Public Waste
Artist:
Sung Tieu
Date:
2025
Materials:
Public trash bin, Soundtrack 3 minutes and 38 seconds
Dimensions:
Soundtrack 3 minutes and 38 seconds
Collection:
Lafayette anticipations - Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin
Domain:
Sculpture
Public Waste is an installation by Sung Tieu comprising a concrete rubbish bin from former East Germany and a street sound recording taken from a 1990s documentary, evoking an atmosphere of movement, risk, and vigilance. Once part of the socialist public infrastructure, these rubbish bins have gradually disappeared from the urban landscape. They were notably used as hiding places for untaxed goods, such as cigarettes, and thus served as informal storage spaces within a criminalised economy. These uses bear witness to the strategies of concealment and evasion developed in the face of hostile conditions. Far from being inert relics, these bins, on the contrary, embody an infrastructural memory and bring to light forms of microsocial action. Somewhere between a material trace and a sculptural proposal, Public Waste inscribes these acts of survival into the narratives of post-reunification Germany.
Text written by Alessia Damioli as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Text written by Alessia Damioli as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibition
1992, 2025
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (Allemagne)
from 15 Feb to 04 May 2025
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (Allemagne)
from 15 Feb to 04 May 2025