Kwinnie Lê

Kwinnie Lê is an artist, researcher and poet based in Rotterdam (NL). Their works revolve around the revival and revitalisation movement of ancestral markings, colonially known as tattoos. In an ongoing world-building project "The Land of the Tattooed", the name borrowed from an ancient state of Vietnam, they employ semi-fictional narratives and critical speculation. This body of work confronts the epistemicide of ancestral markings and meditates on their repair. It examines through chapters, for instance, the historical use of tattoos for colonial classification, the instrumentalisation of tattoo traditions in the modernist rejection of ornament and the potential of ancestral wisdom to engage with the planetary crisis.

Although rooted in erased histories, fiction becomes a tool to arrive at uncompromising hope. The works manifest themselves in textile installations, storytelling and performances. As a practitioner of skin marking, their work aligns with the revival of the Việt ancestral skin marking tradition. They hold a BA in Fine Arts from the Willem de Kooning Academy and a resMA in Artistic Research from the University of Amsterdam. In 2023, they received the Doesjenel prize. Recent shows include TENT Rotterdam (NL), Asian Art Museum (USA), Museum Rijswijk (NL), MINO Antwerp (BE) and Holland Festival (NL).