Elmar Hermann

Inferno
Neuer Kunstverein Mittelrhein, Neuwied

“Hell, that's a social place. Here you're always among your own kind."– Elmar Hermann

Elmar Hermann (b. 1978, Neuwied; lives and works in Neuwied) deals with the complexity of interpersonal communication. Using various media such as graphics, sculptures, installations, and texts, he contextualizes found vocabulary and locates it in the environment of the visual arts. In addition to the necessary craftsmanship, theoretical content from art theory and the psychology of perception is incorporated into his artistic practice. Language and image complement each other in a logic of their own that cannot be grasped by scientific means. The result is partly humorous, partly serious arrangements that hold their own in a world between art, theory, and pop.

The artist's book INFERNO comprises works from the last three years that deal with digital and public spaces. Against the backdrop of a turbulent present, the conflict between proximity and distance is negotiated with guest contributions by Miriam Bettin, Patrick C. Haas, Anne Louise Hoffmann, Timo Krause, Malte van der Meyden, NUANS, Hugo Holger Schneider, Ani Schulze, Olga Vostretsova, and Christoph Westermeier. The starting point is the web series Default Concepts, which in four episodes tells the story of a special door handle that the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein designed in 1925 for his sister's house in Vienna. INFERNO is a plea for community, exchange, and humor in times of increasingly complicated boundaries.