In bid to diversify KW Institute in Berlin, artist Sung Tieu sells work to fund new board member

"Tieu's work consists of a contract engraved onto four A4-sized mirrors. It harshly criticises KW's board structure, which charges a €5,000 yearly fee from each member. The fee is a key revenue stream for the institute, already under pressure as Berlin cuts arts funding, but also hampers diversity in the management of the city's cultural institutions, in which "legacies of exclusion and economic gatekeeping" persist."

"As per the work's own instructions, it was sold for €25,000, covering the cost of a five-year term for You, who was nominated by Tieu to the position. The contract states how the piece's sale would leverage funds from the private art market to diversify KW's board, declaring that "institutions evolve not through declarations of inclusivity but through shifts in infrastructure"."

"It hung alongside similar pieces about Tieu's exclusion from a memorial design competition for Nguyễn Văn Tú, a contract worker from Vietnam who came to East Berlin in 1987 and was murdered by far-right groups in 1992. In 2023, Tieu was invited to participate in the competition, but after criticising the lack of involvement of the Vietnamese community, she was ultimately disqualified by the jury by violating the competition's terms-leaving the Vietnamese community completely excluded from the process."

KW Institute of Contemporary Art appointed curator and academic Mi You to its board after Sung Tieu's Declaration of Donation (2025) was sold for €25,000 under the work's instructions. The sale covered a five-year board term for You, who was nominated by Tieu. The artwork is a contract engraved on four A4 mirrors that criticises KW's board structure and its €5,000 annual fee, a revenue stream that also restricts diversity. The contract frames the sale as leveraging private-market funds to diversify governance and argues institutions change through infrastructural shifts. Tieu created the work for her 1992, 2025 exhibition at KW.

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