My particular interest is observing and documenting social phenomena and processes: the dismantling of a nuclear power station (Ausverkauf im Kernkraftwerk [Sale in a nuclear power station], 2011/2012) or the positioning of digitisation (Digital Babel, work in progress from 2012 until now).
In 2007, I walked right around the fenced-off area around the G8 summit in Heiligendamm with my camera. That turned into the real-time film Spaziergang am Rand der Demokratie [Walk on the edge of democracy], which gives an immediate perception of political reality. At the same time and in the same place, I also recorded the film the red carpet in which I documented and simultaneously satirised the political rituals as an endlessly repetitive structure.
I want my work always to feature unconventional viewpoints, but still keeping to simple visual imagery. By being the calm observer, I want to create space for the exceptional and a focus on what is important, what is real.
the red carpet
Official G8 summit reception in Heiligendamm, Germany 2007. Jörg Hommer draws our gaze to the carpet where Chancellor Angela Merkel is playing the role of the hostess for the media as she follows a script planned to the last detail, following all the rules of protocol. The heads of the dramatis personae are not important. the red carpet is a satire on protocol during state receptions which take place daily all over the world, and as they are shown on TV: the famous ‘handshakes’, the expressions of politicians laughing in a ‘statesmanly’ fashion, symbolic gestures. However, the camera selects an unconventional viewpoint in the red carpet.
Life: Jörg Hommer
Jörg Hommer studied Experimental Media Design at Berlin University of the Arts between 2006 and 2010, and between 2012 and 2014 he was a master student in the class of Prof. Thomas Arslan.
In the past, Jörg Hommer has stood out as a film editor thanks to his work on several fairly major film and TV productions. The cinema documentary film Plug & Pray, which he created together with director Jens Schanze, won a Bavarian film award in January 2011 for ‘Best documentary film of 2010’.
Jörg Hommer lives in Berlin and works as an independent film editor and filmmaker.