Niermann was born in Bielefeld and studied philosophy in Berlin. He has lived in Berlin, to the eastern part of which he allegedly moved in late 1989. Niermann lived in New York between 2013–14, before moving to Basel, Switzerland, where he is currently based.
Publications
Although mostly known for his book releases, Niermann earlier contributed to German newspapers Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He has also conducted interviews for German literary magazineDer Freund and contributed a series of interviews labelled Die Beste aller Welten to the German art magazine Monopol. In 1999, Niermann first contributed a short story to the anthology "Mesopotamia" edited by Swiss writer Christian Kracht. His debut novelDer Effekt was published in 2001. It were mainly these two publications that established a perceived link with Germany’s 1990s "pop literature" movement. Niermann successfully veered from this perception with his acclaimed 2003 book Minusvisionen , published by Suhrkamp. The book revived the literary form of the protocol, drawing on motives of interview and oral history. It chronicles the visions, projects and failure of several young German entrepreneurs. In 2006, Umbauland appeared, also at Suhrkamp. It presents ten ideas of Niermann – partly conceived with friends and colleagues – on how Germany could be and should be radically reformed. Suggestion include the construction of a large-scale pyramid as tourist attraction and grave site in Eastern Germany, nuclear armament, or a radical re-vamping of the German language. Late February 2007 saw the publication of Metan , the product of teaming up with Christian Kracht and climbing up Kilimanjaro. The book describes the mysterious power of methane gas. Another reviewer refers to the book as a parody of "alarmism" and suggested it should be taken as a joke: "But if this book is taken as a joke, it probably is not a bad one." It has been translated into several languages, such as Latvian and Russian. Scholarly voices have suggested to read particularly Metan but also Niermann’s other offerings as indication of a camp take on public and political issues. As a result of two stays in Beijing, PR China, Niermann published another chronicle book, China ruft Dich in early 2008. The book records the stories, experiences and perceptions of German and other non-Chinese expatriates who have decided to pursue life in rapidly changing China of the 00 years. Niermann flanks these reports with Chinese views, for example by renowned artist Ai Weiwei. Also in 2008, Niermann’s take on the miscellanea wave, entitled The Curious World of Drugs and co-authored with journalist Adriano Sack was published by Plume. Niermann's other titles include: David Lieske: I Tried to Make this Work ; Concentration ; and Breites Wissen… nachgelegt.Die seltsame Welt der Drogen und ihrer Nutzer .
Solution series
Since 2008, Niermann functions as series editor of Solutions, published by Sternberg press and designed by Zak Kyes. In the series, Niermann together with Jens Thiel published Solution 9: The Great Pyramid, with contributions by Rem Koolhaas, Ai Weiwei, Christian Kracht, David Woodard, and others. Niermann's own titles in the series include the books Solution 1–10:Umbauland, Solution 186–195: Dubai Democracy, Solution 264–274: Drill Nation, the novel Solution 257: Complete Love, Solution 275–294: Communists Anonymous and Solution 295–304: Mare Amoris. The ninth volume in the Solution series appeared in 2013: Solution 247–261: Love.
Other artistic and editorial activities
In 2004, Niermann together with artist Antje Majewski curated the exhibition Atomkrieg at the Kunsthaus Dresden. 2007 saw the Great Pyramid Monument project as outlined in Umbauland gain momentum. In October 2008, Niermann had his first solo exhibition as an artist entitled JOIN THE U.S. ARMY at ZERN Gallery, Berlin. In 2010, Niermann wrote and co-produced the documentary The Future of Art, followed by the book The Future of Art. A Manual published by Sternberg Press. Vote: Gwangju folly with Rem Koolhaas : "Architect Rem Koolhaas and writer Ingo Niermann address public participation. Their folly is positioned in the middle of a busy shopping and entertainment district that is mainly frequented by teenagers. The street has been divided into three pedestrian lanes marked “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe.” Votes are counted via a digital system and tallies are placed online to create a new form of direct plebiscite." Niermann is also the co-founder of “waahr.de”, a free online archive for literary journalism. In 2014, Niermann participated in the group exhibition and event series with the artist-run spaceAuto Italia South East. The project saw Niermann contributing research from Drill Practice, a project initiated at dOCUMTA13. Niermann is the co-founder of the digital publishing project Fiktion, established by German- and English-language writers in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Fiktion experimentally rejects the economic necessities of the publishing business: all titles are digital and distributed free of charge at . In 2016, Niermann started an ongoing art-video collaboration with filmmaker Alexa Karolinski. Their film Army of Love premiered at the 9th Berlin Biennale. It has since been included in exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, MACBA, Castello di Rivoli, as well as CCCB and the Wiesbaden Biennale. Their second installment of the series, OCEANO DE AMOR, was part of a three month exhibition Auto Italia gallery in London, and it had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in March 2020. In 2020, Niermann premiered his video "Sea Lovers" at the "Countryside – The Future" exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
