Keywa Henri
Born in 1993
Lives and works between Guiana and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
A multidisciplinary artist and independent researcher of French-Brazilian descent, born in Kaulu/Kourou, Keywa Henri is the first Kalin’a Tɨlewuyu (Indigenous People of “French Guiana”) to graduate from the ENSBA in Lyon. They currently live and work between “Guiana” and France.
Exploring the visual arts, film, performance, literature, and fashion, Keywa Henri’s work often takes the form of multifaceted installations and bodies of interconnected pieces. Her diverse and multifaceted work is informed by her practice of animation, which gives voice to her concerns regarding identity, aesthetics, and politics. Animation—a language of transformation and experimentation—emerges as a movement, an act of primal creation, and an ancestral continuity.
Rooted in the Indigenous and anti-colonial perspectives of Abya Yala (“the Americas”), her research centers on personal and collective memory archives, the materiality of selected elements, and contemporary issues related to the crisis of life. Keywa Henri’s work explores the complexities of her existence and questions her place in today’s society, at the intersection of worlds and materials.