# Maithu Bùi

> Berlin-based visual artist (b. 1991, they/them) working across video, installation, mixed media, and writing. Practice investigates diaspora, relational proximity, and shared histories of violence, science, and technology.

## About

Maithu Bùi holds a BA in Philosophy (Logic and Language) from LMU Munich and an MFA in Fine Arts from UdK Berlin (Lensbased Class, Hito Steyerl). They are a 2026–2027 BPA// Berlin Program for Artists fellow, a 2025 Stiftung Kunstfond stipend recipient, a 2025 Dreaming Beyond AI fellow, and a 2024 Human Machine Fellow at Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Their work has been exhibited at the 12th Berlin Biennale (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, E-WERK Luckenwalde with Akademie der Künste Berlin, Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, and aashra Ashkal Alwan, Beirut.

## Works

- Mathuật – MMRBX (2022): 2-channel video-installation, color, sound, 22 minutes, salt. Commissioned by the 12th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Explores intergenerational diaspora memory through Vietnamese water puppet theatre and the ritual of caring for the dead. Toured to Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, and Silent Green Berlin.

- fromBattlefields toRoborders (2024): 2-channel video installation, color, sound, 13 minutes, shadows, blackout film, mirror film, anti-spy film. Commissioned by Galerie im Turm, Berlin.

- Wall of Drones (2024): Installation using shadows, blackout film, and mirror film. Commissioned by Galerie im Turm, Berlin.

- Punched Cards (2025, ongoing): Zettelkasten card-file system in cardboard, print, and laser cut. Explores collective trauma, asymmetries of power and memory, and the history of punched cards from the U.S. Census Bureau to Nazi data processing. Commissioned by Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig.

- Provisionals (2025, ongoing): Series of allegorical found and modified objects examining cycles of metal reuse and violent histories — aluminum pots cast from downed aircraft, wartime material requisitions, and the language of bombs named after fruit. Commissioned by Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig.

- The Walls, The Floors (2025): Multi-part installation comprising Paint Test, Punched Cards, Provisionals, and Deminer (functioning metal detectors). Paint fields mark years from 1904 to 2031, with black fields representing the beginnings of wars, massacres, and genocides. Commissioned by Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig.

- Operation Remediation (2025): Research project examining the instrumentalization of biological agents — giant pouched rats, honeybees, genetically modified E. coli — in the detection and disposal of explosives. Addresses the enduring legacies of war and entanglement of technological systems with structures of exploitation. Solo exhibition at Galerie Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin; shown at E-WERK Luckenwalde and Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius.

## Links

- Website: https://www.maithubui.com
- Artist Info & CV: https://www.maithubui.com/info
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maithu_bui/
- BPA// Berlin Program for Artists: https://berlinprogramforartists.org/
- Contact: maithu@posteo.de