Prof. Hartmut Jahn

Film Design

Hartmut Jahn received a professorship for film directing at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences in 1998.

From 2011 to February 2021, he led the img – Institute for Media Design as spokesperson and managing director.

Since then he has been advising the img and is again active as author and director, and he runs his production company.

Hartmut Jahn is a German media artist. In his work he deals with aspects of German history and social issues in a media-reflexive way on different levels: in fiction, documentary and in an experimental-deconstructing way. Jahn works as an artist as well as a film and television director.

Originally rooted in an experimental film context, Hartmut Jahn’s work has been shown and awarded at several international film festivals. He has held screenings at Tate Modern and the LUX in London, the Museum of Modern Art (German Films) in New York and the HongKong Arts Centre, amongst others. His work has been nominated in shows like the German Filmprize, won Best European Short Film at the Cork Intl Film Festival, Ireland and the Golden Gate Award, San Francisco Intl. Film Festival 1994, U.S.A. and the German Video Art Award, of the ZKM Karlsruhe.

His production company produced feature films until 1994, he won the main prize at the Max Ophüls Festival, Germany. In 2001 he was co-initiator of the German-French short film magazine KURZSCHLUSS/COURT CIRCUIT and creative director of the program for ARTE TV/ZDF/WDR.

He received special attention for his film- and installation-projects with the FLUXUS pioneers “SWITCH OFF YOUR TV-SET!” and “IF YOU UNDESTAND IT IT IS TOO LATE – 50 YEARS OF FLUXUS” (2002-2012). Intermediality and collaboration in international networks play a major role in his exploration of the visual arts and film directing.

He studied Fine Arts at the universities of Hanover, Freie Universität Berlin and University of Fine Arts, UdK Berlin. He lectured at the universities of Berlin, Hildesheim, Bremen, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hongkong and the German Film- and Television School DFFB in Berlin.

Hartmut Jahn is member of the German Film Academy.