Nao  |   2026   |   https://www.instagram.com/p/DU778cujyuf/?img_index=1

In Ho Chi Minh City, Zelin Seah collaborated with a performance group of Cham descent, to reinterpret his blanket sculptures through questions of ancestral memory, displacement and belonging.

The Cham, whose historical kingdoms once occupied parts of present-day Vietnam, offer a different perspective on displacement: one in which people may remain on their ancestral land even as its political identity and cultural boundaries have changed.

Drawing on the Vietnamese proverb “For ten years, cultivate trees; for a hundred years, cultivate people,” Seah suspended a human-like figure made from a blanket in a large tree. A performer repeatedly circled the tree, gradually unravelling the threads binding the figure to it. The tree, traditionally associated with rootedness, became a site of tension between land, ancestry and cultural identity.

Seah was also invited to participate in the performance, holding a candle whose flame had to remain alight throughout. Another performer navigated a series of obstacles to reach him and light a second candle from the first. This fragile transfer of fire suggested the persistence of cultural memory and the effort required to carry it across generations.

Accompanied by traditional Cham music, the performance explored what it means to remain rooted in a place where one's ancestral identity is no longer fully recognised.

“Trong Nao, kau không chọn “đi”.

kau bị đẩy đi cùng lịch sử.

Những cuộc rời đi của người Chăm diễn ra trong im lặng

Qua gió, chiến tranh,

Qua những đường biên không do kau vẽ.

kau mang theo không phải hành lý,

mà là

lời khấn, bóng tháp, nhịp trống

Còn rung trong thân thể.

kau đi,

Nhưng ký ức ở lại.

Thân thể dịch chuyển,

căn tính tìm cách neo mình.

Nao là tiếng thì thầm của kau,

kéo dài qua nhiều thế hệ.”

In Nao, kau (I in Cham language) don't choose to go

Kau is pushed with history.

Cham people depart in silence

Through wind and wars

Through borders kau did not draw.

Kau carry not baggages,

but

prayers, shadows of temples, drumbeat

Still vibrating in muscle.

kau leave,

but memories stay.

The body shifts ground

identity seeks way to anchor itself

Nao is Kai's whisper, 

stretching through generations and generations.