Passages
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Decolonialism">Decolonialism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Postcolonialism">Postcolonialism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Technology">Technology</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Identity">Identity</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Supernatural">Supernatural</a>
<p><strong>NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore</strong> presents the second-cycle exhibition of <strong>SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union (SEA AiR)</strong>, a programme developed by NTU CCA Singapore and funded by the European Union. Titled <strong><em>Passages</em></strong>, this exhibition features new works by artists <strong>Priyageetha Dia</strong> (Singapore), <strong>Ngoc Nau</strong> (Vietnam) and <strong>Saroot Supasuthivech</strong> (Thailand), inspired by their three-month-long residencies in Europe. </p>
<p>As part of the SEA AiR programme, Dia had undertaken her residency at <strong>Jan van Eyck Academie</strong> (Netherlands), Nau at <strong>Rupert</strong> (Lithuania) and Supasuthivech at<strong> Künstlerhaus Bethanien</strong><span> </span>(Germany) through the summer. Bringing back their experiences from diverse contexts in the EU to Singapore for this exhibition,<span> </span><em>Passages</em><span> </span>speaks of the artists’ journeys across geographical and cultural boundaries from one continent to another; the cultural exchanges that take place during this time; and the continuous development of ideas as they return to their home countries to create new works for the exhibition.<br /><br /><em><span>Employing new media technologies to aid their storytelling, each artist creates speculative narratives that traverse time and space, shifting between the past and present. While distinct in their artistic research and practices, their works evoke memories and explore meanings in liminal spaces, reverberating in their journey from one passage to the next.</span><br /><br /></em><strong>Priyageetha Dia’s</strong><span> </span>research interest lies in the plantations of Southeast Asia and their colonial histories, including those of migrant labour and structures of production and power. She explores gaps in historical records that are not only text-based, but also non-textual ones such as photographs, artefacts and oral interviews. Her four-channel sound installation<span> </span><strong><em>Sap Sonic</em></strong><span> </span>is a sonification of images from the photo album of the Sumatra Caoutchouc Company, a rubber planting company, from the archives of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Beyond their visual representations, the images bear witness to the power dynamics between the coloniser and its labourers as well as the hierarchy between nature and machine. Reframing this landscape from a visual to a sonic one,<span> </span><em>Sap Sonic<span> </span></em>serves as an aural gateway to the plantations as it delves into the lived yet unspoken lives of those who work on and inhabit the plantations, both human and nonhuman. Accompanying the work,<span> </span><em>Sap Script</em><span> </span>is a text installation in white latex paint, referencing rubber sap, on a black, obsidian-like background. Its typeface echoes the slender and linear structure of rubber trees, distorted to resemble the waveform of sound waves. Through the intangible, unseen nature of sound, Sap Sonic probes aspects of the visual world; expanding the agentive possibilities of the uncounted and the underheard.<br /><br /><span>Upon her arrival in Vilnius, Lithuania, for her residency, </span><strong>Ngoc Nau</strong><span> was drawn to Soviet-era architectural elements in the city, such as the Soviet brutalist architecture of the Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports. She also became intrigued with the iconic image of a Lenin statue being removed, with its legs severed, from the city centre square in 1991. This imagery became a point of departure for her exploration into multifaceted aspects of post-Soviet realities in her own country. Portraying contemporary life amidst the remnants of socialist architecture and monuments using 3D animation and visual effects, Nau’s video installation, </span><strong><em>Virtual Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten Utopia</em></strong><span>, demonstrates the transformative power of technology in reshaping our perceptions of reality. Central to the work is a constructed representation of the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Palace of Culture and Labour in Hanoi, Vietnam, that serves as a stage for five hip-hop dancers embarking on a symbolic journey. As they interact with elements drawn from historical references in Vietnam and Lithuania, the dancers bridge the gap between historical artifacts and contemporary experiences. Echoing the ebb and flow of ideologies, their passage brings about new meanings when past memories evolve in the face of shifting landscapes.<br /><br /><strong>Saroot Supasuthivech’s</strong> multimedia installation,<strong><em> Spirit-forward in G Major</em></strong>, charts the transformative journey experienced by Thai expatriates in Germany, told through a metaphoric cycle of life, death and rebirth. The work’s narrative unfolds in four parts. “New Beginnings” uses therapeutic dialogues to depict the initial migrant experience. “A Surreal Interlude”, based on interviews conducted with Thai monks and nuns in Berlin, transports viewers into a realm of magic and mortality inspired by Grimm’s fairy tales. The third segment focuses on a Thai music score <em>Sai Samon</em>, the oldest documented. Finally, “A Glimpse Beyond” dives into a poetic meditation on death and the afterlife, told from the viewpoint of the deceased. This poignant culmination is an exploration into a liminal reality between the familiar and the surreal, encapsulating the interplay of tradition, adaptation and preservation within an evolving cultural landscape.</span></p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<p><em>Passages </em>will be held through Singapore Art Week 2024, with a public programme taking place on 20 January 2024. Details of the public programme can be found<span> </span>here. </p>
<p>SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union<em> </em>is made possible thanks to a generous grant of the European Union. </p>
</div>
<p><strong><span>Dates</span><br />Opening reception: </strong><br />28 November 2023, 5–8pm<br />Refreshments will be served</p>
<p><strong>Public programme:</strong><br />20 January 2023, 4-5.30pm</p>
<p><strong>Opening Hours</strong>:<br />1 December 2023 – 14 January 2024: Friday – Sunday, 1–7pm<br />Closed on 24, 25, 31 December 2023 and 1 January 2024<br /><br />Singapore Art Week<br />19 – 28 January 2024: Monday – Sunday, 1–7pm<br />Late nights on 20 and 27 January 2024: Saturday, 1–9pm</p>
<p><strong><span>Location:</span></strong><br />NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Studios<br />Block 38 Malan Road<br />Gillman Barracks<br />Singapore 109441</p>
28 November 2023 - 28 January 2024
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Priyageetha+Dia">Priyageetha Dia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ngoc+Nau">Ngoc Nau</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Nguyen+Hong+Ngoc">Nguyen Hong Ngoc</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Saroot+Supasuthivech">Saroot Supasuthivech</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Europe">Europe</a>
NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 Exhibitions
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Sustainability">Sustainability</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Urbanism">Urbanism</a>
<strong>NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 & 38 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore<br />Exhibition Hours<br />Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023<br />From 12.00 pm– 7.00pm </strong><br /><span>Free admission to all exhibitions</span><br /><br /><span><span>Five (5) exhibitions spread over four spaces at Gillman Barracks, deal with topics related to food waste management, urbanisation through the lens of food, lifestyle aspirations of a rising middle class, and how regenerative to solidarity agrarian practices can move us towards more local and regional food systems. <br /><br /><strong>HOO FAN CHON</strong><br />Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Singapore 109441<br /></span></span>
