Henrike Naumann & Sung Tieu

Ruin
61st Venice Biennale

Questions Around Historical Responsibility

The artists Henrike Naumann (b. Zwickau, 1984; d. Berlin, 2026) and Sung Tieu (b. Hải Dương, 1987; lives and works in Berlin) will be showcased in the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The curator, Kathleen Reinhardt, nominated two artists whose oeuvres engage with systems of social and bureaucratic order, subjecting them to critical scrutiny. 

Henrike Naumann’s oeuvre reflects on socio-political issues at the level of design and interior design, exploring the friction between opposing political opinions in relation to taste and personal everyday aesthetics. In her installations, furniture and objects are arranged to create scenographic spaces into which video, sound, and performance are integrated.

Sung Tieu combines sculpture, found objects, sound, video, photography, writing, and archival materials in dense installations. Having grown up between political systems, she develops her art amid the tensions of biography and geopolitics. The artist’s works grapple with the lingering effects of the Cold War, colonial entanglements, and the subtle mechanisms of institutional violence, examining the social and psychological impact of migration, bureaucracy, and control. 

The catalogue Ruin includes texts by Bakri Bakhit and Clemens Villinger, Sabeth Buchmann, Kathleen Reinhardt, and Kerstin Stakemeier.