DIZ, Friedrich-Engels-Ring 55
DIVA is a fan letter to Diva Cat Thy, a Vietnamese trans woman, snack bar operator and performer who publicly shares her daily life and the challenges it presents on social media With the aim of overcoming geographical and linguistic distances, the French director uses the footage posted by Diva and her community to get in touch with her He has never met her, cannot travel to Vietnam due to Covid 19 restrictions and therefore relies on his partner, Diva's life on the streets of Saigon as a noodle seller, online as a social media celebrity, and on stage as a bingo singer and circus performer is interwoven with the processes of viewing (or observing) and translation, as well as a reflection on queer identity, distance, intimacy and incoherent histories.
Nicolas Cilins is a conceptual, video and performance artist from Geneva. Much of Cilins’ work is collaborative. They engage people and communities to cooperate and participate in the creative process. Whether it is calling upon African magicians, Romani prostitutes, or refugees around Europe, the result of these collaborations, with its embedded irony, seems to challenge clichés and the individual, scrutinising the particular across the European continent and beyond.