Such an idiot! He’s put his leather pants on backwards, and now, laughing, he takes out the hammer to nail a board to his head. That won’t go well either, as the colleague next to him suggests: his thumb is heavily bound and he has already sunk four hopelessly crooked nails into the board in front of his brain. The “Drietschla” is completely different. He sits on a snail in spurred boots, sticks his butt up like a jockey, but is so limp that he has to support his bored face with his hand. Above him, a sloth smiles in its sleep. They would like to send the “Springinkerl” over to him with his whip and the locusts so that things can finally move forward.
All of these strange figures come from the imagination and clever brushstrokes of the Reichersbeur cartoonist Hans Reiser. The artist has collected 90 Bavarian swear words in his hot-off-the-press illustrated book “Loamsiada, Doagaff, Siasskasa”.
Open detailed viewHans Reiser – here with the “spinach quail” and the cover photo of his new book – in his studio in Reichersbeuern. (Photo: Manfred Neubauer)
Open detailed viewThe “Drietschla” just doesn’t move. (Photo: Hans Reiser/oh)
Scolding has rarely been so beautiful. So plastic. So evil. And so loving. In addition to the brilliant idea of giving visual expression to a word like “Gschwoischädl” or “Zwiderwurzn”, it is the many small details that make Reiser’s pictures a pleasure. For example, when the “poison noodle” sits in front of a portion of spaghetti, the old woman not only has snakes growing out of her head; Three particularly dangerous types of pasta are portrayed in front of her plate – like on a teaching board: “Mordelli”, “Varrecchi” and “Giftini”.
“You always have to have something to see,” says Reiser about the lavish accessories with which he decorates his predominantly human, but sometimes also animal or plant protagonists. He often surprises himself with it. “That’s what makes it so appealing.” While his portraits thrive on bizarre exaggeration, the subtleties in the margins – beetles, cacti, kohlrabi tubers – are evidence of a precise observer and a great lover of nature.
Open detailed viewThe “poison noodle” should be treated with caution. (Photo: Hans Reiser)
Open detailed view as well as the “Zwiderwurzn”. (Photo: Hans Reiser/oh)
Reiser, born in Lenggries in 1951, grew up in Fall and went to boarding school in Tegernsee. He says swear words were part of everyday life in his childhood. At boarding school at the latest, everyone had a nickname. He was called “Zincus” because of his big nose. “That’s when humanistic education met insults.” The idea of turning it into a project came to him a few years ago when he was dealing with Bavarian topics for two exhibitions at the Olaf Gulbransson Museum in Tegernsee and brought Bavarian insults to the screen for the first time . Then he realized: “This is something I really enjoy.” He has been concentrating entirely on it for two years.
The strong Bavarian insults are more descriptive than denigrating. “You can hear the voice of the people with dark fantasies and great ingenuity.” Their cathartic effect, on the other hand, is rather low, which is why they are unsuitable for exceptional emotional situations – such as car journeys. “When I feel angry, I also say: You idiot!”, Reiser admits. Because saying “you Drietschla” wouldn’t get rid of his anger. But at the regulars’ table, when he tells me that another “loamsiada” has come his way, everyone immediately knows what happened to him.
Open detailed viewThe “Heislschleicha” want to inherit. (Photo: Hans Reiser/oh)
Open detailed viewThe “Gniabiesla” hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet. (Photo: Hans Reiser/oh)
Even those who have never heard the word “Heislschleicha” should recognize it straight away in Reiser’s cosmos: the lizard-like heirs who twist around Grandma’s wheelchair while she convulsively holds on to her old villa. And you would immediately know who you would like to give the “Gschaftlhuber” or the “Freibierlätschn” to. Here and there you might even meet yourself in the pictures.
You have the opportunity to do this at eye level in the Tölz City Museum, where Reiser will be exhibiting from Thursday, October 10th. 90 pictures, all framed in a 60 by 50 centimeter format, can be seen there in their original form for almost two weeks.
Anyone who wants to know more precisely who is behind the words “Loamsiada, Doagaff and Siasskasa” will be pleased with the explanations in his book. There Reiser translated every swear word “for fellow citizens who are not native speakers”. A “Gniabiesla,” as we learn, is “someone who hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet.” You can definitely use the book for further training. As Reiser puts it: “A curse word says more than a thousand adjectives.” And you really don’t want to come out as an idiot at the regulars’ table.
Hans Reiser: “Loamsiada, Doagaff, Siasskasa – Bavarian insults”, Exhibition and book presentation in the Tölzer Stadtmuseum, Marktstraße 48, October 11th to 23rd, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Opening on Thursday, October 10th, 7 p.m.; further information at www.reiserhans.de
