Featuring a cast of eleven performers and with music arranged by Laszlo Horvath, WAR SONGS examines how images and media shape identity, power, and history. Debuting at the Performa 2025 Biennial in New York, WAR SONGS adopts the format of an anti-Vietnam War concert and demonstrates how the structures of historic protest movements can generate enduring cultural afterlives. WAR SONGS foregrounds music’s capacity to transcend generations, cultures, and national borders. Synthesizing original monologues alongside remixed takes on classic anti-war anthems and populist folk songs, Ngueyn refracts the sounds and textures of past resistance through the contemporary zeitgeist and questions how nostalgia shapes current ideas of freedom, purity, and collective struggle.

Diane Severin Nguyen, WAR SONGS (2025/2026), is a Performa Commission, co-commissioned by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Images:

Diane Severin Nguyen, WAR SONGS (2025/2026), comissioned and produced by PERFORMA, performance documentation at BRIC, New York, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Performa. Photo by Emmie America.

Diane Severin Nguyen, WAR SONGS (2025/2026), comissioned and produced by PERFORMA, performance documentation at BRIC, New York, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Performa. Photo by Julia D’Ambola.

Diane Severin Nguyen, WAR SONGS (2025/2026), performance documentation at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of the artist and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Josh Rose.