"Deutschlandlied G (Fragments of Identity)" Photograph - Limited Edition of 10

...Ernst Hesse himself described early on, in the 1990s, what his work is essentially about: “A key element in my work is engaging with other cultures. [...] It is important to protect and foster cultural identity specifically in an age characterized by the quest for individual, ethnic, and cultural freedom as well as economic globalization and the related migration of peoples.” (1) In this vein he continues to conduct seminars and implement collaborative exhibition projects in Düsseldorf and further afield, adopting an anything but Eurocentric perspective, establish- ing links to and a mutual understanding of cultures across the whole world. Round tables function as a central field of activity in his endeavors: They provide a place to speak and listen to one another, where people can eat, drink, and celebrate together. Within the radius of art, the essentials in life, the social aspect, learning from one another, not to mention an awareness of Nature’s resources and the need to preserve them come together. Personal biography, individuality, and shared experiences and concerns form a single team. These reworked photographs, which Hesse has been producing since the mid-1990s as exquisite one-offs, are visual events that appear as retrieved from the subconscious and yet are based in physical reality. What they show us is as delicately fleeting as it is rooted in fact, as implacable as it is robust. The singularity of what we are shown is compellingly ambiguous: Often the works revolve around plants, vegetation in general, which at times covers the pictorial space completely and, in this way, speaks of an – untouched – jungle. In other instances, the subject matter is arranged as a still life in an empty space, on a white table or a plate. The idea of the exotic, stemming from a remote world, is emphasized in independent work series that focus on portrayals of landscape, for example the panoramic depiction of a valley with a hang- ing bridge, where we see strands of light streak across the foreground like rain on a windowpane or like fire- works in the sky, or the monstrously large roots that wrap themselves around huts like the fingers of a mythical creature, ensnaring and protecting them. At times Hesse’s works retain the crystal-clear, translucent darkness of the negative and then resemble recordings of a lightless star in another galaxy. Textfragment: Thomas Hirsch