Elmar Hess
Encyclopedia
Elmar Hess born 1966 in Hamburg
is a German
artist
.
His work includes film
and video
art, photography
, installation
and objects. Hess interprets interpersonal conflicts as a result of systemic pressure. Often an individual event is brought to mind in the context of historical events.
From 1988, Hess studied at the Stuttgart State Academy of Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg and attended the classes of Katharina Sieverding
and Franz Erhard Walther. From 1998 to 2000 he studied Film at the University of Hamburg by Michael Ballhaus
and others. Since 2010 he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken/GER.
Ellmar Hess lives and works in Berlin.
, directed his artistic debut work in 1996. In his film "War Years", he styled a relationship crisis, a World War II.
A huge kitchen table turns into a battlefield on which quarreling lovers, staged in allusion to the meeting between Winston Churchill (Hess mimes) and Adolf Hitler.
Like many details in a surreal film event, the film is to be experienced from the narrative perspective of a large model ship that is involved in the turmoil of war. The film focuses on the media handling of the serious German heritage, breaking taboos: images and sounds, figures, landscapes and architecture of the Nazi dictatorship and World War II fade into the storyline of the film with a character of many.
In almost playful manner Nazi and Allied war strategies are identified as historical fund with scenes from a private relationship clinch. The relationship drama put the "War Years " as a tableau of social landscape in a soulless world: People are pressed into the intellectual cross transitions of serious seeming commentary voices and appear involved in the gluttonous machinery of a war that is raging in the vacuum between the social, historical and collateral relations.
As in most current work of Elmar Hess video sequences like in "Freedom is not for free" are in the center of his installation in which objects, photographs and records of private origin are connected with historical events. The battle of the sexes mutates into the confrontation between the two superpowers during the Cold War. Acting as historical figures acquaintances were kit out by Hess before he photographed them in known poses. Treating his friends ironically deceptively similar, Hess overstates politicians such as John F. Kennedy, Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, Willy Brandt and other prominent partners of the policy of the Iron Curtain. In his productions he refers repeatedly to the "wild" 1960s, in which he sees sexual taboos coded by power struggles in social dimension.
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
.
His work includes film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
art, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
and objects. Hess interprets interpersonal conflicts as a result of systemic pressure. Often an individual event is brought to mind in the context of historical events.
Life
Hess' youth is marked by visits to the southern English coast. The proximity to the British overseas ports, he developed a strong passion for transatlantic ships. Although this topic is not the focus of his work, countless details and often metaphoric imagery are reflected, especially in his film works.From 1988, Hess studied at the Stuttgart State Academy of Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg and attended the classes of Katharina Sieverding
Katharina Sieverding
Katharina Sieverding is a photographer known for her self-portraiture. Sieverding lives and works in Berlin and Düsseldorf. She is a professor at the University of the Arts, Berlin.- Early life and education :...
and Franz Erhard Walther. From 1998 to 2000 he studied Film at the University of Hamburg by Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. is a German cinematographer. In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.- Life and career :...
and others. Since 2010 he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken/GER.
Ellmar Hess lives and works in Berlin.
"War Years"
Elmar Hess, who has an outwardly apparent similarity to the U.S. actor Orson WellesOrson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, directed his artistic debut work in 1996. In his film "War Years", he styled a relationship crisis, a World War II.
A huge kitchen table turns into a battlefield on which quarreling lovers, staged in allusion to the meeting between Winston Churchill (Hess mimes) and Adolf Hitler.
Like many details in a surreal film event, the film is to be experienced from the narrative perspective of a large model ship that is involved in the turmoil of war. The film focuses on the media handling of the serious German heritage, breaking taboos: images and sounds, figures, landscapes and architecture of the Nazi dictatorship and World War II fade into the storyline of the film with a character of many.
In almost playful manner Nazi and Allied war strategies are identified as historical fund with scenes from a private relationship clinch. The relationship drama put the "War Years " as a tableau of social landscape in a soulless world: People are pressed into the intellectual cross transitions of serious seeming commentary voices and appear involved in the gluttonous machinery of a war that is raging in the vacuum between the social, historical and collateral relations.
