Movement Research Performance Journal #62

Young Birds, Youngbloods, and Shameless Shamans from Strange Mountains: Curators Thảo Hồ and Hải Nam Nguyễn with artist Việt Lê on Southeast Asian spiritualities & sexualities

Thảo Hồ: This is a snippet of a conversation that I had with curator Hải Nam Nguyễn and artist Việt Lê at the Schwules Museum in Berlin. We talk about spirituality and artistic practices, shamanism and queerness, or the concept of queerness. It is March 19, 2025 in the afternoon and we are in room number four, the workshop room. We just had a tour through the exhibition. Can you introduce yourselves? Việt Lê: I'm Việt Lê, artist, researcher, shaman. And it's fitting that we're in room number four because in Asia, four signals death, and the show at the Schwules gestures at that. There are some works about death and transition, woven with spirituality and sexuality. Hải Nam Nguyễn: I'm Nam and I'm a co-curator of the Young Bird from Strange Mountains exhibition, which is currently on at the Schwules Museum until August 2025. The exhibition is curated by Thảo Hồ, Sarnt Utamachote, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Ragil Huda, and myself.