<p>This Exhibition was part of SEA AiR Studio Residencies for Southeast Asia Artists in the European Union Cycle 1, a programme funded by the European Union. Despite Hoo Fan Chon’s hope that the residency at Helsinki International Artist Programme would provide some respite from his obsession with fish-based iconography and symbolism, upon arriving in Helsinki the artist found himself immediately drawn to the salmon pink colour that commonly adorns buildings in Finland. This chromatic cue ignited his interest in issues of taste, class aesthetics, and fish culture triggering an erratic investigation about the cosmetic processing of farmed salmon, the environmental plight of this fish, and the social status of its consumption as a signifier of class and wealth. Inspired by amateur tutorials commonly found on YouTube, the video<span> </span><em>How to turn your siakap into salmon</em><span> </span>illustrates DIY techniques to colour fish. While the pink pigmentation of wild salmons is due to a natural diet made of krill and shrimp, the flesh of farmed salmon is off-white. In order to achieve the vibrant hue that makes salmon appealing to consumers, farmed salmons are regularly fed synthetic carotenoids, the health implications of which are still under scrutiny. In Southeast Asia, salmon is a luxury good and its consumption bespeaks the Western lifestyle aspirations of a rising global middle class.</p>
<p>The ironic speculation on how to “domesticate” a foreign species continues in<span> </span><em>I have never seen a swimming salmon in my life</em>. Accompanied by a voiceover by Sir David Attenborough borrowed from an advocacy campaign to protect salmon, the installation features 3D animations of salmon cuts—fillet, loin and streak—swimming inside a fish tank, a staple fixture in Chinese seafood restaurants. The artist’s familiar-yet-distant relation to salmon culminates with<span> </span><em>Finnish landscape painting series</em>, an installation featuring 13 paintings hung on a salmon pink wall. In this series, the artist introduced the motif of the proverbial “carp leaping over the dragon’s gate” and auspicious Chinese blessings into existing Finnish landscape paintings purchased in thrift shops around Helsinki. Both salmon and carps are known for their strength and jumping ability; in Chinese culture, the iconography of the leaping carp symbolises courage and perseverance leading to wealth and prestige.<br /><br /><strong>HELLO! I AM A BLACK SOLDIER FLY AND I AM TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM</strong><span></span><br /><span>Primary Contributor: NIRALY MANGAL</span><br /><span>Other Contributors: ADRIAN FUHRMANN, VARTIKA GOENKA , HENG CHIN WEE, SHAK THEESHWARI SILVARAJU, CHLOE TAN, TANG YONG JEN, YANYUN YAN, ZHANG QIHUI</span><br /><span>Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452</span><br /><br /><span>The small island state of Singapore imports 90% of food from overseas and uses less than 1% of its land for agricultural use. Developing approaches to an alternative food system based on insects, seaweed, microalgae or cultured meat can contribute to securing a resilient food future for Singapore and contribute to its “30 by 30” policy. But how do we create a circular food system in our cities? Food waste management holds the key to closing the loop. This exhibition demonstrates a nature-based solution for urban food waste management using the black soldier fly, the superfly that is transforming the global food system. It showcases how black soldier fly facilities convert local food waste into high-quality animal feed and fertilizers, which can then be used by other forms of urban agriculture, such as vertical or indoor farming and aquaponics. On display is your food’s journey from consumption to waste processing, showing how the black soldier flies upcycle it into by-products that carry valuable nutrients back into the food chain. This process not only helps to use land efficiently but also to synergise the built environment of Singapore with the social benefits of urban agriculture.</span><br /><br /><span>This research is a collaboration between researchers from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore-ETH Centre and ETH Zurich. This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.</span><br /><br /><strong>THE JOURNEY OF FOOD</strong><br /><span>Primary Contributors: DR YUHAO LU, HELEN LEI FAN</span><br /><span>Other Contributors: ZI GUI TOH, MUHAMMAD IS’MAILL BIN AZMAN, KAIYU LU, JASPER PHANG WEE KEAT, ISABELL A MEO LOO YANSHAN</span><br /><span>Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-05, Singapore 109441</span><br /><br /><span>Considering urbanisation through the lens of food is important as cities grow, particularly in Asia, where cities are consuming fertile agricultural land at an unprecedented rate. Simultaneously, the industrialised agricultural practices developed to meet the rising food demands of urbanising populations are degrading and residualising the countryside. Mitigating the impact of climate change on Singapore’s food security requires both short-term tactics and long-term strategies. This includes sustainable and smart production in source countries and locally in Singapore, as well as raising public awareness on food waste. Displayed is the journey of rice—one of Singapore’s staple food sources, from its cultivation, processing, transportation and arrival in Singapore. As an island nation that highly depends on imports, Singapore relies heavily on the global food chain to source even its most basic food ingredients. This interactive exhibition shows, in a playful way, the pressing food-related challenges and hardship of conventional food cultivation.</span><br /><br /><strong>POTENTIAL AGRITERRITORIES — AGRARIAN QUESTIONS AND AGROECOLOGICAL DESIGN</strong><span>. </span><strong>ARCHITECTURE OF TERRITORY</strong><span>.</span><br /><span>MILICA TOPALOVIC, KAROLINE KOSTKA, HANS HORTIG, ALICE CLARKE AND STUDENTS OF ETH EPFL MAS UTD</span><br /><span>Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-07, Singapore 109441</span><br /><br /></p>
<p>With nearly half of the total land area on the planet dedicated to agricultural production, the urbanisation and industrialisation of agrarian territories have emerged among the most urgent impacts affecting ecologies and ecosystems around the world. Their effects include increasing dependence on fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fuels; depletion of soil fertility, water and natural resources; consumption of land; forced migration, and other disadvantages for local populations. Through fieldwork in agrarian regions supporting Zurich and Singapore, Potential Agriterritories explores critical questions emerging under 21st-century planetary urbanisation. We asked ourselves, what would be the alternatives to global food regimes that shape regional agricultural landscapes and local food cultures? Can we de-commodify agricultural territories of the Global North, such as those we encounter around Zurich? Can we decolonise plantations of the Global South, such as palm oil plantations surrounding Singapore? Can we re-examine the ways in which plants and animals are used in industrial food systems? How can novel and pioneering practices—from regenerative to solidarity agriculture—move us towards more local and regional food systems? What potential agrarianisms from today, and rural experiences from the past, may help restore relationships of care and reciprocity with soil and biodiversity?</p>
<p>The exhibition showcases parts of an evolving research and design archive created by Architecture of Territory at ETH Zurich. The two large maps explore urbanisation pro-cesses and their effects on emerging agricultural territories and landscapes in the metro-politan regions of Zurich (2023) and the Singapore-Johor-Riau (2015). Placed in dialogue, those maps present foreign and familiar (agricultural) landscapes with the intent to provoke critical reflection on regional, sustainable food production amongst the ongoing agricultural intensification and urbanisation. The video footage shows agricultural prac-tices in Singapore-Johor-Riau and around Zurich, including experimental and pioneering practices of permaculture, solidarity agriculture and biodynamic farming.<br /><br /><strong>SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS WITH MICROALGAE-BASED PROTEINS</strong><span></span><br /><span>DR. IRIS HABERKORN, BYRON PEREZ, HELENA SCHMITT, & CAROLE ZERMATTEN</span><br /><span>Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452</span><br /><br /><span>Despite decent intentions of establishing sustainable food systems to support a stead-ily growing global population, traditional food production systems and their associated value-chains are exceeding our planetary boundaries. Sustaining a growing and increasingly urbanised population will require the development of novel food production and processing concepts that focus on shifting traditional linear production concepts towards circular solutions. Singapore aims to increase its domestic, independent food supply and a population growing under highly urbanised constraints with the “30 by 30” initiative. However, arable land in Singapore is limited and traditional food production and processing methods alone cannot meet this goal. This exhibition highlights how a state-of-the-art urban single-cell protein production platform could support Singapore in reaching it using microalgae, embedded in the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals—and explores what microalgae looks like, how it grows and is processed as well as potential taste experiences</span></p>
