Florian Mehnert

humantracks, work on paper, Florian Mehnert © 2024





Florian Mehnert

River, oil on canvas 240 x 180 cm, Florian Mehnert © 2023





Florian Mehnert

oil on canvas 220 x 160 cm and work on paper 165 x 125 cm, Florian Mehnert © 2023


Florian Mehnert

Graphit, Chinese Ink, Guache, 120x150 cm and aquantinta, drypoint etching, Florian Mehnert © 2023




The Art Experiment 11 DAYS

| WORK BIOGRAPHY |
The white lab rat, threatened by a weapon that could be triggered via the internet, was to live in Florian Mehnert‘s art installation for eleven days.
The internet world followed the livestream in an uproar. A worldwide shitstorm and numerous death threats followed.
The art experiment `11 DAYS ́ went around the world. How did the interactive art experiment work?
Why was the experiment ended on the seventh day instead of the eleventh?
Was the audience itself the lab rat in the end?
Florian Mehnert publishes for the first time what really happened.
`11 DAYS´ gives a frightening insight into a society controlled by aggression and hatred.
Available in bookstores. ISBN: 9783750494503
more about the project 11 DAYS


Florian Mehnert, 11 DAYS

Florian Mehnert © 2023





Social Distance Stacks Stuttgarter Ballett

Making Of Social Distance Stacks, Stuttgarter Ballett, Florian Mehnert © 2021
# more about the social distance stacks




Humantracks


Florian Mehnert

42 channel videoinstallation. Florian Mehnert © 2023



NEW PHOTOGRAPHS, Hong Kong


Florian Mehnert, Hongkong

Florian Mehnert © 2023




New Works On Paper


Florian Mehnert

Graphit, Chinese Ink, Guache, 150x180 cm, Florian Mehnert © 2023




Forest Protokols


Florian Mehnert

Forest Protokols, installation view C / O Berlin, Florian Mehnert © 2023, photo: David von Becker





Florian Mehnert

studio view, Florian Mehnert © 2023





Florian Mehnert

studio view, Florian Mehnert © 2023





Beauty of Privacy - FREEDOM 2.0

> more about the project


Florian Mehnert, Freiheit 2.0

Florian Mehnert © 2022





DATA TO LIGHT permanent light installation, Stuttgart


Florian Mehnert, social distance stacks

Florian Mehnert © 2021

# more about data to light




REFUGEE STACKS

Florian Mehnert

Florian Mehnert © 2023

# more about the refugee stacks




Florian Mehnert

ACCIDENT WORLD

Accident World is an artistic social experiment that explores the psychology of voyeurism and the human fascination with destructive scenarios. The project asks about the ethical implications of ki-generated images and reflects on a debate about the consequences of fake realities and the possible effects on individual and ultimately on social perception. It raises questions about human behavior and emotional responses. By presenting a vast series of AI-generated photographs depicting fictional accidents and chaotic situations, the project aims to evoke different reactions in the viewer. Do fictional images that seem real have the potential to put the viewer in a state of suspense? Accident World stimulates a reflection on the nature of reality and the limits of our perception. Ultimately, Accident World calls for a critical examination of the source of the image.

SMARTPHONE STACKS Florian Mehnert, smartphone stack

SMARTPHONE STACKS

SMARTPHONE STACKS is an artistic photo project. Florian Mehnert has stacked and photographed young people with their smartphones. (see also photo project REFUGEE STACK, 2016)
Behind the art project SMARTPHONE STACKS are important current questions:
Today, the smartphone is the main means of communication of the "digital natives". Much of the exchange takes place via WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram. In what ways are smartphones changing not only the way we communicate, but also the quality of our communication? Are Whatsapp and Instagram replacing differentiated discourse and personal conversation? 90% of over 959,000 apps in Google's Play Store track user behavior and deliver the data to a third-party network.
We live in the age of "surveillance capitalism" and the "privacy paradox". Although we are aware of the destruction of our privacy and dignity, we agree to the collection of our behavioural data. The SMARTPHONE STACKS visualize how the human being is reduced to a data raw material to be calculated. They create a visual access to reflect on the role of the smartphone and our privacy.

