Jule Umlauf adds an artistic installation to the collection of everyday objects from Swabian middle-class households in the WUNDERKAMMER – NATURALIA I ARTIFICIALIA on the occasion of the bachelor’s examination at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart.
In Rottweil, my hometown,
Still free, in the German Empire,
There citizens, even the council, loved to play foolish pranks at
Carnival.
The Mamamuki was carried around
During these carnival celebrations,
It was the fool’s sanctuary
Like a pagan god.
Verses from a poem from around 1830 “Carnival in the old imperial city of Rottweil” by Josef Anton Kammerer.
The word transformation is derived from the Latin word “transformo” and means something like converting or transforming. During a transformation, things or facts are changed or redesigned.
This work is interested in the transformation of traditional objects and clothing. The theme is implemented by transforming various items of clothing and accessories of the carnival fool figures in Rottweil so that they are reminiscent of fetish objects or fetish clothing. This transformation places the items of clothing and props in a modern, contemporary context. By changing the individual objects, a confrontation with the tradition of this carnival culture in particular takes place and a critical
comment is made on this sometimes very conservative culture. This breaks with tradition and shows a transformation.
The term “Carnival”, like the evening before Christ’s birth, namely “Christmas”, comes from the eve of Lent.
The carnival in Rottweil is one of the oldest in Europe. The fool, full of sensual pleasure, without charity and abstinence, was seen as a negative image by the church. He stood in contrast to a person who was pleasing to God. From the church’s point of view, the “fool” stood for “succumbing to one’s own death” and thus as a symbol of death.
During the Corona pandemic, the freedom of people and their bodies was significantly restricted, which is why the revival of fetish fashion can be understood as a striving for freedom after the pandemic. An exploration of gender and sexuality is taking place.
Biography: Jule Umlauf has been studying art at the ABK in Stuttgart since 2017. Since 2018 she has been studying philosophy as a second subject in the Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Stuttgart and at the ABK Stuttgart.
This work was carried out as part of her bachelor’s thesis.
