Sung Tieu Clads German Pavilion in East German Housing Facade

For the 2026 Venice Biennale, artist Sung Tieu has re-covered the exterior of the German Pavilion to mimic the government-issue housing provided to contract workers in Berlin during the 1980s. The intervention is part of a larger work that aims to empower individuals who were hidden from mainstream East German life. Tieu's project reframes the pavilion's fascist architecture by overlaying it with the material history of marginalized migrant laborers. The work critiques the pavilion's original 1938 design by Ernst Haiger, which served Nazi propaganda, and instead foregrounds the experiences of Vietnamese contract workers in East Germany. Tieu, who was born in Vietnam and raised in East Germany, draws on her own family history to challenge official narratives. The piece includes archival materials, sound, and sculptural elements that evoke the cramped living quarters of worker dormitories. By transforming the pavilion's facade, Tieu creates a palimpsest that reveals layers of political and social history. The project was developed in collaboration with the German Pavilion's curator, Çağla Ilk, and is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Tieu's work continues her exploration of Cold War legacies and their impact on diasporic communities.