<!DOCTYPE work> ]]> Ecosystems]]> Labour]]> Knowledge Production]]> Spaces of the Curatorial]]> Denise Yap, Apartment 2079, 2020
Moses Tan, Study for Dramatic Venus, 2020
Ruby Jayaseelan, STOP., 2020
passthejpeg, passthetime, 2020

<!DOCTYPE work> is a curatorial project that encourages people to rethink productivity in creative practices, influenced by forced remote work situations due to the global pandemic. Borrowing a programming language for the compliance of HTML standards, highlights the use of digital tools and formats for telecommuting. It also signifies the start of an experiment that is open-ended and process-based. Given the context of this current situation, it seeks to chart out the process of exhibition-making while reflecting on these questions: How are our creative practices responding to situational changes and remote working? What are the trajectories of discourse that can arise from the idea of “productivity” in the creative field? What does “productivity” mean to us?

This project, conceived by Leon Tan, Shireen Marican, and Tian Lim, is a pilot programme of the Platform Projects Curatorial Award overseen by NTU CCA Singapore. Currently in its inaugural year, this award supports a curatorial project exploring Spaces of the Curatorial by recent graduates of NTU CCA Singapore and NTU ADM’s MA programme in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices, as well as NTU ADM’s research-oriented MA and PhD programmes.]]>
Denise Yap]]> Moses Tan]]> Ruby Jayaseelan]]> passthejpeg]]> Leon Tan]]> Shireen Marican]]> Tian Lim]]> Installation]]> Multimedia Installation]]> Sculpture]]> Photography]]> Print]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Acts of Life: Public Programme]]> Artistic Research]]> 25 Jan 2019, Fri - 26 Jan 2019, Sat
Various locations around NTU CCA

Acts of Life
is a collaboration of NTU CCA Singapore and MCAD Manila, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Singapore and Goethe-Institut Manila.

After an open call with an overwhelming response of 180 international applicants, 16 artists, writers, theorists from the region and Germany have been selected by a curatorial board to participate in a month-long residency in Manila and Singapore. Structured to encourage the heterogeneity and multiplicity of exchange through which a critical research residency is manifested, the transdisciplinary project seeks to explore the relationship between environments and humankind in times of rapid urbanisation and digitalisation.

Acts of Life Public Programme is a constellation of selected artistic research outputs culminated over the period and will happen during Singapore Art Week on 25 and 26 January 2019 and in Manila in February 2019.

Presented in an open studio accompanied with live activations, the presentation shows selected works in progress and is an encounter of how the research residency unfolds: the fostering of intellectual exchanges, lines of enquiry and the initiation of potential discourses around the intersections between art, nature, urbanity, and technology.

Curatorial Advisory Board

Prof. Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media NTU,María Jocelina Cruz, Director & Curator, MCAD Manilla, Prof. Patrick Flores, Professor, Department of Art Studies, University of Philippines and Curator, Vargas Museum Manilla, Asst. Prof. Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academics Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media NTU, Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore.

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Ute Meta Bauer]]> María Jocelina Cruz]]> Patrick D. Flores]]> Sophie Goltz]]> Khim Ong]]> Maria Jocelina Cruz]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Art, Urban Change, and the Public Sphere: Public Art Education Summit]]> Architecture]]> Public Art]]> Urbanism]]> NTU CCA Singapore is pleased to present Art, Urban Change, and the Public Sphere, which engages with art in privately owned public spaces through a Public Art Education Summit and research presentation. Taking as its point of departure the neighbouring Culture City. Culture Scape. Public Art Trail at Mapletree Business City—developed with curatorial consultation by NTU CCA Singapore—the presentation and Summit explore broader cultural and artistic developments on a civic scale situated in urban landscapes. How do political and economic changes in the public realm evoke a regional discourse on art in cities?

The Public Art Education Summit is the first of its kind in Singapore and part of a larger engagement of NTU CCA Singapore in professional education of public art. It focuses on cultural place-making and building communities through artistic practices. It aims to stimulate a debate between art professionals, policy makers, urban developers and other local stakeholders, on how and for whom art creates public spaces in our built environment. Any artistic or curatorial initiative in “public space” must address the question of how to construct “a public” and with it, how to encounter identity. Any difference—be it regional and local, ethnic and religious, economic and social—generates its own cohabitation of urban space and public culture to communicate with. The challenge for art in the public sphere lies in its openness to existing and yet, imagined communities of civic urbanism. Ranging from corporate cultural engagement in privately owned public spaces to urban regeneration, the invited speakers draw connections to the beginnings of community engagement in public art with its fluid methods. Furthermore, they suggest a critical look at different artistic and curatorial practices which reflect on “artists as citizens.” Or, how any space called public, first and foremost, is created by the different people inhabiting that space.

