Harri Schemm, Radikaler Provinzialismus

For Harri Schemm (born in 1958 in Nuremberg) art is possible at any time, in any place, always – he paints, draws, writes and performs with everything that just happens to be available for him and his talent for improvisation. So-called “provincialism”, that “self-satisfied limitation to what is immediately at hand”, as Bazon Brock put it, is audaciously used by Schemm, a self-taught artist, and consistently exploited as scope for experimentation – irrespective of whether the province is geographically or intellectually defined. For almost 30 years now (also together with artist friends such as Peter Angermann, Reiner Bergmann or Dan Reeder), Harri Schemm has pursued his strategy of “radical provincialism”. In this publication, which is appearing on the occasion of the exhibition at Atelier- und Galeriehaus Defet his multi-faceted oeuvre that has arisen over that period is being duly recognized and presented for the first time courtesy of Institut für moderne Kunst.