Art Basel in Miami 2025, December 6

Conversations | Sung Tieu: Shaping Germany’s Venice Biennale 2026 

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Presented in partnership with the German Consulate General in Miami

Sung Tieu, Artist, Berlin Gitte Zschoch, Secretary General, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Berlin and Stuttgart 

What does it take to represent a country at the Venice Biennale? This conversation offers an in-depth look at one of today’s most incisive artistic voices, Berlin-based conceptual artist Sung Tieu, who, together with artist Henrike Naumann, will represent Germany in Venice next year. Tieu joins Gitte Zschoch, the secretary general of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, to discuss her evolving practice and the ideas shaping their forthcoming presentation. 
For more than a decade, Tieu has explored the entanglement of power, memory, and bureaucracy through a distinctive language of installation, sound, text, and sculpture. Her practice unravels the invisible architectures that structure contemporary life – from Cold War infrastructures and migration policies to the psychological effects of bureaucratic systems. Navigating between personal history and collective memory, she transforms research into sensorial and spatial experiences that balance forensic clarity with emotional resonance. 
In conversation with Zschoch, Tieu revisited key strands of her work – from sonic warfare to institutional critique – and offer an early glimpse into the conceptual framework guiding Germany’s 2026 Venice pavilion. 
Sung Tieu is a Berlin-based conceptual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans installation, sculpture, drawing, text, sound, and video. Her work investigates the psychological dimensions of power, exploring how bureaucratic and institutional systems shape subjectivity. In 2026, she will represent Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale, together with Henrike Naumann. She has previously participated in major biennials including the Gwangju Biennale (2024), the Shanghai Biennale (2023), the Bienal de São Paulo (2021), and the Kyiv Biennial (2021). 
Gitte Zschoch is the secretary general of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, the leading organization for Germany’s engagement with the arts worldwide. Her work is driven by a commitment to dialogue, exchange, and the transformative power of art in international relations. Zschoch previously served as the director of the European Union National Institutes for Culture, where she helped shape the cultural dimension of Europe’s international engagement. Among other curatorial and programmatic roles, she was the founding director of the Goethe-Institut in Kinshasa.

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