Duration: 2:30 pm- 6:30 pm (4 hours, incl. breaks)
“Nine layers of clouds, you have flown
While I remain here, all alone.” (Ngô Trác Lâm)
From clouds – shadows – rain – parallels to the ninth layer of clouds, the highest realm, where happiness and joy overflow like paradise. A tribute to the journey of Young Birds from Strange Mountains, those who were and are in search of a landing place — for all the longing, glimpses, partings, and yearning.
This photo workshop invites you to join a journey collecting impressions from the exhibition “Young Birds from Strange Mountains – Queer Arts from Southeast Asia and its Diaspora” and the area surrounding the Schwules Museum. We are navigating, tracing, and mapping a space largely known within German white queer communities with the cultural worker Ngọc and Nu, one of the artists in the exhibition.
At Schwules Museum, On Cloud Nine opens a playground where participants are invited to creatively engage with the Young Birds from Strange Moutains exhibition through photography exercises. Since taking pictures has long been an act of resistance against erasure in queer communities, prompts are prepared for participants to counter that. Participants will explore notions of intimacy and detachment, immediacy, fun and action. The results will be produced with on-the-spot prints and displayed.
Based on this collaborative archiving, the workshop concludes with a collective ritual — a performative offering to queer ancestors, the exhibition and the museum, to seek blessings, ward off bad luck and welcome a fresh start.
The workshop is open to Southeast Asian queers who are interested in photography of all levels. It will be held in English spoken language.
Costs: free of charge
Registration: by e-mail to fuehrungen@schwulesmuseum.de
In order to create a safer space, please state a few lines about your motivation to attend the workshop in your Mail.
Duration: 4 hours, from 14:30-18:30 pm (incl. breaks)
Meeting point: 14:30 in front of the queer bookstore Prinz Eisenherz at Motzstr. 23, 10777 Berlin, near Nollendorfplatz.
The event is supported by spartenoffenen Förderung des Senats für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt and Goethe-Institut Hanoi.
Bios
Nu (b.1990) (they/he) is an artist/art organizer/social activist. Their photography and social works are a way for them to connect with their roots and help empower others. Nu co-founded Vanguard – a zine for LGBTQ+ in Vietnam to engage and promote awareness of this community. The zine volumes are displayed and researched in various journal libraries around the world. In 2019, Vanguard was archived by the Library of Congress. Nu has been invited to speak at the Địa Project, the US Embassy, Northeastern University and M.I.T University. Nu established the AirHue Residency Program in 2024 located in Hue – an ancient capital of Vietnam. AirHue Program designs for national and international emerging and mid-career artists encompassing three key principles: work-based residency, community engagement and experimental research.
Nu’s works focused on various ways to heal the Vietnamese diaspora from oppression.
Lưu Bích Ngọc (she/her) is a Berlin-based cultural worker. Ngọc focuses on accessibility and empowerment in the arts and culture, specifically through transdisciplinary and intersectional approaches.
Ngọc co-coordinated ‘translated beings’ (2024), a funded project for young Viet Queers of first-generation in Berlin. Her zine ‘nhớ nhớ quên quên’ (2025) studies the practices of mourning and rememberance between marginalized communities in Central Vietnam and Berlin.
She is currently working on the extended notion of translation for marginalized communities in the diaspora, focusing on empowerment and the manifold ways of resistance. Her graduation thesis is titled “Decolonizing Translation. Empowering Strategies through Cultural Perspectives – Three Case Studies from Vietnam”.
Hải Nam Nguyễn (he/him) is an independent curator and researcher based between Vietnam and Germany. His curatorial work explores various subjects, including Vietnamese immigration in Germany, the history of contract workers in the GDR, and Southeast Asian queerness. He is the co-curator of the exhibition Young Birds from Strange Mountains at SMU. Currently, he is a guest curator at the Museum for Asian Art at the Humboldt Forum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