Guest-of-Honour: Prof Wang Dawei, Executive Dean, College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University

With contributions by: Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Richard Bell (Australia), Lewis Biggs (United Kingdom), Antonia Carver (United Kingdom/United Arab Emirates), Lilian Chee (Singapore), Amanda Crabtree (United Kingdom/France), Daniel Mudie Cunningham (Australia), Catherine David (France), Eileen Goh (Singapore), Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Limin Hee (Singapore), Kok Heng Leun (Singapore), Richard Lim (Singapore), Hongjohn Lin (Taiwan/Singapore), Massamba Mbaye (Senegal), Alecia Neo (Singapore), Alan Oei (Singapore), Nikos Papastergiadis (Australia), Jasmeen Patheja (India), Lorenzo Petrillo (Italy/Singapore), Milenko Prvački (Ex-Yugoslavia/Singapore), Ashley Thompson (United Kingdom), Philip Tinari (United States/China), Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider (United States), et al.

With capability-development workshops by Amanda Crabtree (United Kingdom/France), Daniel Mudie Cunningham (Australia), Hongjohn Lin (Taiwan/Singapore) and Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider (United States).

Held in association with Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, and Institute for Public Arts, London. Supported by Mapletree Investments and, additionally, by Public Art Trust, an initiative of National Arts Council Singapore.

Programme for Public Art Education Summit

Thursday, 17 October 2019, 9.00am – 7.30pm
Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

8.45am             Registration and Coffee

9.00am             Opening addresses by Low Eng Teong (Singapore), Assistant Chief Executive, Sector Development, National Arts Council Singapore, Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, NTU ADM, and Guest-of-Honour Wang Dawei (China), Executive Dean, College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University followed by Introduction by Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU

9.45am            Context is Everything, Presentation by Lewis Biggs (United Kingdom) Chair, Institute for Public Art, London

10.15am           Making Art, Making Society, Presentation by Amanda Crabtree (France), Director, artconnexion

10.45am          Community-First Public Art, Presentation by Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider (United States), Executive Director and Co-founder, Honolulu Biennial Foundation

11.15am           Coffee Break and Discussions

12.00pm          Public Art and Community Building
Roundtable Discussion with Eileen Goh (Singapore), Assistant Manager, Art-in-Transit at Land Transport Authority; Richard Lim (Singapore), Manager, Art Management, Project Development, CapitaLand; Lorenzo Petrillo (Italy/Singapore), Director and Founder, LOPELAB, moderated by Lilian Chee (Singapore), Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

1.00pm             Lunch Break

2.00pm            Capability-Development Workshops
                         Venue: Studios, Block 37 Malan Road

#Activating#Communities New Patron Model for Public Art Commissioning, Workshop by Amanda Crabtree (France), Director, artconnexion. Register at tiny.cc/amandacrabtreeworkshop.

#Building#Communities, Fundraising as Community Engagement, Workshop by Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider (United States), Executive Director and Co-founder, Honolulu Biennial Foundation. Register at tiny.cc/katherinetuiderworkshop.

5:30pm            End of Workshop

On the occasion of NTU CCA’s International Advisory Board annual meeting, invited members share their knowledge and experience.

6.00pm            Lecture by Nikos Papastergiadis (Australia), Professor, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne

6:30pm            Lecture by Ashley Thompson (United Kingdom), Hiram W. Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art, SOAS University of London

7:00pm            Roundtable Discussion with Antonia Carver (United Kingdom/United Arab Emirates), Director, Jameel Arts Centre; Catherine David (France), Deputy Director, Research and Globalisation, MNAM/CCI, Centre Pompidou; Philip Tinari (United States/China), Director, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, moderated by Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU

7:30pm            Reception

 

Friday, 18 October 2019, 9.00am – 5.30pm
Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

8.45am             Registration and Coffee

9.00am            Introduction by Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU

