The Walls, The Floors (2025) commissioned by Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. Photo: Julian Blum

Mathuật – MMRBX (2022) 2-channel video installation, color, sound, ca. 30′; salt, dimensions variable. Commissioned by the 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Photo: Silke Briel

Maithu Bùi

born in 1991, based in Berlin

Maithu Bùi (b. 1991) decodes and translates entanglements of life, history, science, and technology into landscapes of collective memory. They hold a BA in Philosophy with a focus on Philosophy of Language and Logic from LMU Munich, aswell as a MFA in Fine Arts from UdK Berlin. Maithu Bùi was a 2024 Human Machine Fellow at Akademie der Künste, a 2025 Dreaming Beyond AI – Coalition Building in Times of AI fellow and a 2025 recipient of the Stiftung Kunstfond stipend. Their work has been presented at the 12th Berlin Biennale (DE), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (DE), Kunsthalle Bratislava (SK), Galerie im Turm Berlin (DE), Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (DE), E-WERK x Akademie der Künste (DE) and Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius (LT). Bùi co-founded the research collective Curating through Conflict with Care (CCC) and the working group art+computation at the Gesellschaft für Informatik. 

Solo Exhibitons

2025
Galerie Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin, DE (forthcoming)

2024
fromBattlefields toRoborders, Galerie im Turm, Berlin, DE, curated by Johanna Janßen

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025
Human Machine, E-WERK x Akademie der Künste Berlin, Luckenwalde, DE, curated by Helen Turner, Clara Hermann, Katharina Worf (forthcoming)
Bells and Cannons, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, LT, curated by Virginija Januškevičiūtė and Valentinas Klimašauskas (forthcoming)
Screen Time, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig, DE, curated by Philipp Freytag and Anne Richter
Womb of Fire, Mo Art Space, Hanoi, Vin Gallery; and Medium Gallery, Saigon, VN, curated by Đỗ Tường Linh, Nga Nguyen, Thao Nguyen and Huyen Nguyen
Postost Melancholy, rk Galerie Lichtenberg, Berlin, DE, curated by Daria Kanishcheva

2024
Walking with Mountains, aashra Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, LB, curated by Ali Yass (online)
Open Studios, Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE, curated by Clara Hermann

2023
Nhớ: Space Between One End and the Other, Kunsthalle Bratislava, SK, curated by Denisa Tomková, Kvet Nguyen
Who We Are – Reflecting a Country of Immigration, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, DE, curated by Johanna Adam, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Dan Thy Nguyen
FUNKEN Academy, Technologie Campus und Fraunhofer Institut Chemnitz, DE, curated by Robert Verch, Klub Solitaire

2022
12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, DE
curated by Kader Attia, Đỗ Tường Linh, Marie Helene Pereira, Rasha Salti, Noam Segal

2021
KW Digital: Open Secret, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE (online), curated by Nadim Samman 

2020
Conditions of Necessity, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, DE, curated by Çağla Ilk, Misal Adnan Yildiz
#Mygration Festival Deutschland, Forum Factory, Berlin (online), curated by Vicky Truong

Residencies, Grants and Awards

2025
Stiftung Kunstfond Bonn, KUNSTFONDS_Stipendium
Dreaming Beyond AI, Coalition Building in Times of AI Fellowship
S+T+Arts Grand Prize (nominated)

2024
Akademie der Künste, JUNGE AKADEMIE, Human Machine Fellowship
VH Award (nominated)

2023
Future Generation Art Prize (nominated)
FUNKEN Academy residency for artistic-technological research at Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS)
and TU Chemnitz Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN)

2020
The Crack Begins Within, How now to gather, 11th Berlin
Biennale’s Curatorial Workshop curated by Pip Day

Education

2017-2023 MFA University of the Arts Berlin
2015-2016 MA Philosophy and BSc Computational Linguistics, LMU Munich (no degree)
2012-2016 BA Philosophy, Logic and Literature, LMU Munich

Artist Talks, Guest Lectures, Panels, Screenings

2025
Human Machine – Soil, Sound, Memory (Artist Talk, Panel) with Sonya Isupova, Viktor Brim, Emerson Culurgioni moderated by Wes Goatley, Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE
For Now – Diasporic Provisions Conference (Lecture) with Thao Ho, HU Berlin x SAVVY Contemporary, DE
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale), DE (Sreening)
Aspects of Presence Symposium (Panel) with Ali Akbar Mehta and Anna Engelhardt moderated by Clara Herrmann, Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE
Coalition Building in Times of AI: Intersecting Struggles (Artist Talk), Canòdrom, Barcelona moderated by Dreaming Beyond AI
50 Years Conference (Artist Talk, Screening) with Phuong Phan, University Bielefeld
Operation Remediation, Humboldt University, Berlin (Guest Lecture, Seminar)
Curating Care & Conflict, Bärenzwinger Berlin with Duygu Örs (Panel)

2024
On Technologies (Artist Talk), Weaving Liberations, Digital Justice Fund, Sarajevo, BA
Human Machine Symposium (Artist Talk), Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE
Curating through Conflict with Care: Methodologies (Workshop), The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, US
How to gather (Guest Lecture), University of the Arts, Berlin, DE
Dislocation & Remembrance (Artist Talk), KuK Tuesday, Technical University Berlin
Art as Politics (Guest Lecture) Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin, DE
Curating through Conflict with Care (Panel) nGbK, Berlin, DE
fromBattlfields toRoborders (Panel) with Ahmad Katlesh and Khoi Nguyen, Galerie im Turm, Berlin, DE
Make Voices Be Heard Symposium (Lecture), Hope Recycling Station, Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, Prague, CZ

