Museum moments: dragon in the box

by | Oct 14, 2020 | A look in the depot

MuseumMoments is today’s motto of the MuseumWeek on twitter. Currently, a very typical occurrence during our museum work is this: Wait — Stop! Things are going differently to what we’re used to. And that’s how our dragon is looking as well — what do you mean, we’re not getting started? Well, what’s going on?

But let’s start from the beginning:

In January we were contacted by the Augsburger Puppenkiste: they were planning an exhibition about animated puppet cartoons and had stumbled upon our 2013 exhibition: Putty, wire and camera. They wanted to do a similar exhibition and asked us for some items on loan. We have a number of stop-motion trick puppets and even some whole sets as permanent loans, for example by filmmaker and animation designer Tine Kluth. Her film “Kater” (male cat) is one of our highlights. Of course, the team of the Augsburger Puppenkiste wanted to show that, too. The film “Prinz Ratte” (prince rat) by Albert Radl stood on the list as well.

The dragon from “Prinz Ratte” by Albert Radl.

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What needed to be considered was the following: Can they go on such a journey? The actual street from the film “Kater” had to be placed aside — that needed to be seen to by a restorer, first and foremost.

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Though after a bit of maintenance, the main character and some other stage props were technically ready for the journey.

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And the big bad dragon from Prinz Ratte? Well, that one wanted to depart immediately and travel to see Frau Mahlzahn (Mrs. Grindtooth from the Augsburger Puppenkiste)! But first, we had to build some nice travel boxes — because stop-motion trick puppets and props are incredibly delicate….

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And then, yes…then came the 16th of March. And everything appeared a little differently than planned. The Dragon wouldn´t be going on tour, rather back into his box. Until September. Or so.

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MuseumMoments MuseumWeek 2020

Have you heard of our Depot Tuesday already? Every Tuesday we offer interesting insights into our scientific work in the museum’s depot. All entries can be found here.

Mehr einblicke in die Arbeit im Depot

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