Juan Arata is giving his Room over to Lan Hungh
Performances by Liang Ya-hui & Elizabeth Wurst
Opening starts at 7pm


SSMIDD CURATES Lan HUNGH


When I was about to interview LAN within the given context of Juan’s exhibition concept 3 obstacles came into the way. First day when I step by with an acoustic memo box our conversation drove away into philosophical and spiritual aspects of the very existence itself. The other day when I went to see LAN there was already a girl named Claudia at his house looking for transparent artwork for her exhibition project. After a while we were all virtually playing in a puppet house with inconsistent dimensions. Thereby I put the recorder and let them do the talk. Later when she left there was no question. Instead the artist and I were diving into an acoustic improvisation made out of a toy piano being deconstructed little by little, a metal plate with cord, different sets of clefs/keys (in triple sense), a paint-brush, vocal chords, furnishings including the cockle stove and the crunching of the floor in the backyard of the lazy afternoon. Not to forget: LAN pissing into the toilet next door became an integral component of the spontaneous recording. But obstacles mean also we can read them as signs. We already learned 3 things about the artist: 1st) LAN is a profound person. 2nd) LAN is a sought-after figure of the Berlin underground or side-ground or second-front-art-scene however you want to call it. 3rd) LAN is a multidimensional artist at the edge of turning every second of life and its passengers into something peculiar, especial, precious. LAN from Taiwan. LAN speaks at least 4 or 5 languages. LAN plays Xenakis. LAN is an actor, instrument maker, an illustrator – for example. LAN likes chicken.


I remember one installation in Liverpool, where he projected the very fine masterpiece of Stanley Kubrick onto a 1 inch micro-screen. You want to know how the new realD-3D projection technology works? Just ask LAN, he’ll be able to explain to you. Since he is so much into performance-art recently “because then people invite me to their shows” I asked him for the upcoming exhibition to place something made out of matter, so that the visitors could confront with his sophisticated handcraft-side. Even if he would leave the room with emptiness “spectators might still be able to sense some of the presence, the meaning, the essence” he replies. But I insisted and so now –OK– maybe he is going to create a slow motion discotheque with slomo-sound and slomo-disco-ball if he can solve the technical problems “because the MMX is such a disco-place”. Maybe LAN is going to present the exact opposite –high speed jungle in reverse– or something completely different I think to myself.


To use a paraphrase of Derrida in the end: The morning after party mandatory looks connatural to the early evening of the bygone day. The “dancing point” is only the unseizable border of their difference. That’s LAN maybe: “dancing point”, “difference”. OK, one more: LAN HunghTM – artist, art-adaptor, alchemist – unfathomable, unpredictable, unique.


ssmidd, July 2010


01.09 – 05.09

Pamela Cohn shows 8 short films from Scotland, co-presented by the Scottish Documentary Institute:


Peter in Radioland by Johanna Wagner, 9’55″
Arcadia by David Graham Scott, 9’20″
At Home with the Jedi by RF Simpson, 9’32″
The Space You Leave by James Newton, 9’54″
Calling Home by Maria Eduarda Andrade and Marcelo Starobinas, 12’11″
The Inner Shape by Johanna Wagner, 8’29″
The Housekeeper by Tali Yankelivich, 13’13″
Melissa Immaculate by Julian Krubasik, 12″41′





The SDI was created in 2004 and is an internationally recognized documentary research center at the Edinburgh College of Art specializing in documentary training, production and distribution. You can read more about them here.

Lan HUNGH CURATES Philippe Marcus


Performances by: Joakim Stampe & Chuyia Chia


The first time I met Philippe, was at a dinner party. After we ate, he began to play with all we had on the table, and made a collage of it.


The natural instinct of an artist makes him create.


He creates for life, himself, and surroundings. There is no reason why he begins and why he stops.


I felt somehow the connection to the music from “Chin”, one of the oldest music instrument of the world, were being used to make music, event without audience. Somehow, like the nutrition for spirit, a simple “need”. The value of his works is the spiritual side of it. It contains non conceptual, non poetical, because it’s like water, without any flavor and taste, it is just it, and we need it.


