Forma

Sung Tieu | Frieze Artist Award 2021

Moving Target Shadow Detection
Sung Tieu
2 February 2022

Frieze and Forma are pleased to announce Sung Tieu as the winner of the 2021 Artist Award. Now in its eighth year, the acclaimed prize offers an emerging international artist the opportunity to debut a major new commission on the occasion of Frieze London. Focused for the third year on the medium of film, the Artist Award is presented in partnership with Forma. The annual initiative is part of the Frieze London’s anchor programme of talks, collaborations and special projects.

Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director, Forma said:
Congratulations to Sung Tieu for winning the Frieze Artist Award 2021. I’m thrilled Forma could work with Sung, the jurors and the Frieze team on this important film prize. Sung’s exploration of geo-politics, the legacy of cold war dynamics and for this commission, sonic warfare and the "Havana Syndrome" are more relevant than ever– with alleged attacks reported in Vienna and Berlin this year alone. Her research and new film exposes both the threat and vulnerability of opaque global power.

Tieu’s winning commission was selected by a jury composed of Steven Cairns (Curator, Artists’ Film & Moving Image, ICA, London), Anna Gritz (Curator, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin), Eva Langret (Artistic Director, Frieze London), Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma) and Alberta Whittle (artist). The work continues the artist’s ongoing research into the psychological dimension of warfare, acoustic weaponry and its relationship to Cold War ideologies. Titled Moving Target Shadow Detection, 2021, Tieu’s film presents a detailed reconstruction of the interior of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, the site of the first-known instance of sonic warfare, and the incident to which the mysterious set of medical disorders collectively termed ‘Havana Syndrome’, owes its name. First reported by US government officials in the Cuban capital in 2016, Havana Syndrome includes a range of unexplained symptoms from nausea, fatigue and memory loss to brain injuries resembling concussions, thought to be caused by covert sonic weapons. In Tieu’s film, footage leading from the hotel’s lobby through to an occupied hotel room is shown from the viewpoint of a small flying mosquito. Rendered as nano-drone camera footage, these images analyse the architectural and technical skeleton of the hotel, speculating on how the attacks could have taken place.

Tieu’s commission will premiere with an invite only screening at No. 9 Cork Street on October 15, 2021, following which the artist will appear in conversation with Chris Rawcliffe. The work will be available to stream online at frieze.com thereafter.


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Moving Target
Shadow Detection

The Frieze Artist Award 2021

The Frieze Artist Award 2021 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze with the support of Arts Council England.

Watch the film here

Moving Target Shadow Detection
Sung Tieu
2 February 2022

Frieze and Forma are pleased to announce Sung Tieu as the winner of the 2021 Artist Award. Now in its eighth year, the acclaimed prize offers an emerging international artist the opportunity to debut a major new commission on the occasion of Frieze London. Focused for the third year on the medium of film, the Artist Award is presented in partnership with Forma. The annual initiative is part of the Frieze London’s anchor programme of talks, collaborations and special projects.

Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director, Forma said:
Congratulations to Sung Tieu for winning the Frieze Artist Award 2021. I’m thrilled Forma could work with Sung, the jurors and the Frieze team on this important film prize. Sung’s exploration of geo-politics, the legacy of cold war dynamics and for this commission, sonic warfare and the "Havana Syndrome" are more relevant than ever– with alleged attacks reported in Vienna and Berlin this year alone. Her research and new film exposes both the threat and vulnerability of opaque global power.

Tieu’s winning commission was selected by a jury composed of Steven Cairns (Curator, Artists’ Film & Moving Image, ICA, London), Anna Gritz (Curator, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin), Eva Langret (Artistic Director, Frieze London), Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma) and Alberta Whittle (artist). The work continues the artist’s ongoing research into the psychological dimension of warfare, acoustic weaponry and its relationship to Cold War ideologies. Titled Moving Target Shadow Detection, 2021, Tieu’s film presents a detailed reconstruction of the interior of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, the site of the first-known instance of sonic warfare, and the incident to which the mysterious set of medical disorders collectively termed ‘Havana Syndrome’, owes its name. First reported by US government officials in the Cuban capital in 2016, Havana Syndrome includes a range of unexplained symptoms from nausea, fatigue and memory loss to brain injuries resembling concussions, thought to be caused by covert sonic weapons. In Tieu’s film, footage leading from the hotel’s lobby through to an occupied hotel room is shown from the viewpoint of a small flying mosquito. Rendered as nano-drone camera footage, these images analyse the architectural and technical skeleton of the hotel, speculating on how the attacks could have taken place.

Tieu’s commission will premiere with an invite only screening at No. 9 Cork Street on October 15, 2021, following which the artist will appear in conversation with Chris Rawcliffe. The work will be available to stream online at frieze.com thereafter.

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Touring

Presented as part of Sung Tieu's solo exhibition 'Hotel Nacional de Cuba' at Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna between 15 Apr – 11 Jun 2022.

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All images courtesy the artist and Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna.

Artist Biography

Sung Tieu is an artist based in Berlin. Her work bridges conflicting emotions of the previous and coming Cold War areas. She has had institutional solo exhibitions at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020), Nottingham Contemporary (2020) and Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2021). Major forthcoming institutional group exhibitions include Though It’s Dark, I Still Sing, at the 34th São Paulo Biennale in Brazil (2021), TECHNO, at Museion, in Bolzano, Italy (2021) and Art Histories of a Forever War at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, in Taiwan (2021). Her forthcoming solo exhibition titled FALL will open this October at Kunstmuseum Bonn. This year, Tieu is also nominated for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2021, which will inaugurate mid September at Hamburger Bahnhof, in Berlin.

sungtieu.com

Press

— Abhijan Toto on Sung Tieu, ‘Moving Target Shadow Detection’ at Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Artforum, Print Summer 2022)
— Watch Now: Sung Tieu, ‘Moving Target Shadow Detection’ (Frieze)
— Sung Tieu Wins Frieze Artist Award 2021 (Frieze)
— Sound warfare: Sung Tieu explores the mysterious Havana Syndrome affecting US officials (The Art Newspaper, 14 October 2022)
— 2021 Frieze Artist Award Goes to Sung Tieu (ARTnews)
— Sung Tieu Wins Frieze Artist Award 2021 (FAD Magazine)
— Sung Tieu unpacks ‘Havana syndrome’ in her latest work (The Economist)

The Frieze Artist Award 2021

The Frieze Artist Award 2021 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze with the support of Arts Council England.

Watch the film here