Arne Schmitt

Arne Schmitt is seeking to understand what connects an urban civil society by means of reflecting the constructed environment. The artist especially focuses on post-war architecture, because it reflects the fresh start and the democratic restructuring in the German society after World War II on the one hand. On the other hand it reveals anonymity, exchangeability and – last but not least – isolation or even marginalization of the so-called modern era. The artist makes use of digital photography, but produces his catalog with black and white photos and, in contrast, designs his exhibition in color.

He searches for fractures, for history becoming visible through buildings permitting conclusions to be drawn about a societies’ interests, intentions and conflicts which we hardly perceive or tend to overlook. Having a good eye for contradictions Arne Schmitt relentlessly shows images of walls, locked passages, blocked building sites or hermetically sealed facades which seem to be ‘trapped inside’ and thereby thwart our ‘open’ society.

Arne Schmitt lives and works in Cologne.