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Diane Severin Nguyen

DIANE SEVERIN NGUYEN

WAR SONGS The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA 27 February–1 March 2026 Los Angeles
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Press Release

MOCA presents the West Coast premiere of Diane Severin Nguyen’s first live performance, WAR SONGS (2025/2026).

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.

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Also Exhibiting at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

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MOCA’s Collection at the Geffen The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA 2 August 2026–7 March 2027 Los Angeles
About the Gallery

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles, United States, is MOCA’s expansive former police-car warehouse in Little Tokyo, redesigned by architect Frank Gehry as a raw, industrial venue for large-scale contemporary art, film, and performance. Opened in 1983 as the ‘Temporary Contemporary’, it became a permanent branch of the artist-founded Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles—dedicated to art from 1940 to the present—after a major gift from the David Geffen Foundation in 1996.

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Address
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles
United States
Opening Hours
Thursday – Friday,11am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm
Closed Monday to Wednesday
(1)
Los Angeles 152 North Central Avenue
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA contemporary art institution in Los Angeles United States
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, United States
213/621-2766
https://www.moca.org/

Opening hours
Thursday – Friday,11am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm
Closed Monday to Wednesday
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