Sung Tieu’s video and sound works, as well as her installations, explore the relationships between architecture, ideology, and the power structures underlying bureaucracy. With a precise formal reduction that engages with minimalist discourses while subtly subverting them, she exposes the ideologies embedded in architectural and social systems. Tieu’s work reveals how these structures influence and control individuals and communities, offering a deep reflection on the historical and political dimensions of the built environment. For her contribution to the n.b.k. edition program, Tieu created ten unique works, each comparing her birth chart with that of the buyer. Drawing on philosopher Theodor Adorno, she references his essay collection The Stars Down to Earth (1994), in which he analyzed an astrology column in the Los Angeles Times to explore normative and ideological dynamics in mass culture. By juxtaposing personal and cosmic elements through individual horoscopes, Tieu’s works offer a profound meditation on the connections between identity, social structures, and how they are shaped by cultural and astrological interpretations.

Sung Tieu (*1987 in Hai Duong / Vietnam, lives and works in Berlin)has had numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Gwangju Biennale (2024); Oakville Galleries, Toronto (2024); Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2024); Kunst Museum Winterthur (2023); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2023); Amant, New York (2023); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge / USA (2023); Mudam, Luxembourg (2022); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2021); Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2021); Nottingham Contemporary (2020); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020); Nha San Collective, Hanoi (2017). Her work has also appeared at the biennials in São Paulo and Kyiv (both 2021). She has participated in group exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022); Museion, Bolzano (2021); Kunsthalle Basel (2021); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2020).