Elmar Hermann
Elmar Hermann

Title A DRAGON IS NOT A SLAVE

Year 2015

Cooperation with Kristina Stoyanova

Material Video, screen print on linen

Location institut superiereur des arts Toulouse / Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf

The central video is based on a conversation between the two philosophers Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault about human nature in 1971. The original text was translated back and forth between German, English and French and changed until it fits a well-known quote from „Game of Thrones“: A dragon is not a slave. The main motifs are the dragon from the popular television series and the gargoyles from medieval city of Toulouse, which represent power, freedom and creativity. They are hybrid beings that are made up of different animals such as birds, lions, snakes, etc., but do not exist as a whole in the real world. Similarly, the conversation between the two philosophers breaks down into fragments, sentences, assertions that illustrate the different cultural perspectives of two colossal thinkers. Real conversation is not possible, rather a competition for intellectual authority.

Title A DRAGON IS NOT A SLAVE

Year 2015

Cooperation with Kristina Stoyanova

Material Video, screen print on linen

Location institut superiereur des arts Toulouse / Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf

The central video is based on a conversation between the two philosophers Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault about human nature in 1971. The original text was translated back and forth between German, English and French and changed until it fits a well-known quote from „Game of Thrones“: A dragon is not a slave. The main motifs are the dragon from the popular television series and the gargoyles from medieval city of Toulouse, which represent power, freedom and creativity. They are hybrid beings that are made up of different animals such as birds, lions, snakes, etc., but do not exist as a whole in the real world. Similarly, the conversation between the two philosophers breaks down into fragments, sentences, assertions that illustrate the different cultural perspectives of two colossal thinkers. Real conversation is not possible, rather a competition for intellectual authority.