Elmar Hess
Elmar Hess (born October 5, 1966 in Hamburg ) is a German artist . His work includes film art , video art , photography , installation and object art . In his work, Hess addresses interpersonal conflicts as a result of systemic pressures. The individual events are brought into the context of historical events.
Life
Hess' youth was shaped by stays on the southern English coast. Due to the proximity to the British overseas ports, he developed a pronounced passion for transatlantic ships. Although this is not the thematic focus of his work, it is reflected in countless details and the often metaphorical imagery, especially in his filmic works.
From 1988 Hess studied at the State Academy of the Arts Stuttgart and at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg and attended the classes of Katharina Sieverding and Franz Erhard Walther . From 1998 to 2000 he studied at the University of Hamburg film u. a. with Michael Ballhaus . In 2006 he received a scholarship from Casa Baldi at Villa Massimo in Olevano Romano . Since 2010 he has been a visiting professor at the Saar College of Fine Arts .
Elmar Hess lives and works in Berlin.
plant
"War years"
His artistic debut work was staged by Elmar Hess, who outwardly bears an obvious resemblance to the US actor Orson Welles , in 1996: In his film "War Years" he stylized a relationship crisis to the world war. An oversized kitchen table turns into a battlefield, on which an arguing couple of lovers, staged in allusions to Churchill (who plays Hess) and Hitler, meet. The film, which appears surreal in many details, is experienced from the narrative perspective of a large model ship that is caught up in the turmoil of the war. The film addresses the media's handling of the difficult German heritage and breaks taboos: images and sounds, figures and architectural landscapes of the National Socialist dictatorship and World War II fade into characters among many in the storylines of the film. In an almost playful manner, National Socialist and Allied war strategies as a historical fund are equated with scenes from a private relationship clinic. The relationship drama formulates "War Years" as a tableau of social landscape in a de-soulled world: people are pushed into the intellectual traverses of seemingly serious commentary voices and appear to be integrated into the voracious machinery of a war that rages in the vacuum between social, historical and material relationships.
"Freedom is not for free"
Comparable to the theme of his work “War Years”, Hess' room installation “Freedom is not for free” from 2006 ends with a love conflict before the tribunal of a human rights committee. The case becomes a troubadour grotesque about role stereotypes and behavior against better judgment. Behind the individual drama, the work paints a picture of society in which the fulfillment of human longings is prevented by lobbying and manipulation by the media.
As in most current works by Elmar Hess, video sequences are the focus of an installation in “Freedom is not for free”, in which objects, photos and recordings of private origin are related to historical events. In the work "Cold War" the gender struggle mutates into a confrontation between the two superpowers in the Cold War. To this end, Hess equipped people he knew as historical figures and photographed them in well-known poses. John F. Kennedy , Che Guevara , Mao Tse-tung , Willy Brandt and other prominent participants in the politics of the Iron Curtain are so ironically exaggerated and depicted in a deceptively similar manner. In his productions, Hess refers a. a. again and again to the "wild" 1960s, in whose taboos he sees gendered power struggles of social dimension.
Exhibitions (selection)
- 2013 "STILLS", Gallery WHITECONCEPTS, Berlin
- 2013 “LA MÈRE PERDUE”, Saarland Gallery - European Art Forum e. V., Berlin
- 2010 "Man Son 1969", Villa Merkel , Esslingen
- 2009 “Man Son 1969 - Horrors of the Situation”, Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 2009 "Expanded Realities", Gallery of the City of Pécs / CZ
- 2008 art Karlsruhe
- 2008 “Seascapes - From Max Beckmann to Gerhard Richter”, Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 2007 “Fish and Ships”, Barlach Halle Hamburg
- 2006 "SNAFU - Media, Myths, Mind Control", Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 2005 "Videothek", gallery of the city of Wels / AT
- 2004 “White Nights Kiel Above”, Kunsthalle Kiel
- 2003 "MIPDOC", Cannes / F
- 2003 Nordic Film Days , Lübeck
- 2002 “Sehs sucht”, Potsdam Film Festival
- 2001 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
- 2001 “Fact-Fiction”, Edith-Russ- House for Media Art, Oldenburg
- 2000 “Ticker”, Gebauer Gallery, Berlin
- 2000 Moscow International Film Festival
- 1999 "Video and Lifestyle", Contemporary Gallery, Kunsthalle Hamburg
- 1999 “German Open - Contemporary Art in Germany”, Wolfsburg Art Museum
- 1998 Balticum Video Festival
- 1998 Hamburg Film Festival
- 1997 International Video Festival "Mediopolis", Berlin
- 1997 “Surfing Systems”, Kunstverein Kassel
- 1996 "War years - Some sunny day we'll meet again", Kunstverein in Hamburg
- 1994 "Lost Paradise", Kunstraum Wien - MuseumsQuartier , Vienna
literature
- Stephan Berg , Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen , Sabine Maria Schmidt, Heike Catherina Mertens, Barbara Steiner, Nikolaus von Wolff in Elmar Hess DISTANZ Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-95476-063-3 .
- Elmar Hess: Kriegsjahre Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-88375-234-7 .
- Elmar Hess: Freedom is not for free Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-938025-34-4 .
- Frank Barth, Dirck Möllmann in MAN SON 1969 - On the horror of the situation. Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2009, ISBN 978-3-938002-28-5 .
- Veit Görner, Nikolaus v. Wolff in German Open - Contemporary Art in Germany. Cantz Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7757-0904-5 .
- Barbara Steiner in Lost Paradise Oktagon Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-927789-76-3 .
- Regine Gerhardt in Seestücke - From Max Beckmann to Gerhard Richter Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7774-3665-4 .
- Markus Brüderlin in the publisher Kunstraum Wien - Projects 1994 to 1996. Triton Verlag, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-901310-52-5 .
- Martin Hentschel in passage. Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 1998, ISBN 3-930225-14-X .
Web links
- Literature by and about Elmar Hess in the catalog of the German National Library
- elmarhess.com
- hamburger-kunsthalle.de
- villamassimo.de
- edith-russ-haus.de
- kuenstlerstaette-bleckede.de (PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ War years ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the side of the Hamburger Kunsthalle
- ↑ Freedom is not for free ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the side of the Hamburger Kunsthalle
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hess, Elmar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th October 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |