The German pavilion at the Venice Biennale features references to the former communist East Germany and migration flows during the period, artistic director Kathleen Reinhardt said on Tuesday.
“It fits into a highly political Biennale that we are expecting here,” Reinhardt said.
The pavilion is based on designs by artists Sung Tieu and Henrike Naumann. Naumann died suddenly of cancer in February at the age of 41, but her vision is being carried out in her honour.
This year’s Biennale – which is set to open on Saturday – has sparked controversy over Russia’s participation for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, as well as the inclusion of Israel.
In response, the jury resigned and the opening ceremony was cancelled, alongside the awarding of the Golden Lion at the start of the cultural exhibition.
The dominant colour in the German pavilion’s interior is mint-green – the colour used in the Red Army barracks in communist East Germany, many of which are still standing as ruins.
Works by Naumann are exhibited on the walls, for example a relief made of chairs, a curtain of chainmail and the performance “Trümmerfrau,” referring to the “Rubble Women” who cleared German streets after World War II.
Titled “Ruin,” the German pavilion represents a warning against war, while reflecting the artists’ East German roots, according to Reinhardt.
Naumann grew up in Zwickau in what was then East Germany and witnessed growing right-wing radicalization in the region following German reunification in 1990, which is reflected in her work.
Vietnam-born Tieu will cover the 1938 fascist-style building with more than 3 million mosaic tiles to create the mirror image of the large-panel-system building she grew up in as the daughter of migrant workers in Berlin in the 1990s.
Widely used across the Eastern bloc, these buildings constructed of prefabricated concrete slabs offered affordable housing at scale and continue to dominate in many neighbourhoods of the former East Germany.