Performed by and developed with, Brock Bierly, Sharleen Chidian, Keizo Fish, Rachel Jihye Han, Leah Hennessey, Laszlo Horvath, Liana Kurogi, Jurrell Lewis, Kara Lu, Emily Nunes, and Van To.

The latest iteration of the MOCA Focus series will feature the West Coast premiere of Diane Severin Nguyen’s (b. 1990, Carson, California) new performance WAR SONGS, 2025-26.

In her first live performance project, Diane Severin Nguyen—together with Music Director, Laszlo Horvath and a cast of ten performers—examines how images and media shape identity, power, and history. Debuting at the Performa 2025 Biennial in New York, the performance adopts the format of an anti–Vietnam War concert, reinterpreting protest music to explore how the aesthetic forms of past resistance movements generate cultural afterlives that continue to shape our contemporary moment.

By reworking anti-war anthems and populist folk songs, Nguyen refracts the sound of past resistance through the contemporary zeitgeist, questioning how nostalgia shapes current ideas of freedom, purity, and collective struggle. 

MOCA Focus: Diane Severin Nguyen is accompanied by a Nimoy Emerging Artist Publication Series catalogue offering a multifaceted exploration of music and cultural memory.

MOCA Focus: Diane Severin Nguyen is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, with Emilia Nicholson-Fajardo, Curatorial Assistant, and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs with Michele Huizar, former Performance Coordinator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

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

Major support is provided by the MOCA Global Council.

Publication support is provided by the Nimoy Fund for Emerging Artists.

This performance is made possible by generous endowment support from Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.

Performances at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Performance with generous funding provided by Betsy Greenberg and The Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund.

Wonmi's WAREHOUSE Programs is founded by Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.