At the Venice Biennale, artist Sung Tieu presents a powerful installation that resurrects the housing estate of her upbringing. This re-creation serves to illuminate the often-overlooked narratives of migrant workers, including her own parents, who arrived under a socialist agreement between East Germany and Vietnam but were subsequently left without support. The exhibition delves into the forgotten history of these individuals.
The Gehrenseestrasse complex, an abandoned residential area on Berlin’s northeastern fringes, evokes a sense of cultural erasure. The nine prefabricated buildings, now gutted, feature empty window frames that seem to stare blankly over busy highways. The courtyard bears traces of past activities, with remnants of barricades from paintball games suggesting a post-apocalyptic scenario. Within one of the second-floor apartments of this vast, derelict structure, Sung Tieu transports herself back to her childhood, recreating scenes from her past on the concrete floor.
“This was the modest single bed I shared with my mother for three years,” she shares, gesturing towards a corner of the small room, emphasizing its diminutive size of two meters by 90 centimeters. She recalls how, due to the absence of private kitchens, neighbors would prepare traditional Vietnamese bánh bao dumplings on portable stoves in the corridor, a scent that still lingers in her memory. Tieu also remembers the door through which she used to play with her best friend. His mother would lock him indoors while she was at work, and the children would pass the time playing cards through the door’s gaps, a memory that still brings her joy.