16 - 19 February 2023
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Hoo+Fan+Chon">Hoo Fan Chon</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Niraly+Mangal">Niraly Mangal</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Adrian+Fuhrmann">Adrian Fuhrmann</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vartika+Goenka">Vartika Goenka</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Heng+Chin+Wee">Heng Chin Wee</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Shaktheeshwari+Silvaraju">Shaktheeshwari Silvaraju</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Chloe+Tan">Chloe Tan</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Tang+Yong+Jen">Tang Yong Jen</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Yanyun+Yan">Yanyun Yan</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Zhang+Qihui">Zhang Qihui</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Milica+Topalovic">Milica Topalovic</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Karoline+Kostka">Karoline Kostka</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Hans+Hortig">Hans Hortig</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Alice+Clarke">Alice Clarke</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Iris+Haberkorn">Iris Haberkorn</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Byron+Perez">Byron Perez</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Helena+Schmitt">Helena Schmitt</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Carole+Zermatten">Carole Zermatten</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Yuhao+Lu">Yuhao Lu</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Helen+Lei+Fan">Helen Lei Fan</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Asia">Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Europe">Europe</a>
Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Artistic+Research">Artistic Research</a>
<p>NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and the European Union Delegation to Singapore are pleased to present the exhibition <strong><em>Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works</em></strong>. The exhibition marks the culmination of the first cycle of <a href="https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/collaboration/sea-air/"><strong>SEA AiR—Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union (SEA AiR</strong>)</a>. As participating artists in the inaugural cycle of SEA AiR, <strong>Hoo Fan Chon</strong> (Malaysia), <strong>Citra Sasmita</strong> (Indonesia), and <strong>Vuth Lyno</strong> (Cambodia) have each been awarded a three-month-long residency at an art institution in Europe as well as funding for the creation of artworks.</p>
<p>In the first half of 2022, amidst unrelenting surges of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the artists took off from their home countries to conduct three-month-long residencies: Hoo Fan Chon at <strong>HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme</strong> (Finland); Citra Sasmita at <strong>WIELS</strong> (Brussels, Belgium); and Vuth Lyno at <strong>Villa Arson</strong> (Nice, France). The artworks featured in the exhibition <em>Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works</em> have been created by the artists in the months following their residencies, a much-needed time for critical reflection and material experimentation that allowed them to develop their research findings and creative inspiration into full-fledged artworks. Ranging from installation and video to sculpture and painting, some of these works also mark these artists’ first attempts at embracing new mediums and materials: 3D animation techniques for Hoo Fan Chon, video for Citra Sasmita, and paper for Vuth Lyno. Most importantly, they bear witness to how the artists’ interests in the cosmetics of food, cultural contaminations, decolonial practices, the empowerment of women, and the resilience of marginalised communities, have evolved over the last year.<br /><br /><span>In residence at </span><strong>HIAP—Helsinki International Artist Programme </strong><span>(Finland) from late February to late May, </span><strong>Hoo Fan Chon</strong><span> soon became fascinated by the salmon pink hue that adorns the facades of many buildings across Finland and its neighbouring countries. This chromatic cue tied in with the artist’s ongoing interest in issues of taste, class, and fish culture—the son of a fisherman, fish-based imagery and foodscapes are often the subject of his work. Hoo Fan Chon’s erratic investigation, imbued with a distinctive sense of irony, around the cosmetic processing of farmed salmon and the social status of salmon consumption as a signifier of class and wealth in Chinese culture resulted in a multimedia installation. </span><em>How to turn your siakap into salmon</em><span> is a video work, inspired by tutorials commonly found on YouTube, that illustrates DIY techniques to colour affordable fish in order to simulate a salmon-eating experience. The artist’s first experiment with 3D animation, the installation </span><em>I have never seen a swimming salmon in my life</em><span> projects swimming salmon cuts onto an aquarium with a voiceover about the plights that threaten the survival of salmons. </span><em>Finnish landscape painting series</em><span> is a series of painterly interventions on found paintings where Chinese blessings and images of the proverbial “carp leaping over the dragon’s gate” are inscribed onto landscape paintings that the artist sourced from thrift shops around Helsinki.</span><br /><br /><span>The artistic practice of </span><strong>Citra Sasmita</strong><span> revisits ancient Balinese mythologies and retools traditional artistic techniques and materials to address misconceptions that persist in contemporary society, especially with regard to the status of women. The residency at </span><strong>WIELS</strong><span> (Brussels, Belgium) from April to June enabled her to encounter and research the legacy of her ancestors held in European museum collections built during the colonial era by often dubious and unethical means. The installation </span><em>Timur Merah Project VIII: Pilgrim, How You Journey</em><span> revolves around the figure of I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya, a queen of the Klungkung kingdom in Bali, who fiercely opposed the Dutch colonisers in the 19th century. Ruled out from most historical accounts, the history of this charismatic woman leader is revived in Citra’s powerful imagery and interspersed with scenes from the Bhima Swarga epic depicting the hero’s journey between Heaven and Hell. Painted on traditional Kamasan canvases, the paintings are mounted on antique pillars arranged in an eight-pointed star configuration that references ancient Balinese cosmologies. The installation also comprises a double-channel video, the artist’s first video work, in which a singer performs the poem </span><em>Prelambang Bhasa Wewatekan </em><span>(</span><em>The Coded Language of Symbols</em><span>), written by the Queen herself. Underneath the tantric symbolism of the poem secretly lurk the Queen’s memoir, anti-Dutch propaganda messages, and military strategies.</span></p>
