Transcript of an interview with Szuper Gallery

How do you define your artistic practice?

Szuper Gallery was founded in Munich. One of the artists had just been appointed curator of then called Galerie Szuper, Munich. At the time the gallery was dealing in East European modernist painting but the business was failing. The gallery was a news item at the time because it allegedly served as a money laundry institution implicated in a planned killing of the Ukrainian president. These allegations seriously damaged the gallery's reputation. The owner of the gallery started another business and hoped that a young curatorial team would create a new programme that would revive the gallery's fortunes. The artists developed an exhibition programme which performed the procedures of a commercial gallery, demonstrating a fully functioning commercial gallery to the outside world but filling the formal elements with different narratives. The gallery showed work by different artists often in collaboration with other gallerists. In this way the commercial gallery became an art project. Two years later, in 1997, it went bankrupt and the owner decided to close the gallery. We appropriated the name for our future collaborative practice.

Do you relate to an idea of performance in your work?

We are normally performing in the gallery and have recently staged a series of performances. Last year we installed a computer connected to an online stockbroker at the entrance of the ICA. From here we speculated a donation of £5000. We lost most of the money and the donor, who had insisted on a 50% share of the profits, was not very happy. We later used the recording of Ken Brown's reading of an email correspondence with the donor for a new audio piece. This recording will form the basis of an Underwood Audio CD.
Three years ago we persuaded the German Police to lend us their grass green leather uniforms for a series of performances. For one such event we were invited to perform at the Pudel Club in Hamburg, located at Hafenstrasse (an area that experiences numerous police incidents). That evening we walked into the club in normal clothes and started dressing in the uniforms on the dancefloor. We then went to the bar to order drinks. Taking these back to the dancefloor, we sat or lay down drinking and heavily smoking. People who saw us dressing realised that we were not really the Police, those who did not seemed to be angry or confused.
In what kinds of space are you interested in working?
Like others we set out to try to stretch the social fabric and use existing formats like the commercial gallery to fill it with our own perverse content. We like to play with appearances of corporate and financial systems. Navigating within these fictions we are interested in the world of television, film and media, filling it with our own narratives. By using the space of a gallery we are simultaneously, bureaucrats, curators, critics, dealers, artists.

How will you approach the space of the Whitechapel?

The Whitechapel is a good location to advertise our new series of works. Until now Szuper Gallery has existed as a metaphor. We now wish to build a 'real' gallery. We think of an architectural construction that will enable us to exercise various functions. We will commission an architect to design a private museum to house our collection. It is planned that the gallery will travel to different institutions - museums, galleries, corporations, government agencies, administrative institutions and universities - to develop a new concept of 'gallery in residence'. The gallery will function as an intervention into the host institution. The gallery is intended to act as a 'parasite' to its host, profiting from the institution's infrastructure and support. This shouldn't be a simple gallery. We don't just want a gallery within a gallery. A complex structure would determine the way Szuper Gallery will set out to interpret the functioning of the professional world. It should have an element of luxury, tinged with the atmosphere of an exclusive business.
We will be presenting two new video works at the Whitechapel that deal with corporate design and financial structures. 'Venice' incorporates the Venice art heist in which several clever con men managed to get hold of some very expensive paintings without paying for them. The trick was to know the ideal stage and backdrop for dealing in art and to have a sense for the right atmosphere of a dealer/collector relationship. The video shows a party staged in a TV studio that celebrates the successful heist.
The other video deals with architectural spectacle in a different way. The location is a new urban planning office. It features the orange poncho bought by two members of Szuper Gallery at Value Village in Calgary. It is an adult size poncho made of orange vinyl. Like Szuper Gallery itself, the orange poncho exists both physically and conceptually. In other words, one can enter Szuper Gallery or put on the orange poncho both figuratively and literally. Both function as a cross between a circus tent and a think tank.

Is a notion of process important to you?

New films are rarely made after fixed scenarios. The making of a film is a process of development. Two other technical forms are used as a tool for fixing the content.
1. The script reflects the thoughts and content at the beginning of the film shoot. The next thing is a search for locations and the actors can start developing their interpretations of the role. The script changes continuously until the conclusion of shooting and editing.
2. The list of dialogues contains all spoken text and short notes for the sequences.
'Circus artists under the big top: clueless and other business strategies' is a project, which we have worked on for over a year. First it was about the topic of 'The Incredulous', the story of a space pilot who is not fully integrated. From there developed the script for 'Venice' and finally we shot 'Circus artists', which deviated again. The process, which constantly changes each story cannot be made visible. So far the collaborators and author who participate in the process profit most. Thereby substance is permanently carried from one place to the other for good reason, because all questions have an underlying connection. This supports the tendency that we do not believe in a thematically red thread.

What is the relationship between process and presentation in your practice?

We have to think about that.

Do you look for humour in your practice?

Capturing glamour without falling into it.

What role does the viewer play in you work?

The viewers are essential as they confirm or deny the fiction. The visitors of the early Galerie Szuper became part of the work. The institutions that we work with always become collaborators to some extent. Sometimes they are very clever. Bloomberg TV, for example, who featured in our ICA trading performance used our work again for their own spectacle.