08.09 – 12.09

Philippe Marcus curates Stephanie Custance


Performance by Julischka Stengele


I don’t know Stephanie, by not knowing her I mean I never met her in real, I never had the opportunity to talk with her. Then why did I select someone that I barely know if it was not for her artwork pictures or website link? The answer find his roots in the fact that we, and by we, I mean, Juan Arata, SSMIDD and LAN Hung are friends and already worked together on different projects, and as the last one of the group I had the hard responsibility to open the exhibition to other artists, one that we might never have worked with.


Living far from Berlin I also had to deal with the distance and the schedule problems which introduced a fundamental point into my curating process: the time. The artist I would choose would have to be able to react really fast, and for that Stephanie showed a real interest in the project. It appeared to me that this interest was already a meaningful answer to the show’s nature and an excellent reason to select her.


But this selection process brought not only an artist, but a particular artist because if you take the time to give a closer look to the developement inside Stephanie’s artwork during the past three years you will see that between this period a meaningful improvement both on the practical and theoretical dimensions is noticeable. That is what profoundly excites me when I think of what she may bring to this show. What will be her next step?


When I look to stephanie’s artwork I can’t help but ask myself this question: “how can a human being define himself as a part of a crowd?” I do think that this has to do with the essence of her work. She intends to place the viewer inside of her reflections, both on a physical and theoretical level. When you get to enter a room in which is settled one of her installation I believe that you somehow become a part of it. It probably has to do with the strong presence of all these figures that surrounds you. All of them are tightly linked together, like they can’t exist as individuality but only as a group.


Knowing that her grandfather, her father and her brother all served in the army, you can analyse better her will to express herself. Her preoccupations traduce a form of atavism, a reminiscence of what has been and should not have been. In a sense she puts each one of us in front of his own responsibility.


15.09 – 19.09

In Search of the Virtual Sublime
Join new-media artist Jon Rafman on an existential journey through the multi-user virtual environment of Second Life. Rafman’s Kool-Aid Man avatar will lead audiences across futuristic cyberpunk megalopolises, exotic furry sex clubs, and psychedelic jungles, while providing live critical commentary and discussing the implications of virtual worlds for modern society.

Stephanie Custance curates Gab Heller


Performances by Márcio Carvalho & Brina Stinehelfer


I met Gab and her work for the first time, together, as one entity. Her character and her drawings turned animations are completely congruent: Simple, striking and confrontational. The women and thework both stand in front of you demanding attention with ease atclarity. There is no second-guessing in her lines. Precise gestures are drawn with speed and intuition forming figures that speak of a timeless human condition.


The first time I met Gab the guests at her show were asked to pick a note out of a bag. I opened mine. “Das Glück ist ungerecht.” What can you say?


Perhaps this phrase about one truth in life has framed my viewing of her work. It seems appropriate though. Each of her figures is subjected randomly to some unseen and unconscious force. Standing in front of her dancing crowds their reality begins to seep into my own reality. They are ambiguous, strong yet oppressed, neither male nor female, and all the same and all in one. It is a stunning experience.


22.09 – 26.09

Out of Control Opening VI- Gab Heller introduces Christel Fetzer


Performance by Dovrat Ana Meron


I met Christel Fetzer a few years ago. From the beginning I was fascinated of her work but also about the contrary differences between her and my work:


Her use of artificial, glossy and neon-coloured material (I always use black colour on very white paper). The irritating effects of it,… mirroring, reflections, distortions, reversals of the space, of the people around…


The concrete and geometrical shapes she uses (My drawings are always figurative in an expressive way).


The physical appearance of her work, the huge dimension in order to compete with landscapes and the architecture (I m never interested in architecture and I always work flat.)

But one thing I think we have in common: The subtle humour behind the work. Look behind her objects and with a smile you can notice that their strong presence is only an effect of a simple facade. But it works.


29.09 – 03.10