Mon Jun 8, 2026, 7 pm – 9 pm
What’s Underground About Marshmallows? Buchpräsentation, Video, Lesungen, Diskussion zu Jack Smith
With: Florica Gay, Miriam Gossing, Sarah Horn, Wulf Herzogenrath, Klaus Mettig, Lina Sieckmann, Marc Siegel and Pola Sieverding among others
Screening: Kino ’74 – Jack Smith (Birgit Hein, 1974)
“What’s Underground About Marshmallows? Texts by and about Jack Smith” (Alexander Verlag) is a new bilingual book, edited by Marc Siegel, that brings together for the first time a selection of texts by the groundbreaking queer US artist Jack Smith in German. The book also includes essays by important Smith critics such as Stefan Brecht, J. Hoberman, Jonas Mekas, and Susan Sontag, as well as numerous illustrations of Smith’s performances and projects in West Germany during the 1970s and 80s. Marc Siegel will present the book, screen Birgit Hein’s video Kino ’74 – Jack Smith (1974), filmed in Cologne, and will be in discussion with Smith’s associates Wulf Herzogenrath and Klaus Mettig. Florica Gay, Miriam Gossing, Sarah Horn, Lina Sieckmann, and Pola Sieverding, among others, will give brief readings of texts by Jack Smith. Kino ’74 – Jack Smith was created on the occasion of Smith’s participation in Projekt ‘74 “Kunst bleibt Kunst.” In the video, Smith criticizes the art world while collecting trash at the Cologne Zoo. “The best scene,” says Hein, “was the one with the monkeys: Jack Smith handed out the exhibition’s promotional flyers with the slogan ‘Art remains art’ to the monkeys, who curiously examined them and then ate them.”
Marc Siegel is a Professor of Film Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His research focuses on experimental film and queer studies. In addition to What’s Underground About Marshmallows? Siegel is the co-editor of Serge Daney and Queer Cinephilia (Meson Press, 2024) among numerous other publications. He is also active with the Berlin-based artist group CHEAP.
A publication produced with the kind support of the Kunststiftung NRW.