<p>Pursuing intersecting interests in architecture, the politics of space, and place-making practices, during the residency at <strong>Villa Arson </strong>(Nice, France) from March to May, <strong>Vuth Lyno</strong> had the opportunity to travel several times to the French capital and research the architectural remnants of the 1931 International Colonial Exposition which took place in the Bois de Vincennes, a forest park in Eastern Paris. He discovered that the former Cameroon Pavilion was turned into a Buddhist temple in the late 1970s. Following its conversion into a place of worship, the building and the surrounding greenery have come to play an important role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of the Cambodian community in France. A migrant community’s appropriation of a site previously used to display colonial (mis)representations of those very communities led the artist to develop a broader reflection on the role of urban parks as sites of refuge wherein minorities and marginalised groups (sex workers, queer communities, the homeless, etc.) can find emancipation and enact their agency. The resulting installation <em>Vibrating Park-Forest </em>ensues from a comparative study of heterogenous uses and grassroots practices that unfold in specific parks in Paris, Phnom Penh, and Singapore. <em>Vibrating Park-Forest</em> is the artist’s first installation made of paper, a material he began to experiment with during his residency at Villa Arson.</p>
<p>The exhibition is curated by Dr <strong>Anna Lovecchio</strong>, Assistant Director (Programmes), and NTU CCA Singapore. The project leader of SEA AiR is <strong>Ute Meta Bauer</strong> Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.<br /><br /><a href="https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/collaboration/sea-air/">SEA AiR—Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union</a><span> is funded by the European Union.</span><br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><span>Dates</span> <br />Official Opening</strong> in the presence of H.E. Iwona Piórko, EU Ambassador to Singapore and the artists<br />10 January 2023, 4.00 – 5.00pm<br />Public preview: 4.00 – 7.00pm</p>
<p><strong><em>Creative Trajectories</em></strong><br />Artist talk by Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, and Vuth Lyno<br />11 January 2023, 6.00 – 7.30pm</p>
<p><strong><span>Exhibition Hours</span></strong><br />11 January – 5 February 2023<br />Tue to Sun: 12.00 – 7.00pm<br />13 January: 12.00 – 9.00pm<br />Open on public holidays (except Mondays)</p>
<p><strong><span>Location</span></strong><br /><span>NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Studios</span><br /><span>Blocks 38 Malan Road</span><br /><span>Singapore 109441</span></p>
10 January - 5 February 2023
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Hoo+Fan+Chon">Hoo Fan Chon</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Citra+Sasmita">Citra Sasmita</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vuth+Lyno">Vuth Lyno</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ute+Meta+Bauer">Ute Meta Bauer</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Anna+Lovecchio">Anna Lovecchio</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Europe">Europe</a>
<i>Campur, Tolak, Kali, Bahagi, Sama Dengan</i> (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Equals) Solo Project by Roslisham Ismail aka Ise
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Politics">Politics</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Identity">Identity</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Artistic+Research">Artistic Research</a>
<i>Campur, Tolak, Kali, Bahagi, Sama Dengan</i> (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Equals) is a solo project by late and cherished artist Roslisham Ismail aka Ise. In 2016 during a short trip in Germany, Ise jotted down in his notebook the title of a much-contemplated solo project: <i>Campur, Tolak, Kali, Bahagi, Sama Dengan</i> (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Equals), to which he returned two years later when eventually, such an exhibition became possible in Kuala Lumpur. Ise saw in basic arithmetic operations and their specific properties, a reflection of his artistic process Actions are performed differently; the results could be the same. “Painters 100 years ago—” explains Ise in an interview “—also went to the market to buy vegetables and put them in a still life painting. For me it was the same. I went to the market and put the food on display. It’s just another way of working.” <br /><br />An exhibition that takes place a little more than one year since the artist’s passing rightfully carries deeper significance and responsibility. While this exhibition was not conceived as a survey of Ise’s broad practice, it is defined, as the title suggests, by a reflexive scope. Although produced four years apart, the two bodies of work that shape this project intimately interconnect. Seamlessly they capture Ise’s art-making process, his distinctive ways of navigating the world and embedding the serendipity of life and social encounters in artistic practice. <br /><br />Aimed to foster connections between artists and a new context, to provide much-needed time and space for reflection and encounters, artist-in-residence programmes represented an important catalyst in the development of Ise’s artistic practice. Their nature suit Ise’s method of working, social flair, endless curiosity and conceivably offered a means to take distance from a familiar environment and reflect on it from afar. A ramification of his residency project at Bangkok University Gallery, <i>Operation Bangkok</i> (2014) maps Ise’s encounters with the city and its inhabitants. From the abandoned New World Mall, Thieves’ Market, Crocodile Temple (Wat Chakrawat) to anti-government protests in Lumpini Park, to name a few, Ise guides us to places and events meaningful to those for whom Bangkok is home. We discover through Ise’s eyes and interactions, Bangkok as a living city rather than a tourist destination on the global market. <br /><br />Fictional characters have been recurrent in Ise’s drawings informed by the visual vernacular of comics. In 2018, he started a collaboration with the comic book artist Ibrahim Hamid (Pak Him), whose work Ise knew since primary school. In the vicissitudes of life, they first met at the hospital in Kota Bharu, where both were undergoing dialysis treatment. Ise commissioned Pak Him to execute, following his instructions and study drawings, a series of graphic novel illustrations. These comics, displayed in mobile lightboxes, employ strategies of self-narration situating Ise inside the story as protagonist. Checked for hours at Christchurch’s customs under the odd suspicion of being a “drug designer”; mugged in Barcelona at knifepoint; stopped by the police in Jakarta after Malaysia won a regional cup in a football match against Indonesia but backed by his peers, and so on, Ise revived his micro-narratives through a fictionalised persona and Pak Him’s craftsmanship. Portraying himself within a world with many others, friends and strangers alike, Ise affirmed his continuous interest in the virtues and intricacies of the social. <br /><br />The publication of this exhibition takes the format of a special issue of SentAp!, the magazine founded by curator Nur Hanim Khairuddin and Ise in 2005. Dedicated to Ise, this issue is designed by Yan; and it includes a welcome note by Ute Meta Bauer, a series of interviews by writer Tan Zi Hao with the curators Ark Fongsmut, Nur Hanim Khairuddin, and Russell Storer; an essay and a conversation with ruangrupa by curator Anca Rujoiu. <br /><br />Roslisham Ismail aka Ise’s solo project is realised in collaboration with Ise parkingproject Foundation with the support of A+ Works of Art and NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. The exhibition is presented in The Lab at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore between 16 January – 28 February 2021.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Roslisham+Ismail+aka+Ise">Roslisham Ismail aka Ise</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ibrahim+Hamid">Ibrahim Hamid</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Anca+Rujoiu">Anca Rujoiu</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ise+parkingproject+Foundation">Ise parkingproject Foundation</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=A%2B+Works+of+Art">A+ Works of Art</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Oceania">Oceania</a>
<i>Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Race">Race</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Feminism">Feminism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Technology">Technology</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Diaspora">Diaspora</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Capitalism">Capitalism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Displacement">Displacement</a>
