top of page
Suche

Joas Nebe's exploration of human communication

Interview with Joas Nebe

1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.

I have a degree in Psychology and Media Studies. Alongside my studies, I attended a private art school in Hamburg, where I learned traditional art techniques such as egg tempera painting, gouache, woodcut, and more. My first major series of paintings consisted of large images of groups of figures painted with broad brushstrokes on burlap in bright colors. After my studies, I taught film analysis in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hamburg. This experience, along with my focus on media psychology during my studies, led to a shift in my artistic work towards video and film. Since then, I have worked both in traditional art techniques and with modern media in parallel. Lately, I have increasingly utilized synergy effects between the two, for instance by using parts of collages to create digital stop-motion videos, as in "Relieve Me From Politics," an animated film from the political series.



2. Describe what a normal day looks like as an artist.

My daily routine can be roughly described as follows: First, I keep myself informed through both traditional and social media about the art market, new art trends, exhibitions, and festivals, as well as the political landscape. Afterward, I handle my PR, possible applications for festivals or exhibitions, respond to orders, and manage the shipping of artworks. Then I either start researching a new project or continue working on an ongoing project, preparing its presentation on Instagram or my website.


3. Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?

The central theme of my work is human communication. To what extent does our language allow us to be understood by others? What stereotypes, prejudices, and political or culturally shaped attitudes influence how we express ourselves, and how are these "signals" received by others? How does political discourse, especially right- or left-wing ideologies, shape our worldview? How do the political connotations of certain topics limit our ability to express ourselves? Do we, for example, practice self-censorship because we fear being criticized, marginalized, or even defamed for expressing opinions that do not align with the mainstream? This last area is precisely what I explore in my latest video series on the anatomy of political discourse, where I investigate the mechanisms of political communication.



4. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?

I believe that as an artist, one perceives the world differently than members of other professions. The cognitive structure of thought, perhaps even the wiring of neurons in the brain, is different. I think my perception is more intense when it comes to visual stimuli, and I embed my everyday experiences into a different context, shaped by cultural references, something I believe is not as prevalent in other professions. I suspect I experiment more with my perceptions than people in other fields. Because of this, it is impossible to separate my work as an artist from the rest of my life. I am an artist through and through and do not leave my work at the studio door, becoming a completely different person when I leave.


5. What are you working on at the moment and are there any upcoming events you would like to talk about?

My current stop-motion project deals with political rhetoric and physical violence. In contrast to my usual colorful works, I use charcoal drawings in "Political Argument/ Peace Talks." I chose charcoal as a medium because, first, it is easier to work with for stop-motion animation. Charcoal erases more easily than graphite, for example, making the movement of objects and characters, which the flow of action requires, faster and easier to realize. Secondly, I reference William Kentridge's political animations with my charcoal drawings. After the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa in the early 1990s, the South African government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring victims and perpetrators of the regime into dialogue. The aim was for the commission to facilitate a societal reckoning with the political crimes committed by the white minority against the black population and to promote reconciliation, according to the responsible authorities' vision. William Kentridge's father, a lawyer, was involved in this reconciliation process, and his son William accompanied these events with his charcoal-based animated films. In this way, charcoal drawing gains a political charge, which it already had earlier in art history. A good example is Käthe Kollwitz's drawings of the emaciated workers in Berlin's tenement houses during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and 1930s.


My work "Political Argument/Peace Talks" analyzes the core of the physical violence inherent in every political conflict. Politics is always about the struggle for societal power, and power means violence. The more ideologically driven and unforgiving a political conflict becomes, the closer the tipping point approaches, where verbal conflict turns into physical violence, rape, war, etc. This applies to both right- and leftwing political positions. I sought to capture these dynamics in the images of "Political Argument/Peace Talks." A word about the sound design. The sound was composed by a neighbor of mine in Staufen, a town in southern Germany near the Swiss and French borders where I have lived for ten years. Arno Stolz and I had lived next to each other for years without realizing what the other did. A happy coincidence led us to discover our shared interest in music and art, and we have been working together on joint projects for a few weeks. One of the first of these projects was "Political Argument/ Peace Talks."


Arno Stolz says that, having primarily worked as a songwriter and session musician, he fulfilled a long-held dream by composing the score for my films. In "Political Argument/Peace Talks," Arno uses mystical-orchestral sounds, contrasting them with sound snippets from political speeches by Angela Merkel and Donald Trump. This underscores both the aura of political confrontation—since aura always arises when power is celebrated, and the celebration of power is inherent in power itself—and the contrasting political strategies of the two figures: Merkel's mediating, conciliatory approach and Trump's combative, often destructively aggressive stance. In this sense, Arno Stolz has created a soundtrack that perfectly complements my images.



Comentários

Os comentários foram desativados.
bottom of page