Deutschlandfunk, 02.08.2019
"Humans as data raw material", Florian Mehnert in the corso discussion (interview in german language)

June 2019, Genshagen Foundation near BerlinFlorian Mehnert© Stiftung Genshagen

Virtual, networked, analog. Expert Day on Arts, Cultural and Political Education in the Digital Change

On June 20, 2019, around 80 experts met at the Genshagen Foundation to discuss the effects of digital change in art, culture and society. Florian Mehnert spoke here about "Dataism versus freedom 2.0".
Positions from the contemporary arts, cultural education and educational research were presented and brought into dialogue with political education. Spaces for design that make new experiences possible through the arts and education were explored, the fusion of the digital and analog worlds into new hybrid forms was identified, digital maturity was controversially discussed, and phenomena associated with digitization, such as the need to reorganize hierarchies, were discussed.

October 2018, Florian Mehnert: From Forest Protocols (2013) to Freedom 2.0 (2018), Art & Art Theory University of Cologne

October 2018, Art & Algorithms, NRW FORUM Düsseldorf

The series of events presents and discusses one artistic work on the topic of Big Data on each of three evenings at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. The first event on October 12, 2018 was hosted by the artist Florian Mehnert, who has repeatedly addressed the visualization and criticism of Big Data phenomena in his artistic work in recent years. The event was moderated by Dr. Harald Gapski (Grimme Institute). The event series Art & Algorithms was organized by Prof. Manuel Zahn (University of Cologne) and Dr. Harald Gapski (Grimme Institute) in cooperation with the NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf. The series was sponsored by the Grimme Research College at the University of Cologne.

Stuttgart, SWR 2 Interview, How does FREEDOM 2.0 works?

FREEDOM 2.0 Stuttgart

FREIHEIT 2.0, June 2018, Stuttgart
Over a period of 4 weeks Florian Mehnert intervened in public space with his project FREIHEIT 2.0 Stuttgart. His data traces were virtual and analogous on the streets through the city center up to the newly opened Stadtpalais. For 4 weeks the interdisciplinary BIG DATA colloquia with speakers from the scientific community accompanied the project.

# SWR Radio Interview, Freedom 2.0: What does Big Data have to do with freedom", 04.06.2018
# link to the talks of the Freedom 2.0 colloquia
THE BEAUTY OF PRIVACYFlorian Mehnert, Beauty of privacy, BIG DATA

THE BEAUTY OF PRIVACY

“The Beauty of Privacy” is a project that aesthetically processes and visualizes human motion profiles. Motion profiles are one of the most coveted data in the BIG DATA industry. They are collected every day by means of Smartphone Apps, Fitnesstrackers and Automobiles. The motion profiles of “The Beauty of Privacy” are from anonymous users of the app FREEDOM 2.0, which is part of art project of the Florian Mehnert with the same name. “The Beauty of Privacy” shows the aesthetic side of the disputed personal data: the beauty of the abstraction that anonymous motion profiles develop without georeferenced reference in their artistic processing.

Refugee Stacks



Florian Mehnert stacks African refugees. The stacks are his artistic response to current events. The REFUGEE STACK points out that behind every refugee is a personal story, an individual fate, a person with abilities and dreams.

Florian Mehnert, Beauty of privacyC/O Berlin, FOREST PROTOCOLS Installation © Foto: David von Becker

The FOREST PROTOCOLS

As a reaction to the NSA scandal, Florian Mehnert had installed microphones at clearings and paths in german forests over days in 2013. His installed microphones, were recording passing by walkers.

# Deutschlandradio Kultur, 16.02.2017, Interview with Florian Mehnert
# DIE ZEIT, Alles vergeben, alles egal?, von Prof. Dr. Bernhard Pörksen, 24.12.2016
# Speech by Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters at the 6th Berlin Foundation Week on Forest Protocols
# Interview Radio SRF 2 Culture, Switzerland, Florian Mehnert (mp3)

>more about the forest protocols