Sung Tieu
One Thousand Times
16 September – 19 November 2023 | Beim Stadthaus
Song for VEB Stern-Radio Berlin, 2021
Courtesy Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut
Media orientation
Thursday, 14 September 2023, 11 am in the presence of the artist or individual tour by appointment.
Kunst Museum Winterthur
Beim Stadthaus
Museumstrasse 52
8400 Winterthur
The Berlin-based artist Sung Tieu, born in Vietnam in 1987, is showing installations at the Kunst Museum Winterthur on the themes of migration, identity and bureaucracy. Sung Tieu’s works are shaped by her personal experience of migration, although fictional elements often play a role as well. For her first solo exhibition in Switzerland, the artist is creating an installation in several chapters.
The work of Berlin-based artist Sung Tieu takes its starting point in the agreements on the recruitment of Vietnamese contract workers in the former GDR and their situation after German reunification. As a result of her personal family history, she began to explore the complex socio-political effects of this agreement. It overlaps aspects of work, the regulation of housing and the control of private spheres. The exhibition focuses on the prefabricated housing estate Gehrenseestrasse in Berlin, where the artist had spent part of her childhood. In GDR times, this prefabricated housing estate with around 1,000 flats was one of the largest hostels for Vietnamese contract workers. The complex has been empty since 2003 and was sold to private real estate companies years later. It will soon be demolished to make way for a new courtyard and high-rise district.
Sung Tieu interweaves biographical experiences with the socio-political and economic developments that are reflected in the history of the housing estate and its residents. Her artistic research is based on systematic archival work and condenses into atmospheric spatial installations of objects, architectural interventions, documents, drawings, videos and sounds. Formally, her works are based on the aesthetics of minimal art and conceptual art. This initially seems to contradict the artist’s political-narrative approach, but represents a form of critical engagement that challenges the conventional belief in the autonomy of art-making and its interpretation.
The exhibition marks the second encounter between Sung Tieu and Kunst Museum Winterthur. The artist was present in the exhibition Welt aus den Fugen with a biographically inspired work.
The exhibition is produced in cooperation with Kunsthalle Nuremberg. A publication is being jointly published by Snoeck Verlag, which focuses on the artist’s extensive research material.
Sung Tieu
Song for VEB Stern-Radio Berlin, 2021
Courtesy Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut
Foto: Jens Ziehe
Sung Tieu
Baby Steps, 2021
Courtesy Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut
Foto: Hans-Georg Gaul
Sung Tieu
Block G (Gehrensseestrasse, Berlin), 2023
Courtesy Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
Foto: Jens Ziehe
Sung Tieu
House Rules, 2021
Courtesy of the artist
Foto: Hans-Georg Gaul
Sung Tieu
To Live Your Faith At Work, 2022
Courtesy Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut
Foto: Helge Mundt
Sung Tieu
Zugzwang, 2020
Installationsansicht Kunst Museum Winterthur
Foto: Gunnar Meier
Sung Tieu
Zugzwang, 2020
Installationsansicht Kunst Museum Winterthur
Foto: Gunnar Meier
Sung Tieu
Zugzwang, 2020
Installationsansicht Kunst Museum Winterthur
Foto: Gunnar Meier
Sung Tieu
Portrait
Foto: Nadine Fraczkoswki