9.15am            A Railroad Switch in Time: South Eveleigh Case Study, Presentation by Daniel Mudie Cunningham (Australia), Director, Programs, Carriageworks

9.45am             Biennials as Public Space, Presentation by Hongjohn Lin (Taiwan/Singapore), Associate Professor, Taipei National University of Arts

10.15am           Action Sheroes, Heroes, Theyroes. Resonate #NeverAskForIt, Presentation by Jasmeen Patheja (India), Founder, Blank Noise

10.45am           Beyond Education, Beyond Community, Presentation by Milenko Prvački (Ex-Yugoslavia/Singapore), Senior Fellow, LASALLE College of the Arts, artist and founder, ART WALK Little India

11.15am            Coffee Break and Discussions

12.00pm           Art, Public Space, and Urban Development
Roundtable Discussion with Kok Heng Leun (Singapore), Artistic Director, Drama Box; Alecia Neo (Singapore), artist and co- founder, Brack; Alan Oei (Singapore), Artistic Director, The Substation, moderated by Limin Hee (Singapore), Director, Research, Centre for Liveable Cities

1.00pm             Lunch Break

2.00pm            Capability-Development Workshops
                         Venue: Studios, Block 37 Malan Road

#Supporting#Communities Urban Communities and their Stakeholders, Workshop by Daniel Mudie Cunningham (Australia), Director, Programs, Carriageworks.

#Educating#Communities Biennials as Public Space: Between Artistic Approaches and Public Demands, Workshop by Hongjohn Lin (Taiwan/Singapore), Associate Professor, Taipei National University of Arts.

5:30pm            End of Workshop

 

Saturday, 19 October 2019, 9.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

8.45am            Registration and Coffee

9.00am            Introduction by Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU

9.15am            Participation in Practice: Artists as Ally, Presentation by Alecia Neo (Singapore), artist

9.45am             The Village of the Arts of Senegal, Presentation by Massamba Mbaye (Senegal), lecturer, Dakar Cheikh Anta Diop University & Virtual University of Senegal

10.15am           Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Presentation by Richard Bell (Australia), artist

10.45am           Coffee Break and Discussions

11.15am            Roundtable Discussion with Richard Bell (Australia), artist, Hongjohn Lin (Taiwan/Singapore), Associate Professor, Taipei National University of Arts, Massamba Mbaye (Senegal), lecturer, Dakar Cheikh Anta Diop University & Virtual University of Senegal, and Alecia Neo (Singapore), artist, moderated by Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU

12.00pm           Closing Remarks by Lewis Biggs (United Kingdom)

 

Programme as of 1 October 2019, subject to change.

]]>
Ute Meta Bauer]]> Richard Bell]]> Lewis Biggs ]]> Antonia Carver]]> Lilian Chee]]> Amanda Crabtree]]> Daniel Mudie Cunningham ]]> Catherine David]]> Eileen Goh]]> Sophie Goltz]]> Limin Hee ]]> Kok Heng Leun]]> Richard Lim]]> Hongjohn Lin]]> Massamba Mbaye]]> Alecia Neo]]> Alan Oei]]> Nikos Papastergiadis]]> Jasmeen Patheja]]> Lorenzo Petrillo]]> Milenko Prvački ]]> Ashley Thompson ]]> Philip Tinari ]]> Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider]]> Low Eng Teong ]]> Wang Dawei ]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Arus Balik: From below the wind to above the wind and back again Education Resource Guide]]> NTU CCA Singapore]]> Southeast Asia]]> Cities for People NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17 Public Summit]]> Urbanism]]> CITIES FOR PEOPLE is the pilot edition of the annual NTU CCA Ideas Fest, a platform to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage thinking “out of the box”. It is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and academic community with grassroots initiatives. This pilot edition expands artistic interventions and engages contemporary issues such as air, water, food, environment, and social interaction in connection to artistic and cultural fields, academic research, and design applications.

The 10-day programme, coinciding with Singapore Art Week 2017 and Art After Dark at Gillman Barracks, comprises a conglomerate of performances, public installations, participatory projects and social experiment, urban farming initiatives, public dialogues, and a variety of workshops. It cumulates in a three-day summit that brings together a prominent group of architects, theorists, researchers, curators, and community groups to discuss and exchange ideas about urbanism, modes of exchange, critical spatial practice, and to envision a future city. CITIES FOR PEOPLE offers a platform to contemplate the possibilities for our shared space, reformulate our demands accordingly, and project solutions and desires for the future.

CITIES FOR PEOPLE, borrowing the title from a book by eminent Singapore architect William S. W. Lim published in 1990, expands on some of the ideas Lim developed, particularly in relation to tropical environments and recycling, as well as his call for a humanistic architecture. Organised on the occasion of the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts at Critical Spatial Practice, this event is an invitation to share and engage in cooperative projects and collective experiences that critically reflect on current challenges in urban and social development.

Ideas Fest Concept: Ute Meta Bauer
Curators of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17
Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong

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Ute Meta Bauer]]> Khim Ong]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Culture City. Culture Scape. Public Art Trail at Mapletree Business City II]]> Public Art]]> Urbanism]]> Our upcoming guided tour is an excellent way to get inspired and unwind in the company of art. Enjoy a well-deserved cup of coffee and snack while we walk you through the artworks nestled in the lush compounds of Mapletree Business City II (MBC II).

Themed Culture City. Culture Scape., this public art project, commissioned by Mapletree and curated by NTU CCA Singapore comprises works by internationally renowned artists Dan Graham (United States), Zulkifle Mahmod (Singapore), Tomás Saraceno (Argentina/Germany), and Yinka Shonibare (Nigeria/United Kingdom). Inspired by the idea of expanded sculptural environments, the artworks explore the interplay between landscape, architecture, and the broader social and economic environments they are placed in. More than being monumental or site-specific, each work alters or permeates its local context to invite visitors to a broader, richer engagement.

For more information about our tours, please visit: www.mapletreearts.sg

]]>
Dan Graham]]> Zulkifle Mahmod ]]> Tomás Saraceno]]> Yinka Shonibare ]]> Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks.]]> Performance]]> Body]]> Nature]]>

Collaborative and experimental by nature, Free Jazz III builds upon its past iterations by activating and challenging common understandings of exhibition-making and the use of space. Sound walks. Machines listen. We are living through unusual times. 

As the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore approaches a major transformation away from a permanent exhibition space in early 2021, Free Jazz III continues to explore the possibilities of an international research centre for contemporary art, featuring many artists who have been part of NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibitions, residencies, and programs since 2013, when the Centre presented Free Jazz as its inaugural event. The project began as a form of inquiry and an active tool to generate new possibilities for conceptualizing and programming an art institution. Free Jazz III convenes diverse projects united by themes of adaptation via masterful improvisation, trans-mediatic pivots, and the conscious renegotiation of our relationships to nature, technology, and each other. The disparate components of Free Jazz III explore the elements of dissonance, resistance, and innovation embedded in its musical namesake and the ability for sound and art to transcend physical and social distance. Embracing sound and walking as two powerful ways to overcome distance and bring people together, Free Jazz III comprises projects that can take place in non-gallery spaces, independently, asynchronously, or in purposeful syncopation with the present moment, reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. 

Admission to all programmes and events is free.

Sound. Walks.
January–March 2021 (On-site and online)

Reflecting on the loss of physicality through increased virtual interactions as well as many histories of sound and walking, artists address common life and communality in times of social distancing. In this series of performative explorations of sound, music, and community building, reflections take the form of soundwalks, sonic wayfinding and other physical and aural experiences, offering multiple ways for the public to actively witness, listen and participate, both remotely and on-site. Soundwalks by Tini Aliman (Singapore), Christa Donner and Andrew S Yang (United States), and Diana Lelonek (Poland) and Denim Szram (Poland/Switzerland) are propelled by sonic outputs of nature. Storytelling, correspondence, and the impossibility of direct communication factor into projects by Cheryl Ong (Singapore), Ana Prvački (Romania/Germany) in collaboration with Joyce Bee Tuan Koh (Singapore) and Galina Mihaleva (Bulgaria/Singapore), and Vivian Wang (Singapore/Switzerland). Sound, history, culture, and space overlap and intertwine in works by Arahmaiani (Indonesia) and Jimmy Ong (Singapore), bani haykal (Singapore) and Lee Weng Choy (Malaysia), Reetu Sattar (Bangladesh), and anGie Seah (Singapore).

Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks. is curated by Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), NTU CCA Singapore Curator, Education and Outreach, and Dr Karin Oen (United States/Singapore), NTU CCA Singapore Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes

Under the Skin
1 December 2020 – 31 January 2021 (Online)

World premiere and special performance
1 December 2020, 7pm SGT

This trio of performative works by artists George Chua (Singapore), Nina Djekić (Slovenia/Singapore/Netherlands), and Noor Effendy Ibrahim (Singapore) engages with sound, bodily movements, and performance. These new pieces are cinematically translated into the medium of video by filmmaker Russell Morton (Singapore) and viewed online, acknowledging the curatorial premise that, “the pandemic has pushed us into a space of dramatic convergence—where a deep tech, hyper-connected future collides with social political unrest,” in both the work itself and the medium in which it is presented.

Under the Skin is curated for Free Jazz III by artist Cheong Kah Kit (Singapore) as part of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, a united response to the changes brought about by COVID-19 hosted by twelve Singapore arts institutions, initiated by the National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum.

Partner programmes:

Machine Listening, a curriculum
From October 2020 (Online)

Expanded collaborations and explorations of curatorial spaces also took form in support of Machine Listening, a curriculum instigated by Melbourne-based Liquid Architecture. This evolving online resource, comprising existing and newly commissioned writing, interviews, music and artworks is a new investigation and experiment in collective learning around the emergent field of machine listening. It premiered with three online sessions open to all as part of Unsound 2020: Intermission, an experimental sound festival in Krakow, Poland. NTU CCA Singapore and Liquid Architecture will convene another collaborative online session open to the public in early 2021.

Machine Listening, a curriculum is curated by Sean DockrayDr James Parker, and Joel Stern (all Australia).

Visit the evolving open source curriculum and the recorded Unsound sessions:

(Against) the coming world of listening machines
Lessons in How (Not) to be Heard
Listening with the Pandemic

Sollum Swaramum
26 February 2021, 7.30 – 9.00pm
On-Site at Blk 43 Malan Road

Presented in collaboration with The Arts House’s Poetry with Music series, the 4th edition of Sollum Swaramum, brings together musicians Ramesh Krishnan, Mohamed Noor and Munir Alsagoff in exploration of the synergies between music and text, with devised and improvised texts based on the work of Tamil literary stalwarts P Krishnan, Ma Ilangkannnan and Rama Kannabiran. These newly devised texts are written by Harini V, Ashwinii Selvarai and Bharathi Moorthiappan, performed by Sivakumar Palakrishnan, and art direction by Laura Miotto.

Curated by Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach and Education, and Dr. Karin Oen, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore. 

Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks. presented in partnership with Proposals for Novel Ways of Being, The Arts House, Liquid Architecture, as part of Singapore Art week, supported by National Arts Council.

]]>
Tini Aliman]]> Christa Donner]]> Andrew S Yang]]> Diana Lelonek]]> Denim Szram]]> Cheryl Ong]]> Ana Prvački]]> Joyce Bee Tuan Koh]]> Galina Mihaleva]]> Vivian Wang]]> Arahmaiani]]> Jimmy Ong]]> bani haykal]]> Lee Weng Choy]]> Reetu Sattar]]> anGie Seah]]> Magdalena Magiera]]> Karin Oen]]> George Chua]]> Nina Djekić]]> Russell Morton ]]> Noor Effendy Ibrahim]]> Cheong Kah Kit]]> Liquid Architecture]]> Ramesh Krishnan]]> Laura Miotto]]> Mohamed Noor]]> Harini V]]> Ashwinii Selvarai]]> Bharathi Moorthiappan]]> Sivakumar Palakrishnan]]> Munir Alsagoff]]> Nanthiyni Aravindan]]> Sean Dockray]]> James Parker]]> Joel Stern]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Non-Aligned Film Programme: Third Way / After Bandung]]> Identity]]> History]]> Decolonialism]]> Postcolonialism]]> Inequality]]>

This film programme was originally intended to be screened on-site in parallel with the exhibition Non-Aligned. During Singapore’s Circuit-Breaker period, selected films were available to be streamed on our website for limited periods of time, even after the Centre re-opened to the public on 27 June 2020. As of 18 August 2020, the Film Programme is being screened exclusively on site in the Single Screen, with limited capacity and physical distancing measures in place. NTU CCA Singapore gratefully acknowledges the collaboration of the curators, filmmakers, and distributors in making online screening possible during the global COVID-19 crisis.