<i>“The making of each film transforms the way I see myself and the world. Once I start engaging in the process of making a film or in any artistic excursion, I am also embarking upon a journey whose point of arrival is unknown to me.”—Trinh T. Minh-ha</i> <br /><br />Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films. is the first institutional exhibition of filmmaker, music composer, writer, anthropologist, feminist and postcolonial theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha in Asia, presented in an exhibition format. Five of her films—<b>Forgetting Vietnam</b> (2015), <b>Night Passage</b> (2004), <b><i>The Fourth Dimension</i></b> (2001), <b><i>A Tale of Love</i></b> (1995) and <b><i>Shoot for the Contents</i></b> (1991), filmed over a quarter of a century, in different parts of Asia—are simultaneously on view in five small-scale movie theatres in The Exhibition Hall. As the viewer wanders from one theatre to the next, the proximity of the films enables their narratives to interrelate. This spatial configuration took its point of departure from Trinh’s exhibition at the Secession, Vienna, in 2001. <br /><br /><b><i>Forgetting Vietnam</i></b>, framed by two ancient Vietnamese myths, was made in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, touching on the memory of trauma. <b><i>Night Passage</i></b>, inspired by Miyazawa Kenji’s novel <b><i>Milky Way Railroad</i></b> (1927), narrates the spiritual journey of a young female immigrant and her two companions, into a world of in-between realities. Shot in Japan, <b><i>The Fourth Dimension</i></b> is Trinh’s first digital film. Using special video effects to composite images and sound in multiple layers, this film is an exploration of time through rituals of religion and culture, new technology and everyday reality. <b><i>A Tale of Love</i></b> is a retelling of 19th-century Vietnamese poem <b><i>The Tale of Kiều</i></b> (1820), through a modern-day Vietnamese immigrant in the United States. In this film, Trinh experiments with various cinematic techniques and elements. <b><i>Shoot for the Contents</i></b>, an excursion into allegories, explores cultural and political shifts in China, as refracted by the June Fourth incident in Beijing. <br /><br />Presented in the Centre’s Single Screen from 31 October 2020 is Trinh’s newest cinematic work, <b><i>What about China?</i></b> (Part I of II, 2020–21). Initiated by NTU CCA Singapore, and co-commissioned with Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), Shanghai, the film takes the notion of harmony in China as a site of creative manifestation, and draws from footage shot in 1993 and 1994, in Eastern and Southern China, specifically from provinces Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangxi—linked to the remote origins of Chinese civilisation. <br /><br />Through <b><i>Trinh T. Minh-ha. Writings.</i></b>, a display of Trinh’s books on reading platforms along the passageway connecting the five theatres in The Exhibition Hall, as well as Why are they so afraid of a lotus?, presented in The Lab by CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (Wattis), San Francisco, that showcases its year-long research season on her multifaceted practice, viewers are able to encounter her extensive writing that is core to her practice. <br /><br />Trinh’s early films, <b><i>Surname Viet Given Name Nam</i></b> (1989), <b><i>Naked Spaces—Living is Round</i></b> (1985), and <b><i>Reassemblage</i></b> (1982), are part of an online film programme, <b><i>Speaking / Thinking Nearby</i></b>. Other films selected echo strands of discussions in Trinh’s layered practice, ranging from ethics of representation, to aspects of migration, global socio-politics, and feminism. <br /><br />Besides the film programme Speaking / Thinking Nearby, other public programmes include Mother Always Has a Mother, an online convening presented by the Centre, Wattis, and RAM, and “There is no such thing as documentary”, a conference that brings together filmmakers, film historians, and curators to question the politics embedded in presentation and representation, perception, context, and the spatial. <br /><br />This is NTU CCA Singapore’s final presentation in its current exhibition space, its opening coinciding with the Centre’s seventh anniversary. By the end of this exhibition, the Centre would have hosted 55 exhibitions since its inception in 2013, inaugurated by the show Paradise Lost (2014), featuring works by Trinh T. Minh-ha alongside those of Zarina Bhimji and Fiona Tan. <br /><br />Trinh T. Minh-ha (Vietnam/United States) is Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and an award-winning artist and filmmaker. She grew up in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and pursued her education at the National Conservatory of Music and Theater in Ho Chi Minh City. In 1970, she migrated to the United States where she continued her studies in music composition, ethnomusicology, and French literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She embarked on a career as an educator and has taught in diverse disciplines which brought her to the National Conservatory of Music in Dakar, Senegal, where she shot her first film, Reassemblage. Trinh’s cinematic oeuvre has been featured in numerous exhibitions and film festivals. She has participated in biennales across the globe including Documenta11, Kassel (2002), and most recently at Manifesta 13, Marseille (2020). A prolific writer, she has authored nine books. <br /><br />Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films. is curated by Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, NTU ADM. <br /><br />This project focuses on the multi-layered practice of Trinh T. Minh-ha as a filmmaker, writer, music composer and educator, generating a multi-year (2019–2022) research and programme partnership between NTU CCA Singapore, RAM, Wattis, and the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Trinh+T.+Minh-ha">Trinh T. Minh-ha</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ute+Meta+Bauer">Ute Meta Bauer</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Asia">Asia</a>
<i>Non-Aligned</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Race">Race</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Decolonialism">Decolonialism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Archival+Practice">Archival Practice</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Geopolitics">Geopolitics</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Displacement">Displacement</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Regionalism">Regionalism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Diaspora">Diaspora</a>
<i>Non-Aligned</i> in the press! Read Stephanie Bailey’s article in <u>Ocula</u> and <u>Object Lessons Space</u>‘s interview with Dr Karin Oen, the Centre’s Deputy Director of Curatorial Programmes. <br /><br /><b><i>The Unfinished Conversation</i></b> (2012), <b>John Akomfrah</b> (United Kingdom), <b><i>Two Meetings and a Funeral</i></b> (2017), <b>Naeem Mohaiemen</b> (Bangladesh/United States), <b><i>Nucleus of the Great Union</i></b> (2017), <b>The Otolith Group</b> (United Kingdom) <br /><br />The British Empire spanned from Asia to Australia to Africa to America to the Caribbean. The various colonial territories gained their sovereignty and independence at different times, in processes of decolonization that played out in the histories of nations, but also determined the lives of individuals. <i>Non-Aligned</i> brings together three moving-image works by artists, filmmakers, and writers that inquire into the challenging transition periods from colonial rule to the independence of nations. <br /><br />The presented works apply archival material in different ways. The focus spans from the work and personal histories of intellectuals who experienced these unprecedented circumstances first-hand, including Jamaican-born British theorist Stuart Hall (1932-2014) and African American novelist Richard Wright (1908-1960), to the history of political organization around the Non-Aligned Movement. This process of examining the interconnected stories of place, identity, and the conscious assertion of difference from established Western narratives, is also embedded in the personal histories of the artists. <br /><br />The Non-Aligned Movement was formally established in 1961 on principles such as world peace and cooperation, human rights, anti-racism, respect, disarmament, non-aggression, and justice. At the height of the Cold War, a large group of African, Asian, and Latin American countries navigating post-colonial constellations attempted a diversion from the two major powers—the United States and the Soviet Union—forming what is to date the largest grouping of states worldwide, after the United Nations. The non-aligned nations, which Singapore joined in 1970, wished to secure independence and territorial