A Tapestry
Where Appearances Deceive

• Text zum Nachlesen

  The Tapestry about Itself

  I am a tapestry. I am a typical German furnishing item because I depict the roaring stag. Tapestries with roaring stags can be found in almost every German household. Perhaps. Perhaps I just pulled the wool over your eyes?

  If so, then I would have managed that for the second time. The first time was even better though, because it lasted a bit longer, for decades in fact! Marios, who loaned me to the museum, fell for my trickery from childhood into adulthood. But that wasn‘t entirely his fault. I‘m simply mischievous.

  In truth, I come from Greece, just like Marios‘ family. I hung in his mother‘s room – quite useful back then: I kept the cold from creeping in at night. Later, she took me to Germany and spruced me up with these fringes! And then I hung in Dillenburg, where Marios grew up, in the living room – as decoration – and I surprisingly complemented the entire rustic decor so well that no one questioned my presence. Even though I immigrated, they thought of me as native. Because I‘m just that mischievous.

  Although... Surely it also played into my hands that, where I come from, I quickly look like an immigrant again. It‘s really a bit twisted.

  Zusatzinfos

  Marios Mouratidis‘ mother came to the Federal Republic of Germany as a young woman under the recruitment agreements between Greece and Germany, bringing along this tapestry – now the sole memento of her childhood. For a long time, Marios and his siblings assumed it was a typical German furnishing item, until one day Marios asked her about it.

  Frans Post‘s „The Village of Ipocuja“ to the Tapestry

  I am an oil painting from the 17th century, and I can‘t help but feel like I‘m doing something quite similar to you. The more I think about you and your story, the clearer it becomes to me.

  I mean, you‘re quite an incredible thing yourself, with your merry herd of deer and that cozy landscape – that sort of thing doesn‘t really exist. Or, let‘s say, similar views certainly exist, but well, the way you exaggerate it... You even say it yourself: You‘re a mischievous thing, you like to tease people a bit. And now I realize that I know that from myself too...

  You see, I was painted by someone who may have seen comparable places, like the one I depict. Frans Post, that was his name, he had indeed spent eight years in Brazil, with Count Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen. But I also remember his eagerness to make me as interesting as possible – to instill some sort of, let‘s say, mystery in me. I don‘t know, maybe because that‘s how he saw it himself, but certainly also because that‘s what people wanted to see.

  Like you, I – somehow – have something fantastic about me, something uplifting, and I always thought that was simply beautiful. But now I would say it more precisely: It may be beautiful as long as people know that it‘s also an illusion. As long as they know that the truth may lie elsewhere. I thank you for this insight.

  What places, things, landscapes do you have in your mind? Do they really exist like that? And what feelings do they evoke?