____

This programme features films that engage post-colonial processes covering different moments and geopolitical contexts. The Asian-African Conference in 1955, known as the Bandung Conference, amidst the complex processes of decolonization, established self-determination, non-aggression, and equality as part of the core values that then formed the Non-Aligned Movement. This history is unpacked and contextualised through this series of screenings.

Co-curated by writer and curator Mark Nash and film researcher Vladimir Seput.

Screening on loop during opening hours.

Joris Ivens, Indonesia Calling, 1946 
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 22 min

This film shows the role trade union seaman and waterside workers in Sydney played in Indonesia’s independence struggle after World War II. Comprising different nationalities and races, they united together to prevent the departure of Indonesia-bound Dutch ships that carried weapons meant to bring the Indonesian National Revolution to a halt. The film seeks to distil aspects of the historical context of the events depicted in the film and gives insight to the major re-alignments in the relationship between Australia and Indonesia.

4 – 16 August 2020 (On loop in The Single Screen and also available online) 
First conference of Non-Aligned Movement, 1961
Archive footage, colour, sound, 10 min 51 sec

Archive footage from the first conference of the 1961 Non-Aligned Movement, otherwise known as the Belgrade Conference, presenting historical events from the meeting. The inaugural conference was initiated by three key figures: Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia; Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt; and Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister of India. Attended by 25 countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the conference is a direct response to the division of sphere of influence settled between the major world forces after WWII and the Cold War, enabling members to independently formulate their own position in international politics.

18 – 23 August 2020 (On loop in The Single Screen)
Ousmane Sembène, Borom Sarret, 1963
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 18 min

Borom Sarret, considered to be the first African film by a black African, is a portrayal of poverty and inequality in postcolonial Africa. It follows the daily life of a Dakar “borom sarret”, or cart driver in Wolof (a language of Senegal), who is constantly being taken advantage of by others. Feeling hopeless about his situation, he compares modern life to that of a working slave, imprisoned in a cycle of poverty.  

Restored in 2013 by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in association with Institut National de l’Audiovisuel and the Sembène Estate. Restoration work was carried out at Laboratoires Éclair and Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. Restoration funding provided by Doha Film Institute. 

Mikhail Kalatozov, I am Cuba (Soy Cuba), 1964
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 141 min

Narrated by Raquel Ravuelta, a seminal figure in Cuban theatre, film, television and radio, as “The Voice of Cuba,” I am Cuba follows four stories of Cubans during the Cuban Revolution. Maria works at a Havana nightclub; Pedro is a tenant farmer; Enrique, a young university student, is part of the intellectual resistance; and Mariano is a peasant who joins the rebel army. The script was co-authored by the Cuban novelist Enrique Pineda Barnet and the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

25 – 30 August 2020 (Every hour in The Single Screen)
Ousmane Sembène, Black Girl (La noire de… ), 1966 
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 60 min

The film chronicles Senegal’s first years of independence by following a young ambitious woman, Diouana, who moves to the French Riviera with a bureaucrat and his wife who return to France after working in Dakar. Originally hired as the family nanny, she becomes enslaved as a maid in France. A human drama and a radical political statement, Black Girl critiques the enduring colonial mind-set of a supposedly postcolonial world. Black Girl was Ousmane Sembène’s first feature film and the first black African feature film which screened at Cannes. It alsowon the Prix Jean Vigo and top prize at the Carthage Film Festival. 

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Film Foundation. 
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna/ L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with the Sembène Estate, Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, INA, Eclair laboratories and the Centre National de Cinématographie. Restoration funded by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. 

1 – 6 September 2020 (12pm, 1.45pm, 3.30pm, 5.15pm in The Single Screen)
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Memories of Underdevelopment, 1968
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 97 min

The film’s narrative, based on the novel Inconsolable Memories by Edmundo Desnoes, is presented through the lens of Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, during the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. His family decides to retreat to Miami during the turmoil of social changes. The film is interspersed with real-life documentary footage of protest and political events in which Sergio’s life and personal relationship unfolds. As the threat of foreign invasion looms over Sergio, his desire for companionship also intensifies. 

Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L’ Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC). Restoration funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.