sovereignty, and fight against imperialism, domination, and foreign interference. <br /><br />This history is at the core of <b><i>Two Meetings and a Funeral</i></b> (2017), a feature-length three-channel video installation by <b>Naeem Mohaiemen</b>. It explores Bangladesh’s historical pivot from the socialist perspective of the 1973 Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Algeria to the emergence of a petrodollar-funded Islamic perspective at the 1974 Organisation of Islamic Countries meeting in Lahore. Recounted by Algerian publisher Samia Zennadi, Bangladeshi politician Zonayed Saki, and Indian historian Vijay Prashad, Mohaiemen’s film considers the erosion of the idea of “Third World” as a political space that was to open the potential for decoloniality and socialism, while articulating the internal contradictions behind its unfortunate failure. <br /><br />In the video essay <b><i>Nucleus of the Great Union</i></b> (2017), <b>The Otolith Group</b> traces Richard Wright on his first trip to Africa in 1953. Travelling the Gold Coast for 10 weeks, he witnessed political campaigns for independence in West Africa, yet feeling alienation at his first encounter with the continent. For this film, The Otolith Group reconciled excerpts from Wright’s book <i>Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos</i> (1954) with a selection of the over 1,500 previously unpublished photographs the writer took on his journey. Wright’s initially intended book including both text and photos was inadequately published without images. Through this work, The Otolith Group finally honors Wright’s initial aim of seeing image and text as one single narration. <br /><br /><b><i>The Unfinished Conversation</i></b> (2012) is an in-depth inquiry by filmmaker <b>John Akomfrah</b> into the personal archive of audio interviews and television recordings of the influential theorist and educator Stuart Hall. The multi-screen film installation unfolds as a layered journey through the paradigm-changing work of the late intellectual, regarded as a key founder of cultural studies, who triangulated gender, race, and class. Hall was particularly invested in black identity linked to the history of colonialism and slavery. <br /><br />Amplifying and celebrating defining voices and intertwining personal lives with political movements, the featured works in <i>Non-Aligned</i> examine not only the new possibilities for progressive social and independence movements but also the inherent struggles that define the post-WWII period. <br /><br /><i>Non-Aligned</i> is curated by <b>Ute Meta Bauer</b>, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU. <br /><br /><b>FILM PROGRAMME: THIRD WAY / AFTER BANDUNG</b> <br />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. <br /><br />Co-curated by writer and curator <b>Mark Nash</b> and film researcher <b>Vladimir Seput</b>. <br /><br /><b>READING CORNER</b> <br />Accompanying this exhibition is a library of over 50 books on postcolonialism, decoloniality, the history of the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement, archiving, as well as theory of the moving image and publications on and by John Akomfrah, Naeem Mohaiemen, and The Otolith Group. Authors include Frantz Fanon, Stuart Hall, and Richard Wright, as well as Kodwo Eshun, Rosalind C. Morris, Bojana Piškur and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, among many others. <br /><br />In light of COVID-19, we have removed the reading corner for the safety of our visitors. <br /><br />We have selected texts on, or in conversation with, some of them to be used for online reading groups. These additional texts including articles by Vijay Prashad and Elspeth Probyn, and book chapters by Adil Johan and S.R. Joey Long. <br /><br /><b>ACTIVITY CARDS</b> <br />Designed for young audiences aged 13 and above, the <i>Non-Aligned</i> activity cards explore several core themes of the exhibition through thoughtful reflection questions and engaging activities. While the Centre strongly encourages audiences to experience the artworks in person, the cards may also be used independently at home or in the classroom.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=John+Akomfrah">John Akomfrah</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Naeem+Mohaiemen">Naeem Mohaiemen</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=The+Otolith+Group">The Otolith Group</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Mark+Nash">Mark Nash</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vladimir+Seput">Vladimir Seput</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=South+America">South America</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Asia">Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Africa">Africa</a>
<i>The Posthuman City. Climates. Habitats. Environments</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Posthumanism">Posthumanism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Sustainability">Sustainability</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Coexistence">Coexistence</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Biodiversity">Biodiversity</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ecology">Ecology</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Technology">Technology</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Climate+Crisis">Climate Crisis</a>
Currently, more than half of the world’s human population lives in urban areas. Urban growth poses challenges to the various city dwellers, and creates material demands that cause lasting damage to the wider environment. The climate crisis is already announcing threatening scenarios particularly for coastal regions and megacities located at coastlines. Global urbanisation and the exploitation of resources happen on the expense of human and other species alike. <i>The Posthuman City</i> features artists who propose a shift in perspective. <br /><br />Taking NTU CCA Singapore’s overarching research topic <i>Climates.Habitats.Environments.</i> as point of departure, the exhibition <i>The Posthuman City</i> considers the possibilities of a conscious sharing of resources, and a respectful and mindful coexistence between humans and other species. Through imaginative propositions at the intersection of art, design, and architecture, the selected artists engage questions addressing issues of sustainability, water scarcity, invisible communities, nature as a form of culture, and suggest the implementation of lived indigenous knowledges. Examining the urban fabric in its condition as a habitat for a diversity of life forms, the featured works range from installations to time-based media. <br /><br />Stressing the vital importance of clean water and the challenges of its scarcity around the world, the artist and design duo Lucy + Jorge Orta have developed a long-term project on water collection, purification, and distribution. <i>OrtaWater</i> focuses on the general issues surrounding clean water and the privatisation and corporate control effecting access to it. Starting from a rigorous analysis of this crucial resource through visual and textual research and collaborative workshops with engineers, Lucy + Jorge Orta create sculptures, large-scale installations, and public artworks, that are both artefacts and functional design. One angle of their research—low-cost water purification devices enabling filthy water to be pumped and filtered directly from local sources—is translated into <i>Portable Water Fountain</i> (2005) and <i>Mobile Intervention Unit</i> (2007). These devices have been used to purify and distribute water from the Venice’s Canal Grande (2005) and the Huang Pu River in Shanghai (2012), among others, and now from the creek that runs through Gillman Barracks. <br /><br />Similarly combating water pollution, Irene Agrivina’s <i>Soya C(o)u(l)ture</i> is a mixed media installation that demonstrates how to transform wastewater from tofu and tempeh production into usable biomaterials, such as fuel, fertiliser, and leather-like fabrics. <i>Soya C(o)u(l)ture</i> was developed in collaboration with XXLab, an all-female transdisciplinary collective that Agrivina co-founded. Usually, large amounts of wastewater pollute the water in the rivers surrounding the plants, which in turn causes cholera and skin and bowel diseases in humans. <i>Soya C(o)u(l)ture</i> intends to divert this wastewater from tofu factories and put it in a homegrown starter culture medium to create useful products. A biological process using various bacteria and cell cultures, for instance <i>Acetobacter xylinum</i>, generates alternative energy sources, foodstuffs, and biological material. This