zungen 혀 brecher / tongue 혀 twister
Paint Shop Berlin, 2026
Surya Suran Gied’s work operates between the German and Korean languages, between memory, sound, script, form, saliva, breath, and image. The point of departure for the exhibition tongue 혀 twister at the gallery Paint Shop is a narrative of migration that unfolds not linearly, but rather through fragments, sounds, images,
and material traces. Language emerges here less as a comprehensible system than as a bodily experience:
“When I hear Korean, it’s as if I understand it—bodily — but intellectually I don’t understand it.” Gied grew up in Korea until she was eight years old, subsequently moving to Germany. The works revolve around the desire for a language that remains simultaneously intimate and inaccessible. At the core of the exhibition are paintings and drawings depicting „tongue-twister hybrids“ composed of German and Korean phonemes: individual letters and compound words. Entirely intelligible to the artist. Out of Korean and German characters, a hybrid alphabet emerges—one that appears readable without being unambiguously legible. The works oscillate between script and abstraction, between meaning and phonetics.
Excertpt from the exhibition text by Solvej Helweg Ovesen
Paint Shop Berlin, 2026
Surya Suran Gied’s work operates between the German and Korean languages, between memory, sound, script, form, saliva, breath, and image. The point of departure for the exhibition tongue 혀 twister at the gallery Paint Shop is a narrative of migration that unfolds not linearly, but rather through fragments, sounds, images,
and material traces. Language emerges here less as a comprehensible system than as a bodily experience:
“When I hear Korean, it’s as if I understand it—bodily — but intellectually I don’t understand it.” Gied grew up in Korea until she was eight years old, subsequently moving to Germany. The works revolve around the desire for a language that remains simultaneously intimate and inaccessible. At the core of the exhibition are paintings and drawings depicting „tongue-twister hybrids“ composed of German and Korean phonemes: individual letters and compound words. Entirely intelligible to the artist. Out of Korean and German characters, a hybrid alphabet emerges—one that appears readable without being unambiguously legible. The works oscillate between script and abstraction, between meaning and phonetics.
Excertpt from the exhibition text by Solvej Helweg Ovesen