"Freedom is not for free"
In Hess' installation "Freedom is not for free" from 2006, the theme of his work is similar to "War Years", ending a conflict of love in front of the tribunal of a human rights committee. The case is a troubadour of grotesque stereotypes and behavior against better knowledge. Behind the individual drama the work traces a vision of society in which the fulfillment of human aspirations through lobbying and manipulation is prevented by the media.As in most current work of Elmar Hess video sequences like in "Freedom is not for free" are in the center of his installation in which objects, photographs and records of private origin are connected with historical events. The battle of the sexes mutates into the confrontation between the two superpowers during the Cold War. Acting as historical figures acquaintances were kit out by Hess before he photographed them in known poses. Treating his friends ironically deceptively similar, Hess overstates politicians such as John F. Kennedy, Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, Willy Brandt and other prominent partners of the policy of the Iron Curtain. In his productions he refers repeatedly to the "wild" 1960s, in which he sees sexual taboos coded by power struggles in social dimension.
Selected exhibitions
- 2010 „Man Son", Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
- 2009 „Man Son 1969 - Schrecken der Situation“, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
- 2009 „Expanded Realities “, Gallery of the City of Pecs/CZ
- 2008 „art Karlsruhe“, Germany
- 2008 „Seestücke - Von Max Beckmann bis Gerhard Richter“, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
- 2007 „Fish and Ships“, Barlach Halle Hamburg, Germany
- 2006 „SNAFU - Medien , Mythen, Mind Control“, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
- 2005 „Videothek“, Galerie der Stadt Wels/AT
- 2004 „Weiße Nächte Kiel Oben“, Kunsthalle Kiel, Germany
- 2003 „MIPDOC“; Cannes/F
- 2003 Nordische FilmtageNordische FilmtageThe Lübeck Nordic Film Days is a film festival for movies from the Nordic and Baltic countries held annually in Lübeck, Germany, since 1956 on the first weekend in November...
, Lübeck, Germany - 2002„Sehsüchte“, Filmfestival Potsdam, Germany
- 2001 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany
- 2001 "Fact-Fiction“, Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany
- 2000 „Ticker“, Galerie Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
- 2000 Internationales Filmfest Moskau, Russia
- 1999 „Video und Lebensart“, Galerie der Gegenwart, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany
- 1999 „German Open - Gegenwartskunst in Deutschland“, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
- 1998 Balticum Video-Festival
- 1998 Filmfest Hamburg, Germany
- 1997 Internationales Videofestival „Mediopolis“, Berlin, Germany
- 1997 „Surfing Systems“, Kunstverein Kassel, Germany
- 1996 „Kriegsjahre - Some sunny day we’ll meet again“, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany
- 1994 „Lost Paradise“, Kunstraum Wien - MuseumsquartierMuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
, Wien/AT
Scholarships and Awards
- 2010 Project funding of the Abt-Straubinger-Stiftung, Stuttgart, Germany
- 2009 Project funding of the Alfred-Toepfer-Foundation, Germany
- 2008 Project funding of the Rudolf-Augstein-Foundation, Germany
- 2008 Project funding “Hamburgische Kulturstiftung“, Germany
- 2007 Scholarship of the Foundation Schöppingen, Germany
- 2006 Scholarship of the German Academy Rom Villa Massimo, Germany
- 2005 Project funding of the Michael-Liebelt-Foundation, Germany
- 2004 Project funding of the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Germany
- 2003 Scholarship of the county Niedersachsen, Germany
- 2002 Scholarship of the Werkleitz-Society, Germany
- 1998/99 Scholarship of the German Kunstfonds
- 1997 Scholarship “New Art in Hamburg“ with a stay in London
- 1996/97 Scholarship of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg, Germany
- 1996 Award of the International Videofestival Berlin “Mediopolis”, Berlin, Germany
Weblinks
- http://www.elmarhess.com
- http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/sammlungav/html_sammlung/h/hess_1999_11.html
- http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/manson/catalog/hess.htm
- http://www.villamassimo.de/de/stipendiaten/5003969d1c11c3f3d.html
- http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/snafu/seiten/10.htm
- http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/index.php/Programm/FactFiction
- http://www.kuenstlerstaette-bleckede.de/bleckede_html/jubi/bericht_Elmar_Hess.pdf