Sung TieuOne Thousand Times

The installations of the Berlin-based artist Sung Tieu (*1987 Hai Duong, Vietnam) are concerned with the reciprocal (coercive) relationship between bureaucracy and identity. The point of departure for her works is her research into the recruitment agreement for Vietnamese contract workers in the former GDR. Against the background of her own biography, she began to engage with the complex socio-political backgrounds of this specific migration context. Aspects of the labour regime, of the regulation of housing and of the control of privacy overlap within it. Sung Tieu systematically traces these migration-political and economic connections in her archival work and condenses her research findings into spatial installations that combine objects, architectural interventions, documents, drawings, videos and sound recordings into atmospherically impressive audiovisual narratives. In terms of formal aesthetics, her works draw on Minimal Art and Conceptual Art. What at first appears to contradict the artist’s political and narrative approach in fact represents a form of critical engagement that puts the conventional belief in the autonomy of art and its interpretation to the test. For Tieu, form is in the service of content. This is also evident in the design of this publication, which reproduces part of Tieu’s research material and archival holdings, as well as her complete series of bureaucratic documents, in a strict grid structure. Art-historical essays and an interview with the artist additionally provide information on further important influences on and references in her artistic practice.

Exhibitions:
Kunst Museum Winterthur, 16/9 – 19/11/2023
Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 9/3 – 9/6/2024