echo* at Salzburger Kunstverein

echo*

Martin Beck, Sung Tieu

Salzburger Kunstverein

July 13 - September 8, 2024

The summer exhibition echo* interlaces the artistic practices of Martin Beck and Sung Tieu. The exhibition creates an environment where the resonance of sound meets the solidity of institutional infrastructure, delving into temporal and spatial contexts at the same time. Central to the exhibition is a collaborative sound installation by Beck and Tieu in the corridor enveloping the Kunstverein’s main exhibition space. The installation features an intricate network of 28 speakers arranged to produce a continuous sonic environment. The soundscape, alternately programmed by both artists, ranges from the chirping of crickets and howling bursts of winds to the tumult of a thunderstorm, each adding its narrative and emotional depth into the space. This resulting experience is as fluid and shifting as the historical and political contexts Beck and Tieu draw from in their individual works presented in the main exhibition hall. 

Sung Tieu, known for her minimalism-critical approach, explores the tensions arising from design and its social application. Her installations compel us to consider the unseen layers of political narratives woven into everyday spaces. Tieu contributes two digital clocks, each set to different time zones linked to incidences of Havana syndrome around the globe. As a new commission, she produces a text-based work as part of her series Newspapers 1969–ongoing that interlaces personal biography and the kunstverein’s institutional mechanics. The newspaper serves as a sculptural and textual element blurring the lines between the archival and the immediate, the factual and the imagined.

Martin Beck’s practice is deeply engaged with processes of imaging, broadening our understanding of visual and auditory cultures. The main reference point for his most recent body of works is a series of eleven vinyl records titled environments released between 1969 and 1979 as psychoacoustic tools designed to enhance productivity and well-being. Beck probes these claims, laying bare the rhetoric of a then-nascent industry. Building on this exploration, he contributes four large-scale drawings adorned with fern foliage that probe the themes from sites to sounds, tasks, and time. Additional works cut into the record series’ covers to highlight the visual and verbal dimensions associated with the paradoxical pressures of self-care and self-control in contemporary capitalist culture.

This juxtaposition of Beck and Tieu’s works allows for a reflection on how psychological and physical spaces are constructed as well as for understanding echos as not just an auditory but a historical and cultural experience.

Sung Tieu (*1987, Hai Duong, Vietnam) studied Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg and at Goldsmiths College, London before completing her postgraduate work at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Living in Seoul ung Tieu’s work is largely based on historical and political research. She often connects historical events with biographical elements related to her Vietnamese background.

Martin Beck (* 1963, Bludenz, Austria) has widely exhibited his work in Europe and the United States. Recent solo exhibitions include Last Night, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2024), dans un second temps, Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (2018); Rumors and Murmors at Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna, Austria (2017); and Program at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge (2014–16). He lives in New York and Vienna.

Exhibition view. Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Exhibition view. Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Exhibition view. Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Exhibition view. Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck , Set/Setting (SD66004, SD66005) , 2021, two vinyl records ( environments 4, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66004, 1974; environments 5, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66005, 1974), linen - covered plywood structure, 75.3 × 110.2 × 11.6 cm, c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzb urger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck , Set/Setting (SD66004, SD66005) , 2021, two vinyl records ( environments 4, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66004, 1974; environments 5, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66005, 1974), linen - covered plywood structure, 75.3 × 110.2 × 11.6 cm, c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzb urger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From bottom to top: Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type A (Swivel). Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type B. Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type C, square - tubes, fixed. Each wall mounted stainless steel stool, 47.5 × 36 × 51 cm. All courtesy of the artist, Sfeir - Semler, Hamburg/Beirut, Trautwein Herleth, Berlin & Emalin, London . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From bottom to top: Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type A (Swivel). Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type B. Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type C, square - tubes, fixed. Each wall mounted stainless steel stool, 47.5 × 36 × 51 cm. All courtesy of the artist, Sfeir - Semler, Hamburg/Beirut, Trautwein Herleth, Berlin & Emalin, London . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck , equilibrium: Thunderstorm , 2023, record cover ( environments 4, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66004, 1976), 8 - ply museum board, plexiglass, fasteners, 50.8 × 50.8 cm, c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York. Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck , equilibrium: Thunderstorm , 2023, record cover ( environments 4, Syntonic Research, Inc., SD66004, 1976), 8 - ply museum board, plexiglass, fasteners, 50.8 × 50.8 cm, c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York. Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From bottom to top: Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type A (Swivel). Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type B. Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type C, square - tubes, fixed. Each wall mounted stainless steel stool, 47.5 × 36 × 51 cm. All courtesy of the artist, Sfeir - Semler, Hamburg/Beirut, Trautwein Herleth, Berlin & Emalin, London . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From bottom to top: Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type A (Swivel). Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type B. Sung Tieu , Untitled (echo*) , 2024, type C, square - tubes, fixed. Each wall mounted stainless steel stool, 47.5 × 36 × 51 cm. All courtesy of the artist, Sfeir - Semler, Hamburg/Beirut, Trautwein Herleth, Berlin & Emalin, London . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From left to right: Martin Beck , environments (tasks) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. Martin Beck , environments (sites) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. Martin Beck , environments (time) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. All c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York. Exhibition view Ma rtin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
From left to right: Martin Beck , environments (tasks) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. Martin Beck , environments (sites) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. Martin Beck , environments (time) , 2023, pencil on paper, mounted on museum board on frame with canvas edge, 180 × 150 cm. All c ourtesy of the artist and 47 Canal, New York. Exhibition view Ma rtin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck, Sung Tieu , echo* , 28 ceiling mounted speakers, amplifiers, computer, sound files . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.
Martin Beck, Sung Tieu , echo* , 28 ceiling mounted speakers, amplifiers, computer, sound files . Exhibition view Martin Beck, Sung Tieu. echo* , Salzburger Kunstverein 2024, photo: kunst - dokumentation.