On the Passing of Dinh Q. Lê

2024.4.16 [Tue]

Dinh Q. Lê (Born 1968 in Hà Tiên, Vietnam), a leading artist in the contemporary art world in Vietnam, passed away suddenly on April 6, 2024. We are deeply saddened by the loss of this artist. In hearing the news of his passing, many people affected by his work spoke of the magnitude of their loss, reminding us once again that his contributions were not limited to Vietnam and Southeast Asia, but permeated the contemporary art world at large.

In 2015, the Mori Art Museum had the honor of hosting his largest-ever solo exhibition, Dinh Q. Lê: Memories for Tomorrow. Subsequently, he participated in SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now in 2017 and WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subjects in 2023. In addition, four of his works, including a new work comissioned on the occasion of his solo exhibition, are in the Mori Art Museum Collection.

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Hà Tiên, a Vietnamese town near the Cambodian border, and moved to the United States with his family when he was 10 years old. After returning to Vietnam in the 1990s after studying art in the U.S., he has not only communicated Vietnam’s history to the world through his artistic practices, but has also been engaged in meaningful activities with a vision for the future, such as co-founding “Sàn Art” in 2007 with other artists to support contemporary art in Vietnam and connect it to the global art scene.

His willful persistence has been an artistic resistance to the obliteration and erasure of history. As one of the contemporary art museums connecting the Asian region, we feel anew our mission to carry on Dinh Q. Lê’s legacy together with the contemporary art community, especially in Vietnam, and to continue our museum activities for world peace and human coexistence through learning about the past.

Kataoka Mami
Director
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo