INTO THE INFERNO (KUNST UND KRISE #1)

The STUDIO FOR ARTISTIC RESEARCH is negotiating in its exhibition program ART AND CRISIS in a NEW NORMALITY 2021. We are part of the largest societal discourses. Thus we must discuss questions about the role of art. A suitable format for this is a series of exhibitions and discussions that is also accessible online. Elmar Hermann negotiates the questions of the exhibition series in his installation INTO THE INFERNO including three guests: the artist Timo Krause, the object designer Malte van der Meyden and the art critic Noemi Smolik. The recorded conversation at the opening is also becoming part of the installation. “In the exhibition, Hermann combines ideas and forms from projects that he realized when the entire exhibition infrastructure was suddenly reduced from 100 to 0. Modified forms from the 3D animated scenery of his online project www.defaultconcepts.net are getting translated into the physical exhibition space. Hermann's general interest in rules ties in here. What is allowed, can, must be said or done? What is useful and what is pointless? The newly introduced hygiene rules have demonstrably saved us from a worse corona scenario. And yet, imaginary and real boundaries have been set that protect and limit us at the same time. A 5-meter-long metal fence, which Hermann shapes into a diaphragm, is a metaphor placed in the centre of the exhibition space. The important respiratory muscle is sometimes responsible for laughing and sometimes for hiccups. Both are difficult to suppress. Humor, communication and community are the basic tools in Hermann's artistic practice, which he applies systematically." Text: Olga Vostretsova (curator, Leipzig)