Anh Vo, Song and Sex: Before the Revolution Performance premiere and exhibition Curated by Alhena Katsof
May 10 – June 21, 2026
PARTICIPANT INC presents Vietnamese choreographer and performance artist Anh Vo’s first solo exhibition in New York City, curated by Alhena Katsof. This unfolding exhibition exists in tandem with a series of performances that will take place weekly in the gallery. Each performance is a distinctive attempt at resurrection, invoked by an ever-evolving cast of artists, dancers, and musicians.
Song and Sex: Before the Revolution is the culmination of a year-long project during which Vo apprenticed with Vũ Thuỳ Linh and Phạm Đình Hoằng, two master-musicians who specialize in Ca Trù. This dying form of northern Vietnamese chamber music, austere and trance-like, is built on intricate poetic meters and a striking interplay between voice, drum, and lute. In the 20th century, it was condemned and effectively banned by the Communist government because of its association with prostitution and opium culture.
Vo grew up knowing that their great-grandmother was a Ca Trù singer on Khâm Thiên street in Hanoi, which was once notorious for its singing houses, opium dens, and intimate entanglements between art and sex work. Vo’s great-grandmother was eventually bought out of the singing house by their great-grandfather to be his second wife. Even though Vo had never heard the music in-person, the family story meant that when they did finally encounter Ca Trù in 2024, it was not as a neutral “heritage form.” They understood that the music’s virtuosity and refinement were historically inseparable from the lives of the women whose artistry unfolded within colonial economies of pleasure and precarity.
Vo embarked on the apprenticeship in Hanoi this past winter where they studied with Linh and Hoằng. This process was documented by visual artist Kyle b. Co., who produced a series of field drawings that are now integral to the exhibition. They were also joined by Barley Norton, a London-based ethnomusicologist who has been studying Ca Trù since the mid 1990s and has become an important interlocutor. During the rehearsal process, Norton said to Vo in passing: “Ethnography relies on the generosity of its subjects.”
“My project isn’t ethnography,” writes Vo. “But it’s not not ethnography either. I am deeply indebted to the generosity of Linh and Hoằng, two musicians of the Ả Đào Phú Thị Ensemble. They opened their hearts and entrusted me with the form, even when I myself don’t fully know what I am doing with it yet. I do know that I will activate or play Ca Trù as I hear it now in the contemporary.”
In February, Linh and Hoằng joined Vo in New York City, during which time they continued to rehearse intesively—at Initial Research in SoHo, and then during a residency at the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University. At first, Vo deliberately postponed “composing” a new performance; they wanted to soak in the idioms of Ca Trù. Eventually, Vo began to experiment with the form, giving a performance at Roulette Intermedium in March that centered the collaboration with Linh and Hoằng.
Vo’s research, training and experimentation is metabolized during the unfolding of Song and Sex: Before the Revolution. There will be a different performance every Sunday at the gallery during the run of the show. PARTICIPANT INC will also host two public conversations and a reading. Please see below for a detailed list of dates, times, titles, and participating artists.
Performance Schedule
Resurrection #1: it’s not a revolution without blood Sunday, May 10 @ 7-8pm Participants: Anh Vo, Kristel Baldoz, Kyle b. co., Jessica Pavone, Marija Kovačević
Resurrection #2: how’s it going down there? Sunday, May 17 @ 2 – 5pm Participants: Anh Vo, Kristel Baldoz, Justin Cabrillos, Isaac Silber
Resurrection #3: death divination Sunday, May 24 @ 12 – 8pm Participants: Anh Vo, Jessica Pavone, Marija Kovačević
Resurrection #4: it was a hand, maternal yet formless Sunday, May 31, 7 – 8pm Participants: Anh Vo, Sto Len, Isaac Silber
Resurrection #5: a listening session Sunday, June 7 @ 1 -2pm Participants: Anh Vo, Isaac Silber
Resurrection #6: another death divination Sunday, June 14 @ 12 – 8pm Participants: Anh Vo, Jessica Pavone, Marija Kovačević, gabby fluke-mogul
Resurrection #7: sex on sundays Sunday, June 21 @ 7 – 8pm Participants: Anh Vo, Kristel Baldoz, Justin Cabrillos, Jessica Pavone, Marija Kovačević, gabby fluke-mogul
Public Talks
André Lepecki, Ann Pellegrini, and Anh Vo, moderated by Alhena Katsof Tuesday, May 12, 7 – 8:30pm
Barley Norton and Anh Vo Thursday, May 21, On Zoom, 5 – 6:30pm
Summer Kim Lee, Anh Vo, and Alhena Katsof Wednesday, June 17, 6 – 7:30
With gratitude for their invaluable support: White Light Cinéhub Hanoi; Initial Research; Joshua Lubin-Levy, Chief Curator & Director Center for the Arts | Wesleyan University, Matt Mehlan, Executive and Artistic Director at Roulette Intermedium, and Lia Gangitano, Director of Participant Inc.
Song and Sex: Before the Revolution was made possible with funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Creative Research Grant, the Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship.
Song and Sex: Before the Revolution is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.