Biography

Henning Mittendorf was born in 1938. Since 1953 he has lived – with interruptions – in Frankfurt am Main. He studied law and partly economics. Up to his retirement in the year 2000 he worked for a bank.
Since 1956 he has been acquiring the basics for his artistic practice and theory, above all by the attendance of correspondence degree courses, night schools, universities, ateliers, workshops and other study tours. He was and is member of several artistic associations. In 1980 he decided to participate in the conscious networking of the global system of Mail Art. His artist name contraction is “HeMi”; his virtual land is the “HeMiSpheres”. HeMi’s artistic practice and theory are based on system theory as well as the theory of constructivism and swing above all around the task of today’s artist to contribute to the realization of a viable action community of nature and culture within the frame of a global society’s world. HeMi got famous within the network of Mail Art especially by the kind of his pictures and texts. A speciality of many of his pictures is the use of predominantly self-cut eraser stamps that he, if necessary, mixes with other artistic techniques, like drawing, collaging, air-brushing, copying and laser-printing. By his theoretical texts HeMi tries to take a stand as to general problems as well as to question the artistic conduct.
From 1970 on HeMi introduced his work to the public at home and abroad. A vivid correspondence by snail and e-mail connects HeMi above all with his Mail Art partners, or better: network partners. These relations stimulated him among others to further develop the traditional categories of pictures for the network in own artist’s postcards, artist’s postage stamps („artistamps“) and artist’s books. He has organized nine personal international Mail Art projects. He took part in several artists’ and Mail Artists’ meetings as well as festivals. On the occasion of exhibitions and Mail Art festivals he has lead several workshops concerning stamp cutting. HeMi’s work is collected in public and private collections. His HeMiSpheres Archive is in a certain way the reflection of his interconnected artistic work containing own, strange and common works as well as documents and documentations. In 2004 HeMi donated the finished part of his archive to the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt am Main.

Links

Mail-Interview Ruud Janssen with Henning Mittendorf (Auszüge) http://www.list-of-important-artists.de/