Sung Tieu, who is co-representing Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale alongside Henrike Naumann, responds to a questionnaire from ArtReview about her plans for the German Pavilion. She describes her inspiration as her mother and childhood home, a site built for foreign contract workers in the GDR that later became a refuge for the diaspora. Tieu states that her work relates to the Biennale theme "In Minor Keys" through the lens of Gehrenseestrasse, a concrete record of collective memory. She also expresses skepticism about the Biennale's importance, noting that the German Pavilion's fascist architecture compels artists to work against it, and that national pavilions reveal how much work remains in undoing nationalism.
This interview matters because it offers a rare, unfiltered artist perspective on one of the art world's most prestigious events, directly challenging the relevance of national pavilions and the Biennale itself. Tieu's comments about the German Pavilion's architecture and the need to undo nationalism resonate with ongoing debates about colonial legacies, institutional critique, and the role of art in political change. Her emphasis on personal history and marginal spaces also highlights how contemporary artists are using the Biennale platform to address broader social and historical issues.