process creates cellulose sheets that can either be used for consumption—<i>nata de coco</i>, a variant made of coconut water, is a popular snack food—or further processed (pressed, dried, enhanced with colouring and coating) to make clothing and craft materials. This biological procedure can be reproduced in any household using normal kitchen utensils in combination with open-source software and simple hardware. In this way, the project could provide women in poverty-stricken regions with opportunities to increase their income. <br /><br />Indigenous peoples of various territories around the world, with deep historical and cultural ties to their land, have preserved sustainable ways of living that respect the limits of the planet’s resources. The artist and architect Marjetica Potrč’s <i>Earth Drawings</i> refer to these unique indigenous cosmogonies and their essential knowledges, based on research done over the past 15 years, centred on indigenous communities, such as the Asháninkas (in the Brazilian state of Acre in Amazonia), the Aboriginal (in Australian), and the Sami (in northern Norway), The <i>Earth Drawings</i>, a series on paper, point to the growing alliances between indigenous groups and bottom-up initiatives in the effort to ensure a more resilient future, beyond the social and economic agreement of the neoliberal order. Potrč stresses that the world’s diverse societies, taken together, form an intelligent organism: when necessary, they self-generate new models of existence and coexistence—a precondition for human resilience on Earth. Sharing life experiences is, after all, a basic human condition. Coexistence on Earth requires new foundations that foreground collective ownership of the land and a socially-conscious individualism. <br /><br />Planetary coexistence of species acknowledges the presence and agency of diverse forms of intelligence. The artist Nicholas Mangan is inspired by termites and their capacity to build sophisticated and dynamic architectures that provide a model for decentralised social and economic organisation. The starting point of <i>Termite Economies (Phase 1)</i> was the anecdote that Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) researched termite behaviour in the hope that the insects might one day lead humans to gold deposits; a proposal to exploit the natural activity of termite colonies for economic gain. Mangan, on the contrary, proposes that the termites’ way of living in colonies might suggest other complex and global-scale systems for people to live and work together, better regulating and metabolising human consumption, production, and digestion. <i>Termite Economies</i> combines footage Mangan filmed on locations in Western Australia, alongside archival video and table-mounted sculptures, to speculate on the use of termites as miners and ruminating on how capitalism puts nature to work. The 3D-printed models reference existing infrastructures, for instance an underground tunnelling system for Tindals Mining Centre, a gold mine in Western Australia. The idea was to produce a 1:100 scale model to train termites. <br /><br />In <i>Bangkok Opportunistic Ecologies</i>, the design practice Animali Domestici studied the urbanity of Bangkok from a non-anthropocentric perspective, focusing on the presence of pythons. Mapping the city through a snake’s experience, the resulting tapestry puts multiple beings of different species at the centre, displacing the human from its exceptionalism. The graphic realisation is freely inspired by the representation techniques, colour palettes, and composition of Thai traditional mural paintings. Their work process translates research and statistics on the Thai capital into multiple encapsulated narratives, including such elements as sewerage, canals, water swamps, and rain water “cracked” pipes—typical spots used by snakes, according to fire department experts—, as well as folkloric cultural practices like the numerology and superstitions connected to the shape and location of the animals. <br /><br />In <i>Untitled (Human Mask)</i>, the artist Pierre Huyghe films a monkey, Fuku-chan, who in real life has a work permit as a “waitress” in a traditional sake house in Tokyo. In the film, the animal is wearing a dress and a wig, as well as a white, human-like mask created by Huyghe. Made of resin, the mask is inspired by traditional Japanese Noh theatre masks, where only the main actor wears a mask, meant to show the essential traits of the character. The film’s first images are drone shots of a devastated landscape, that of Fukushima in 2011, after the earthquake-triggered tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear plant reactors. It then shifts to an empty restaurant and house, where we follow Fuku-chan moving around in the dark. Fuku-chan is seen acting, and seems to be waiting, shaking her leg, looking at her nails, playing with her hair. A cat appears, and we see close-ups of insects and cockroaches. Raising questions about the essence of human nature and of non-human forms of intelligence and communication, the work points at the prevailing relationship of domination between humans and other species. <br /><br /><i>Ghostpopulations</i>, a series of collages by the artist Ines Doujak, combines ill human bodies with flora and fauna, transforming drawings from 19th-century medical textbooks into provocative assemblages that investigate desperation as an economic force. Doujak points out that entire populations uproot and flee in the direction of the faintest glimmer of hope, only to find themselves in the worst of predicaments: abandoned and deported, sold, abused or stigmatised forever, circulating as extremely cheap and disposable commodities. While she is giving visibility to such marginalised, abused, and displaced populations, these collages draw a dystopian mirage, reminding us of the pending threat of pandemic illnesses. <br /><br />Death, from a post-humanist perspective, is not only inevitable and part of life, but is an event that is already in our past. The artist and entrepreneur Jae Rhim Lee developed a burial suit as an environmentally-conscious alternative to conventional funerary processes, shifting the negative narratives around death. The presented <em>Infinity Burial Suit</em>, a handcrafted garment that is worn by the deceased, is completely biodegradable, and co-created with zero waste fashion designer Daniel Silverstein. In addition, the Forever Spot Pet Shroud is featured, also consisting of a built in biomix of mushrooms and other microorganisms that together do three things: aid in decomposition, work to neutralise toxins found in dead bodies, and transfer nutrients to plant life, enriching the earth and fostering new life. Highlighting the importance of decompiculture—the cultivation of waste-decomposing organisms—, this project also suggests a strong link between human resistance to mortality and climate change denial. She advocates for a post-mortem responsibility towards the natural world and a direct engagement with our own mortality, making funerals new beginnings instead of endpoints, becoming more emotionally and socially accessible. <br /><br />A parable on economic crashes, financial trading, mixed martial arts, and general contemporary culture, artist and writer Hito Steyerl’s large-scale architectural environment features <em>Liquidity Inc.</em>, a single-screen projection that uses water and liquidity as guiding tropes. Opening with the quote “be water, my friend” by martial arts legend and actor Bruce Lee, the film comments on the circulation of digital images, big data, information, financial assets, labour, and weather systems. The installation consists of a double-sided projection screen in front of a blue, wave-like ramp, where the viewers find themselves in “troubled water.” Steyerl merges CGI and green screen scenes with an assortment of embedded videos, swipes, clips, scrolls, and pop-up windows, that include the story of Jacob Wood, a former financial analyst who lost his job during the 2008 economic recession and decided to turn his mixed martial arts hobby into a new career. The intricate mesh of late capitalism structures needs to be hijacked in order to allow space for new ecological and sustainable policies that value people and life over profit. <br /><br /><em>The Posthuman City</em>, through artistic propositions, intends to open a discussion about the imbalanced relationship between an anthropocentric thinking that puts the human at the centre, and the fact that the urban environment is a habitat for many life forms. In her book <em>The Posthuman </em>(2013), Rosi Braidotti calls for resilience, stating that “sustainability does assume faith in a future, and also a sense of responsibility for ‘passing on’ to future generations a world that is liveable and worth living in. A present that endures is a sustainable model of the future.” <br /><br />Curated by <b>Ute Meta Bauer</b>, Professor, NTU ADM, and Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and <b>Laura Miotto</b>, Associate Professor, NTU ADM <br /><br />The accompanying public programmes include seminars addressing techno-optimism and eco-hacktivism on <b>23 November 2019</b>, and biodiver-city and urban futurism on <b>18 January 2020</b>, deepening the discussion around posthumanism and the urban condition. <br /><br />From <b>15 – 23 February 2020</b>, the second edition of <b>NTU CCA Ideas Fest</b> takes place, guest curated by <b>IdeasCity</b>, New Museum, New York.