2023
The Algorithmic State (Guest Lecture, Panel) with Rebecca L. Stein and Payton Croskey moderated by Noam Segal, School of Visual Arts, New York, US
Curating through Conflict with Care Symposium curated and moderated by Ayasha Guerin,
Duygu Örs, Moshtari Hilal and Maithu Bùi, nGbK, Berlin, DE

2022
The Digital Divide Conference (Lecture Performance, Panel) with Noel W Anderson and Tarek El-Ariss moderated by Noam Segal, curated by Kader Attia and Noam Segal, 12th Berlin Biennale, Stasi Headquarters. Campus for Democracy, Berlin, DE
Advanced Architectural Design Graduate Studio at Columbia University, New York, US (Screening, Excerpt) by Noam Segal
Breaking (In)Visibitlies (Artist Talk) moderated by Vanessa Vu and Duc Vu Manh, 12th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
Kunst im Kontext (Artist Talk) moderated by Sinthujan Varatharajah and Moshtari Hilal, 12th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
1992 – 30 Jahre Gegenwart (Podcast) with İbrahim Arslan moderated by Leyla Yenirce and Bettina Rust, curated by Kolja Reichert, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, DE

2021
KW Digital: Open Secret (Lecture Performance), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
Generation 1991 – Familienpolitik der DDR (Podcast), Rice and Shine Podcast moderated by Vanessa Vu and Minh Thu Tran

2020
#Mygration Festival Deutschland (Artist Talk) moderated by Vicky Truong, Forum Factory, Berlin, DE (online)

Works

The Walls, The Floors (2025)
wall paint, cardboard, found objects, 1-channel video, commissioned by Museum der bildenden Künste, In: Screen Time – Video Art in Leipzig since 1990. Photo: Julian Blum

What have The Walls, The Floors seen, heard and experienced? The work decodes and translates entanglements of life, history of violence, science, and technology into landscapes of collective memory. Paint test: Munich: A painting company reported how an open-plan office called in disbelief the day after the renovation. As the fresh paint dried overnight, the black of a huge right-wing extremist symbol emerged from the wall. Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 2017 with activists shortly before the federal election: A janitor was frustrated that during renovation work, the walls often had to be repainted several times – due to right-wing extremist symbols. Paint tests from 1904 to 2031: The fields on the walls symbolize the period from 1904 to 2031. Each area marks one year. The black ones represent the beginnings of wars, massacres, and (disputed) genocides. If all armed conflicts were recorded, the wall would have to be completely black.

Mathuật – MMRBX (2022)
2-channel video installation, color, sound, ca. 30′; salt, dimensions variable, commissioned by the 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Bratislava. Photo: Silke Briel, Adam Šakový. Stills: Courtesy of the artist

Mathuật – MMRBX is a virtual diaspora of intergenerational memory. The video installation simulates a Vietnamese water puppet theatre, using storytelling and song for knowledge transmission. In Vietnamese, ma means “ghost” and thuật means “craft”; together, ma thuật translates to “magic.” MMRBX is an acronym for “memory box,” a vessel for diasporic experience. Through layered voices and choral elements, the work evokes a sense of intergenerational continuity–where stories begin and end through ghostly encounters. “The work metaphorically connects the Vietnamese ritual of ancestor care with a virtual, allegorical memory box that preserves mnemonic moving images. Heavily contextualized within Southeast and East Asian mythology, where communication with the dead is an integral part of everyday life, Mathuật – MMRBX aims to excavate the wounded past of survivor diasporas (Việt Kiều) that remains invisible to most communities. The artist believes that in a world suffering from colonial amnesia, we resist by remembering, as it is impossible for the ghosts and spirits of historical traumas to rest in peace.” – Đỗ Tường Linh

Link: https://vimeo.com/758401959?fl=pl&fe=sh↗

fromBattlefields toRoborders (2024)
2-channel video installation, frames, poster, anti-spy screens, mirror film, blackout film, overhead projector, overhead transparent film, commissioned by Galerie im Turm Berlin. Photos: Alice M. Huynh. Stills: Courtesy of the artist.

Research project on border technologies with Vanessa Vu, Ahmad Katlesh, Petra Molnar, and Khoi Nguyen. fromBattlefields toRoborders explores how technologies migrate, and how they cross “smart” borders.

Link: https://vimeo.com/1099449932↗

look out the window (2024)
1-channel video installation, color, sound, 13 min., dimensions variable, commissioned by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Stills: Courtesy of the artist

A histo-geographical study of the Humboldt Forum’s immediate surroundings. Architectural layers as witnesses to time, censorship, surveillance, genocide, war, contract work and deportation. Looking out the window one can see the Marx-Engels Forum in front of the Berlin TV tower. The Stasi tested “photographic technology for identifying individuals and license plates” on Berlin’s TV tower. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels exiled Germany due the 1819 Carlsbad Decrees – strict press laws. A caricature appeared in the magazine “Der Leuchtturm” before the revolutions in Europe in 1847. On May 9, 1993, a flyer with so-called “fire slogans” was sent out as a uniform ideological symbolic framework for the next day. In the 1st appeal, writings by Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky were consigned to the flames. On May 10, 1933 twenty-two German cities as part of the ‘Action against the un-German spirit’ books were publicly burned. The book burning was systematically planned and carried out by the German Student Union. The book burning in Berlin took place behind today’s Humboldt Forum.  

Link: https://vimeo.com/1019191011↗

© 2025 Maithu Bùi. All Rights Reserved