At the German pavilion, the artist has re-created the housing estate where she grew up to tell the forgotten history of migrants, including her parents, hired under a socialist agreement between East Germany and Vietnam \u2013 then abandoned<\/p>\n\n
An air of civilisational wipeout hangs over the Gehrenseestrasse complex, an abandoned housing estate on the north-eastern outskirts of Berlin, where the city still looks shabby without the chic. The insides of the nine prefabricated blocks have long been gutted; six floors of empty window frames stare hollow-eyed over multi-lane carriageways. In the courtyard, paintballers have left behind wooden barricades from when they played at World War III.<\/p>\n
Yet in one of the second-floor rooms of Berlin\u2019s largest ruin, artist Sung Tieu is waltzing across the concrete floor and reliving scenes from her childhood. \u201cHere was the single bed I shared with my mother for three years,\u201d she says, pointing into a corner of the small room. \u201cTwo metres by 90cm, can you believe it?\u201d There in the corridor is where her neighbours used to make b\u00e1nh bao dumplings on camping stoves, for lack of private kitchens. \u201cI still remember the smell.\u201d Here was the door through which she used to entertain her best friend when his mother locked him in during working hours. \u201cWe played cards through the gaps,\u201d she recalls with glee.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e1aabc262994841b749ae3cc20303801c4e2b734\/258_0_7740_6192\/master\/7740.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=38af7c1f8e0b81131fb415784af19873\" "\\"\u2018I")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"