8 – 20 September 2020 (12pm, 1.30pm, 3pm, 4.30pm, 5.45pm in The Single Screen)
Želimir Žilnik, Early Works (Rani Radovi), 1969
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 58 min

Winner of the Golden Berlin Bear Award at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival, Early Works (Ravi Radovi) focuses on the June 1968 student demonstrations in Belgrade, as well as the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in the same year. Both incidents happened against an international backdrop of student protests, political movements and anti-colonial struggles around the world. In the film, three young men and a girl called Yugoslava attempt to start a revolution in the countryside after being inspired by the early writings by Karl Marx, but are unsuccessful.

8 – 20 September 2020 (In The Single Screen)
Želimir Žilnik, Shorts: Black Film (Cri Film), 1971
16 mm transferred to digital file, b&w, sound, 14 min

An example of the Yugoslav Black Wave, the film movement in Yugoslavia in the 1960s to 1970s, Shorts: Black Film (Cri Film) is a spontaneous effort by Žilnik to highlight socio-political issues. In the wee hours, he approaches six homeless men on the streets of Novi Sad. Žilnik interviews them and allows them to sleep over at his home. Over the next few days, he speaks to members of the public, social workers, and the police, but nobody is able to offer any solutions. 

Karpo Godina, Litany of Happy People (Zdravi ljudi za razonodu), 1971 
35mm transferred to digital file, colour, sound, 15 min

The Litany of Happy People is a song-film about the diverse group of people living harmoniously in rural Vojvodina, an autonomous province of Serbia known for its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic identity. The film presents families with multi-ethnic backgrounds, standing in front of their seemingly similar but colourful rural houses. The film won numerous awards at short film festivals.

Karpo Godina, About Art of Love or a Film with 14441 Frames (O ljubavnim veštinama ili film sa 14441 kvadratom), 1972 
Colour, sound, 10 min

This film presents an almost journalistic report of the female textile workers and male military soldiers in the Macedonian village of Stip. Interwoven with military footage and shots of the village, the alternating scenes present the two groups in proximity, while being completely isolated.  The film went through a thorough restoration process in 2016 and was shown at the 30th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy. 

22 – 27 September 2020 (12pm, 1.30pm, 3pm, 4.30pm, 5.45pm in The Single Screen)
Isaac Julien, Frantz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask, 1995
35mm transferred to digital file, colour, sound, 70 min

This film interrogates the life and work of Frantz Fanon, a highly influential anti-colonial writer, civil rights activist, and psychoanalytic theorist from Martinique. The docudrama is interspersed with archival footage of Fanon as well as interviews with family members and colleagues. Reflecting on the black body and its representations, the film is rooted in the black arts movement in Britain and North America.

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Mark Nash]]> Vladimir Seput]]> Joris Ivens]]> Ousmane Sembène]]> Mikhail Kalatozov]]> Tomás Gutiérrez Alea]]> Želimir Žilnik,]]> Karpo Godina]]> Isaac Julien]]> Africa]]> South America]]> Europe]]> Asia]]>
On Museums Made by Artists, Artist Talk by Tun Win Aung (Myanmar)]]> Institutional Critique]]> The Museum Project. While conveying the visionary thrust of Phyoe Kyi’s work, Tun Win Aung will also highlight the challenges related to envisioning a contemporary art institution in the context of Myanmar.]]> Tun Win Aung]]> Phyoe Kyi]]> Southeast Asia]]> Questioning Museums: Art Institutions in Singapore Book Launch and Welcome Reception]]> Institutional Critique]]> Questioning Museums: Art Institutions in Singapore critically examines the ways in which shifting social, political, and cultural histories are both produced and made visible through the island-state’s institutional structures, collecting strategies, and modes of exhibition making. Working together in teams, the inaugural class of students from Nanyang Technological University’s Masters of Arts in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices (MSCP), a programme designed to prepare graduates for professional positions in the highly complex and diverse museum landscape of Southeast Asia, anchor their collective exploration through four in-depth interviews with leading figures of Singapore’s ever-evolving museum field: Kwa Chong Guan, Peter Lee, Angelita Teo, and Kennie Ting.

Please join us for a celebratory book launch with honoured guests, a roundtable conversation with recent graduates, and a welcome reception for the incoming class of MSCP students!]]>
Kwa Chong Guan]]> Peter Lee]]> Angelita Teo]]> Kennie Ting]]> Southeast Asia]]>