{"id":75473,"date":"2026-08-10T19:59:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75473"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:59:54","slug":"3-million-mosaic-pieces-later-artist-sung-tieu-asks-germany-to-wake-up-to-its-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75473","title":{"rendered":"3 million mosaic pieces later, artist Sung Tieu asks Germany to \u2018wake up\u2019 to its immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">In June, I arrived at Sung Tieu\u2019s Berlin studio on the second floor of a gated complex in the city\u2019s northern Wedding district. It was 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the start of a punishing <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">European heatwave<\/span>, and the vast space was flooded with sunlight from large windows overlooking a green courtyard.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The studio is divided into two rooms: one for \u201cmessy work\u201d, with tools, wide tables and raw materials; the other is a more office-like space that doubles as a library. Tieu hesitated over which felt cooler, then settled on the office for our conversation.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">By then, the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale had been open for two months, yet Tieu is still processing the reactions to her very personal contributions.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cRuin\u201d, the exhibition the 38-year-old co-conceived with the late artist Henrike Naumann, and which was curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, has drawn both popular and critical acclaim.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The pavilion\u2019s exterior is entirely covered in Tieu\u2019s <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable<\/em> (2026), a 1:1 mosaic-tile replica of the facade of the housing block on Berlin\u2019s Gehrenseestrasse where she and her mother once lived.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-d3pq8q e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"An external view of the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The facade is covered in Sung Tieu\u2019s Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026). Photo: Andrea Rossetti\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/05\/01951ef6-3c77-4807-859e-caa9433cb1ac_997560ae.jpg\" title=\"An external view of the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The facade is covered in Sung Tieu\u2019s Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026). Photo: Andrea Rossetti\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">An external view of the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The facade is covered in Sung Tieu\u2019s Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable (2026). Photo: Andrea Rossetti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The original building is a <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Plattenbau<\/em> \u2013 a structure made of pre-fabricated concrete slabs typical of East Germany \u2013 that housed migrant contract workers from Vietnam, Cuba, Angola and Mozambique in the 1980s. It has been unoccupied since 2002.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3363055\/3-million-mosaic-pieces-later-artist-sung-tieu-asks-germany-wake-its-immigrants?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In June, I arrived at Sung Tieu\u2019s Berlin studio on the second floor of a gated complex in the city\u2019s northern Wedding district. It was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1785,4061,27984,11063,787,25181,3060,13459,27983,10365],"class_list":["post-75473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-artist","tag-asks","tag-germany","tag-immigrants","tag-million","tag-mosaic","tag-pieces","tag-sung","tag-tieu","tag-wake","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}