and producing detailed images with a good tonal range. He was trained in this manual process by photographer Joel Swartz. Carpenter manually loads a selenium plate, exposes it with a camera, develops it with toner and then transfers and fixes the image onto paper. This allows for modifications and artistic interventions during the development process. He explores the historical and artistic potential of this “unusual and magical” tool, often focusing on original portraits. His work explores the concept of the photocopier as a creative tool and examines strategies of imitation in art.

Tom Carpenter is one of the few artists in the world who uses the historical Xerox with selenium plates for his art and utilises it like the museum in its functioning condition.

With Anna Bromley, Dr. Linnea Semmerling and Patrick Rieve
Museum für Fotokopie, Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 48, 45468 Mülheim an der Ruhr

The talk will provide an insight into artistic strategies that defy convention and find their own channels for their messages – be it through the resistant frequencies of pirate radio stations, the do-it-yourself aesthetic of video self-publishing or through self-published zines and so-called gray literature. What all three artists have in common is that they use archives of past technologies; they seem to be researching the present with the means of the past. The artistic, archival, sometimes humorously subversive confrontation with these ephemeral and unruly forms of expression can inspire people to print, broadcast and disrupt themselves, rewriting current rules with a wink.

Artist Anna Bromley is a specialist in the multi-layered history and artistic resonance of pirate radio. Her work delves deep into the archives of various resistant frequencies to investigate the subversive and ephemeral nature of these alternative media forms. Her research interests include a range of pirate radios and self-organized broadcasting projects that have subverted established communication channels. She artistically processes police protocols and explores the social resonance and “untraceability” of these DIY stations in a time before the Internet.

With his “St. Patrick’s Zine Library”, Patrick Rieve opens the doors to a nomadic archive of self-publication. Active as a zine maker himself since the early 1990s (Schwarzmarkt Comix), Rieve collects and presents zines, fanzines, minicomics and other unconventional print products. His wandering library makes these often overlooked forms of publishing visible and celebrates the culture of DIY as a resistant practice.

Linnea Semmerling leitet das Düsseldorfer Inter Media Art Institute (IMAI). Die Aufgabe des 2006 gegründeten IMAI, Video- und Medienkunst zu bewahren, zu erforschen und zu verbreiten, geht auf den Pioniergeist von 235 MEDIA zurück. Der ursprüngliche Puls schlug im Rhythmus von Punk, Post-Punk, New Wave und Industrial-Musik, die über das zentrale Medium jener Zeit verbreitet wurde: Audiokassetten. Im weiteren Verlauf des Jahrzehnts verlagerte 235 MEDIA seinen Schwerpunkt vor allem auf die Videos der Künstler und wurde zu einem wichtigen Verteiler, der sich für internationale Videokunst einsetzte und dafür sorgte, dass diese oft flüchtigen Werke, die häufig auf VHS und anderen Bandformaten aufgenommen wurden, ein Publikum auf Festivals, in Galerien und sogar im Fernsehen erreichten.

“Unlike paint and brushes, hammers and chisels, cameras and pencils, the photocopier is a utensil that is more likely to be thought of as a strictly purpose-built reproduction device – and not so much as an artistic tool. But the copy boxes can be used and misused in so many different ways that they amaze us. (…) This is by no means all there is to see: Historical photocopying machines, countless experiments with the photocopy medium, amazing effects that can be achieved with a Copy Motion, because while the scanning bar is moved, the motifs on the glass pane are also moved, resulting in constantly surprising optical distortions.

Every photocopy shown here is a genuine original.”

You can read the whole article here

A large group of students from the University of Münster gathered at the M.F.F. on May 21st to experiment with our workshop copiers. On the wall, you can see the beautiful submissions to our open call.

For the anniversary celebration, the entire Makroscope was transformed into an exhibition space, featuring wonderful works of art and—more importantly—a large number of esteemed guests from near and far. Pioneer Lynn Hershman Leeson participated online from New York and was interviewed live by Therese Schuleit.

We cordially invite you to the exhibition opening on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at 5 p.m. Mayor Ann-Kathrin Allekotte will welcome attendees, and art historian Dr. Gerhard Ribbrock will introduce the exhibition and pay tribute to the work of Jochen Leyendecker and Uwe-Dieter Bleil. On Thursday, April 17, at 5 p.m., Tubahan Riedel and Jan Homeyer will moderate a discussion with the artists, and on Sunday, May 4, at 4 p.m., there will be a reading with Rainer Komers and Joachim Poths.

We invite artists, designers, photographers and all interested parties to redefine the concept of the portrait in the context of scanner art.

Technical requirements:
One work with one person
Format: DIN A4, DIN A3, at least 150 dpi,
Technique: Copyart & scanner works (any form of scan-based art)

Works can be made in the Open Copy Workshops, Thursdays 4-7pm
All works will be on display in the 40th anniversary exhibition from May 15 – June 29.

This time with “gradient (2024)” by Franziska Windisch, generated with the historic photocopier Minolta EP 4233 in the Museum für Fotokopie, Mülheim

Five students from Dortmund joined the Open Copy Workshop and were enchanted by our analog Minolta EP 4233 and the little Brother. From left to right: Robert, Klaus, Tanja, Julia, Anja, Nico and Luis.

The M.F.F. Museum of Photocopying is celebrating 40 years of “Unruly Publishing”. The birthday celebration and the opening of the exhibition will take place on May 15, 2025 at 6 pm with an introduction to the copy by Lynn Hershman Leeson. The exhibition tells and shows the motivation and stories of the people behind unruly forms of publishing, from copy & video art to zines and pirate radios.

WITH: SILKE ALBRECHT, ANNA BLUME, ANNA BROMLEY, JAN EHLEN, LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON, JACQUI MUNDRI, ANDREAS MY, LINNEA SEMMERLING, LIEVE PRINS, ST. PATRICK’S ZINE LIBRARY, PATRICK RIEVE, RAPHAELA VOGEL AND MANY MORE.

Check here the documentation:

Unruly

March 13 – March 29, 2025
Opening March 13, 2025, 6 pm

For the Day of Printmaking, the Museum für Fotokopie is presenting works by Klaus Wiesel that focus on the creative potential of his technical collaborators. With “Error”, Wiesel shows typographical and other finds from recent years, when his printers and copiers handled the design themselves – in most cases without being asked. They deprive commercial graphics of their usefulness. Now they are very handsome.

14.3.–16.3. and 19.3.–22.3., 27.3., Finissage 29.3.: open 4–7 pm.
plus by appointment: info@museum-fotokopie.de

15.3. „Day of Printmaking“: Guest artist FUNBOT.wtf

We open our archive and test our copiers with you for the ability to reproduce classic copy art techniques such as the real copy, copy motion, copy generation and overlay (copy on copy) in single and multiple sheets, series, enlargement and reduction, on paper or on film.

As part of our exhibitions, we work on specific themes and always invite artists and specialists. We are curious to see whether the equipment will stand up to our experiments and invite you to join us.