2026
Wood, bamboo mats
480 x 480 cm
In the middle of the terrace stands a huge chessboard made of 64 bamboo mats. The chessboard stands both for calculation and opposition, and for a game that brings people together. Thuy Tien Nguyen takes up this aspect in Soft Load: the mats invite people to sit, lie down, and stay. In two performances, Nguyen activates the work: together with the outdoor pool visitors, she prepares cơm nắm, compact rice parcels traditionally associated in Vietnam with travel and physical labor.
About the artists
Thuy Tien Nguyen (she/her), born in 1993, lives and works in Hanoi (VIET) and Frankfurt am Main (DE). Nguyen investigates how personal and collective memories change, become distorted, and are reassembled. Her works move between individual experiences and larger historical narratives. Most recently, Nguyen showed artworks at documenta 15 (Kassel, DE), at Nova Contemporary (Bangkok, TH), and at Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt am Main, DE). In 2025, she received the Dogma Collection Prize as well as the Young Generation Art Award by Degussa with monopol.
Thuy Tien Nguyen refers to Sung Tieu’s work Queen’s Gambit (2020), in which the game of chess appears as a model of unequal social and bureaucratic systems. Nguyen adopts the structure of the playing field, but removes its competitive function and shifts the focus from strategy to presence, care, and shared time.
TROPEZ
at Sommerbad Humboldthain
Wiesenstraße 1, 13357 Berlin
Google Maps
Monday – Sunday
10.00 am – 6.00 pm
TROPEZ
at Sommerbad Humboldthain
Wiesenstraße 1, 13357 Berlin
Google Maps
Monday – Sunday
10.00 am – 6.00 pm
