Christian Lemmerz

Christian Lemmerz was born in 1959 in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was trained at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Denmark 1982-1986 and was a part of ‘Værkstedet Værst’ 1982-84 and ‘Performancegruppen Værst’ from 1985 onwards. Christian Lemmerz’ oeuvre’s span is extensive and pluralistic. Regardless of the material, the form or the medium employed, Lemmerz’ work can generally be characterized by aesthetics of effect. The artworks grasp out and clutch into the surroundings and call for more than merely contemplation. There are only a few themes and taboos that are not turned upside down in the Lemmerzian universe, which has been stretched between, on the one side, Kant, Heidegger among other philosophers and authors, and on the other, a mass-media dominated world where suffering and death are central themes in an examination that circles around identity, existence and being. Lemmerz has pointed out that art has to take effect in the manner of a provocative confrontation. However, as he maintains, art also has to do with experience. And as a matter of fact, sculpture is particularly suitable for establishing a confrontational and experience-exchanging situation, especially when it is perceived from a phenomenological point of view. In such a situation, the sculpture is connected with the (human) body. Just as does the human body in phenomenology, the sculpture enters into relations where the senses interact in such a way that the work can be experienced as a visual and tactile challenge in the cognitive sense. Instead of being a more or less distanced onlooker, the viewer becomes an active participant, who becomes entangled in new relations and gets moved in some direction or other. Christian Lemmerz’s works span from sculptures in marble over drawings to performances and has exhibited in Denmark e.g. at ARoS, Statens Museum for Kunst and in Cisternerne and widely abroad e.g. Stavanger Art Museum, Norway and Leo Koenig Inc., New York, USA.