Bendix Harms

In conversation
The current group exhibition 'Trust in Mortals' explores the complexities of the human experience through the eyes of four meticulous and uniquely different observers; from Harms' steel-like relationships to his subjects and Moritz's immersive empathy, to the technical constructs of Robles de Medina's seemingly emblematic paintings and Touborg's near-futuristic investigations into the relationship between humankind, nature and technology. To gain some valuable insight into Harm's practice and to get his thoughts on the exhibition, we asked a few questions.
 
The exhibition explores the complexities of the human experience on both a macro and micro level; where do you feel your work fits on this spectrum? It's always both, because they mutually condition each other: All activities have consequences for the whole system. To paint a painting is very similiar to live a whole life on this planet: one wrong brushstroke can destroy the whole painting or put it in a positive way on an unknown level which was unthinkable….FAIL FORWARD is the huge challenge for both: life and art.
 
How important do you think narrative and context is to the perception of your work?Smells like a catch-question…..I call myself for a long time a Contentist , because my painted subjects became the decisionsmakers - in relation how to treat them adaquate and how to treat them in relation to the art-history. When all fits, then the subject begins to talk and I become a kind of receiver for their extremely precise orders. This moment is my fuel, because after a short time it seems unachievable for the immediate future. This inability sparks my synapses and my right arm again and again. Pure paint without a subject looks quickly like decoration… and I must be honest: This world is so overcomplex and delivers so many splendid themes and subjects - it's impossible for me to adore a tricky brushstroke or a thick painted dot in the same way: it's just a mute and patient material.
 
Is there a work from another artist in the exhibition that resonates with you and if so, how? I stumbled over a title of one of Xavier Robles de Medina's paintings: „U.S.ArmyMaj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 30 in Kabul, Afghanistan" This is brutal realism...and it leaves no room for any teacher-like interpretation….this is what I like: to name things.
 
Should we put our trust in mortals? I mean: NO…….but - Mephisto from J. W. Goethe's Faust means: YES! In German (sounds better) „Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! / Und das mit Recht; denn alles, was entsteht, / Ist wert, daß es zugrunde geht; / Drum besser wär's, daß nichts entstünde. / So ist denn alles, was ihr Sünde, / Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt, / Mein eigentliches Element." ―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust erster Teil
 
In English

 

"I am the spirit that negates.

And rightly so, for all that comes to be

Deserves to perish wretchedly;

'Twere better nothing would begin.

Thus everything that that your terms, sin,

Destruction, evil represent-

That is my proper element."

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust - Part One

October 9, 2022