Laurent Schmid (aka Laurent André Schmid) is an artist and publisher who occasionally gets involved in transmissions that were not actually intended for human ears or eyes. He works in the realm between knowledge collapse and playful noise, mainly between Bern and Geneva. You can reach him by email; after all, not all signals will disappear. He started and runs publishing platforms for resonant things: activerat.org, active since 1998, and speckled-toshe.ch, a sublabel dedicated to rather unusual vinyl records. If you need more specific information, you will find a short CV and links to texts and publications below. Some things are better left unsaid; the rest skitter across signals, spores and pressed records.
Schmid, Laurent André 1960 (Basel), lives and works in Bern and Geneva. 1981-86 studied at the Schools of Design in Basel and Bern, University of Bern. Since 1987, he has taught at various schools of design/universities of the arts. He has directed the Work.Master’s programme, MFA in Visual Arts at HEAD-Genève from 2008 to 2021, where he also taught and conducted research. Schmid’s conceptually oriented practice oscillates between digital and analogue media, from photography to sound art. A-C Scholarship (1986), Swiss Art Award (1991), Kuratorium Aargau Promotion Prize (1994), Viper Swiss Award for Media Arts (2001), Atelier NYC of the City of Bern (2015), Monographic Publication Canton Bern (2012)
Selection of solo exhibitions (S) and group exhibitions (G):
LiveInYourHead Geneva (2023, 2012); Centre de la Photographie Geneva (G 2019); Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva (G 2016); CNEAI de Chantou, Paris (G 2015); MUMA, Monash Museum, Melbourne (G 2015); Fotomuseum Winterthur (G 1996, G 2013); Photoforum Pasquart Biel (G 2006); Société des Arts Biel/Centre Pasquart (S 1993, G 2004); Kunsthalle Bern (1993, G 1995, G 2005); Kunstmuseum Bern (G 2013, G 1988, G 1986, G 2001), CRAC Alsace (G 2006); ZKM Karlsruhe (G 2006); Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal (G 1995, G 2004); Kunstmuseum Solothurn (G 1992), Shedhalle Zurich (S 1990).
Laurent Schmid is an artist and publisher based between Bern and Geneva. His work explores how knowledge and subjectivity are constructed across human and non-human systems, including algorithms, rituals, and overlooked materialities. Photography is his primary medium, often expanded into installations, performative lectures, printed editions, and sound-based works.
He uses storytelling as a method of critical inquiry, creating narratives that shift between science and fiction, rational thought and myth. His images often function as thresholds between presence and disappearance, between evidence and speculation.
He is the founder of the publishing initiatives activeRat and Speckled-Toshe, which focus on experimental sound and interdisciplinary collaboration. His recent projects include radiophonic networks, holobiontic field recordings, and publications conceived as speculative tools rather than catalogues. Whether working with plants, software, or archives, Schmid’s practice is grounded in a commitment to uncertainty, collectivity, and poetic interference.
Find a more detailed CV here
Catalogues and Publications
Info about selected projects (some more [older] specific projects on electric-haze.net)
