Ruin

Opens Saturday, May 9 The German Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is titled Ruin. Curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, the pavilion will present works by Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu. In Ruin, the German Pavilion becomes a space in which physical and social structures, German ideologies, and lived biographies tangibly overlap, bringing architecture, history, and psychology into productive tension. The exhibition's title riffs on the word's multiple associations. While the English word ‘ruin' refers to architectural and physical remnants, the German term ‘Ruin' signifies a state of collapse—economic, social, or moral. In newly produced works, Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu draw on their research into the GDR and the transition period following reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, demonstrating how historical ruptures and gaps in political, social, and architectural structures continue to resonate—and are perhaps more evident than ever in a globalized present. Tieu and Naumann reflect on both German history and the German Pavilion's fascist architecture by artistically re-appropriating the space. Using a formal vocabulary that oscillates between minimalist clarity and maximalist opulence, both artists employ the building as an ambivalent mirror of social dynamics from the recent past to the present. From her nomination in May 2025 until her sudden death a few weeks ago, Henrike Naumann worked intensively on her contribution to the German Pavilion, completing the work before she passed. The team of the German Pavilion is now working alongside her studio team to bring her artistic vision to life. The German Pavilion's graphic concept was developed by Dan Solbach. Building upon Sung Tieu's and Henrike Naumann's fields of interest, Solbach has created a design that bridges language and words, representation and effectiveness. The typography of the title Ruin is taken from a graffito that marked East Germany's last pavilion at the 44th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 1990: a black, red, and gold ‘D.D.R.' Drawing on epigraphy—the study of ancient inscriptions—and scriptio continua, a style of writing without any word breaks, Dan Solbach transposes the inscriptions from the past to the present. Alongside the opening, an accompanying publication featuring texts by Sabeth Buchmann, Kathleen Reinhardt, and Kerstin Stakemeier, as well as artistic contributions by Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu will be published by Distanz Verlag. Commissioner: IFA – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Curator: Kathleen Reinhardt