In Sung Tieu’s practice, historical research and archival materials are integrated with autobiographical and fictional elements to form immersive multimedia installations. Her current artistic research revolves around the recruitment agreement that the GDR established with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1980. For this body of work, the artist brings together goods produced by Vietnamese contract workers in GDR state-owned factories alongside contractual agreements and official records that bound and organised the employed workers, allowing us a glimpse into the labour and living conditions of these communities.

For her exhibition in Bonn, Tieu investigates the moments around reunification in 1989. For thousands of contract workers based in the GDR, the dissolution of the state and the simultaneous end of the recruitment agreement brought forth a profound disruption to their lives. Against this historical backdrop, the artist presents a body of sculptures that shed light on athe systematic experiences made by these workers amidst a changing political and economic landscape. Fact and fiction are interwoven in Tieu’s sculptural and sonic installation, prompting the viewer to consider both the collective histories as well as the individual narratives contained within.

Sung Tieu (*1987 in Hai Duong, Vietnam) lives and works in Berlin. She has had solo exhibitions at Haus der Kunst, Nottingham Contemporary and Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig. This year, Tieu has been nominated for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2021, which will be awarded in October at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.

AUSGEZEICHNET is an exhibition format conceived in cooperation with the Stiftung Kunstfonds. For an overall period of five years the format enables former scholarship holders of the Stiftung Kunstfonds to exhibit in one of the museum’s collection spaces each autumn. The first two artists to show their work at the Kunstmuseum were the action artists Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke in 2016, followed by photographer Viktoria Binschtok in 2017. In 2018, Frauke Dannert put her exhibition’s focus on installation and collages. In 2019, Agnes Meyer-Brandis conducted artistic research in the border area between art and science.

Here you can take a look at the exhibition flyer. You can obtain it free of charge at the information counter in the museum foyer or at the museum ticket office.