People & Network
Tracing Kiều was initiated in Berlin and is developed with a small team of artists, writers, and scholars from the Vietnamese diaspora. Around them, a growing circle of contributors has taken part in Kiều Lesen and the project’s other formats
Team
Alisa Anh Kotmair
Initiator, artistic director
Kiều Complex · Kiều Lesen · Kiều Reader
Writer, artist, and editor exploring language, memory, and belonging.
She exhibited in Gap Viet Nam (1999), the first exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, featuring work by artists from Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora.
Amelie Mai Gottsmann
Focus on art mediation
Kiều Complex · Kiều Lesen
Art historian specializing in contemporary art, new media, and art education.
Master’s in Art and Visual History, Humboldt University of Berlin; bachelor’s in Art History and Musicology. Working at the intersection of art, musical practice, and art mediation.
Lưu Bích Ngọc
Cultural programming
Kiều Complex
Cultural programmer and curator of Vietnamese film festivals in Berlin, 2024–2026, with a practice focused on accessibility and empowerment in the arts and academia.
Pipo Bui
Strategic advisor
Kiều Complex · Kiều Reader · Kiều Lesen
Cultural scholar, author, environmentalist, and community organizer.
Author of Envisioning Vietnamese Migrants in Germany: Ethnic Stigma, Immigrant Origin Narratives and Partial Masking (LIT Verlag Münster, 2003).
She has curated exhibits on ecological restoration, coffee farming, and urban development.
Trương Hồng Quang
Literary advisor, Kiều scholarship
Kiều Complex · Kiều Lesen
Germanist, translator, and sworn interpreter.
His PhD from Leipzig’s Karl Marx University compares Goethe’s Faust and The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du.
Co-editor, with Claudia Borchers, of Das Mädchen Kiều (2015) a bilingual DE-VN edition with the 1964 German translation by Irene and Franz Faber.
Dạ Thảo Phương
Poet, director, performance
Kiều Lesen
As a poet, she has read and performed on stages from Hanoi to the Southbank Centre in London, with work in anthologies including The Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present. After working in Vietnam as a journalist and editor she lived in cities such as Tokyo, Paris, Nicosia, and Berlin, where she now works as a freelance journalist.
Lan Linh Lê
Graphic design
Kiều Complex · Kiều Lesen
Communication Design, Wismar University. Her practice spans layout, analogue photography, and social media, using visual storytelling to question social and aesthetic norms.
Her photo series Über die Erotik (2021) is held in the collection of the German National Library in Leipzig.
Van Bo Le-Mentzel
Architectural advisor
Kiều Complex
Architect and social designer, known for projects such as Hartz-IV Furniture and the Tiny Foundation (2019). His work asks who gets to occupy space, and under what conditions.
Contributors: Kiều Lesen – Reading Kiều
Session 1 · 12.09.2026 – Hoa Trôi
Lotus Ensemble, Trương Hồng Quang, Dạ Thảo Phương, Phạm Quỳnh Nga, Amelie Mai Gottsmann, Alisa Anh Kotmair
Session 2 · 31.10.2026 – Băng lối vườn khuya
Đặng Ngọc Long, Mai Firsching, Tobias Firsching, Lưu Bích Ngọc, Alisa Anh Kotmair, Amelie Mai Gottsmann, Dạ Thảo Phương, Hoàng Đăng Lãnh, Marcus Vu, JP Bouzac
Collaborations & Support
We are grateful for the guidance and generosity of individuals, groups, and organizations who support the project and strengthen its reach.
parallelgesellschaft × Galerie Nord
An intersectional, post-German artist collective working at the intersection of critical literary formats, curatorial practice, and political-poetic intervention. Hosts of Kiều Lesen – Reading Kiều, our fall 2026 reading series. parallel-gesellschaft.de →
Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network
A US-based nonprofit that nurtures Vietnamese diasporic voices through programs in literature, residencies, events, and publications. Advisor on the Kiều Reader. dvan.org →
Collaborate with us
Tracing Kiều is an open, growing network. We are looking for partners and funding to realize the exhibition and the Reader, and we welcome dialogue with institutions, artists, researchers and anyone who shares an interest in the project.
Contact
Based in Berlin, Germany.
For general inquiries, collaborations, or dossier requests: mail@tracingkieu.net