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Irene+Agrivina">Irene Agrivina</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Animali+Domestici">Animali Domestici</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ines+Doujak">Ines Doujak</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Pierre+Huyghe">Pierre Huyghe</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Jae+Rhim+Lee">Jae Rhim Lee</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Lucy+%2B+Jorge+Orta">Lucy + Jorge Orta</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Nicholas+Mangan">Nicholas Mangan</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Marjetica+Potr%C4%8D">Marjetica Potrč</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Hito+Steyerl+">Hito Steyerl </a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<i>Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Public+Sphere">Public Sphere</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Politics">Politics</a>
Considered a leading figure in public art, Iranian-born artist <b>Siah Armajani</b> merges architecture and conceptual art in his sculptures, drawings, and public installations. Informed by democratic ideologies and inspired by American vernacular architecture, his works include gathering spaces for communality, emphasizing the “nobility of usefulness.” His highly acclaimed public art and architectural projects have included bridges, gardens, and outdoor structures, that have been commissioned and presented worldwide. A retrospective featuring his artistic career spanning over more than five decades was recently on view at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and inaugurates in March at The MET Breuer, New York. <br /><br />Taking centre stage in the exhibition, the large-scale installation <i>Sacco & Vanzetti Reading Room #3</i> (1988) will unfold along its several comprising elements, such as two rooms, tables, chairs, and racks with books, magazines, and pencils noticeably arranged like spikes. <i>The Reading Room</i> is designed as a functional and inviting space for the visitors of the exhibition to use. The books populating the space are by or about the poets, philosophers, and political activists Armajani has dedicated different works to, many from his <i>Tomb</i> series. Initiated by Armajani in 1972, the <i>Tomb</i> series include drawings and models, of which seven are also on view in the exhibition. <br /><br />The list of authors includes: Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, John Berryman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Luigi Galleani, Emma Goldman, Hafez, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Jefferson, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Rimbaud, Richard Rorty, Sacco and Vanzetti, Ahmad Shamlou, Henry David Thoreau, Alfred North Whitehead, Walt Whitman, and Nima Yooshij. <br /><br /><strong>READING GROUPS</strong> <br /><br />NTU CCA Singapore has selected books by and about the philosophers, poets, and political activists that Siah Armajani has dedicated works to, as part of the installation, which is designed for use by the visiting public as a functional and inviting space. Throughout the exhibition period, the installation will host reading groups or other events that respond to the displayed books. <br /><br /><strong>OPEN CALL</strong> <br /><br />In addition, NTU CCA Singapore is seeking interested individuals, groups, or organisations to engage with the artist’s works. The Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3 is available to be used for readings, gatherings, discussions, workshops, or other events. Interested parties can appropriate the installation and exhibition space, including the books accompanying the installation, and respond to the exhibition and its title, the artist and the work, or related topics. <br /><br /><br /><i>Siah Armajani: Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy. </i>is curated by <b>Ute Meta Bauer</b>, Founding Director of the NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. <br /><br />The exhibition is made possible by generous loans from the <b>MMK Museum for Modern Art</b>, Frankfurt, and <b>Rossi & Rossi</b>, Hong Kong. <br /><br />Special thank you to <b>Susanne Pfeffer</b>, Director, and <b>Mario Kramer</b>, Head of Collection, MMK, as well as <b>Fabio Rossi</b> and <strong>Josie Browne</strong>, project liaison. <br /><br />With gratitude to <b>Siah Armajani</b> and <b>Barbara Armajani</b>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Siah+Armajani">Siah Armajani</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ute+Meta+Bauer">Ute Meta Bauer</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=MMK+Museum+for+Modern+Art">MMK Museum for Modern Art</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Rossi+%26+Rossi">Rossi & Rossi</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Asia">Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=North+America">North America</a>
<i>Arus Balik: From below the wind to above the wind and back again</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Oceans+%26+Seas">Oceans & Seas</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ecology">Ecology</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=The+Anthropocene">The Anthropocene</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Politics">Politics</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Geopolitics">Geopolitics</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Archipelagic+State">Archipelagic State</a>
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is pleased to present <i>Arus Balik – From below the wind to above the wind and back again</i>, an exhibition project that initiated from a conversation between Belgian curator <b>Philippe Pirotte</b> and Jakarta-based artist <b>Ade Darmawan</b>. Reconsidering Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s epic book <i>Arus Balik</i> (1995), which could be translated into English as a “turning of the tide,” the eponymous exhibition takes the novel as a starting point to reflect on perspectival shifts in geopolitical, cultural, social, religious, and natural spheres. <br /><br />In his fictional account, Pramoedya elaborates on the weakening of the maritime culture of Javanese kingdoms in the early 16th century, the progressive Islamisation, and the beginning of Portuguese occupation on parts of the now Malay and Indonesian peninsula and archipelago. Important is that Pramoeda’s reversal of perspective as a meta-geographical impulse is comparable to the notion of the “inverted telescope” Benedict Anderson advances in his seminal book <i>Spectre of Comparisons</i> (1998): as a non-Eurocentric method of comparison in which for example Portugal is viewed from the standpoint of Southeast Asia, as through an inverted telescope, which causes a kind of vertigo. Pramoedya suggests that the final decline of the Majapahit empire, and the “change from traditional independence to colonial possession,” was largely caused by the different Javanese kingdoms having gradually turned their backs to the sea. <br /><br />The participating artists expand on this prompt through installations, sculptures, films, performances, and texts, both existing works as well as new commissions. <b>Ade Darmawan</b> re-read <i>Arus Balik</i> with a special focus on how protagonists use natural resources, and will create a distilling dispositive with alkaline water from the straits, recalling that all the scrambling for the control of the archipelago was about the extraction of ore and goods. <b>ila</b> questions what it means to be Boyanese, Buginese, Minangkabau, or Javanese through encounters with Singapore residents now conflated as Malay. Their testimonies will be written on her body and wither, while exposed to salty water and weather on reclaimed areas of Singapore island. <i>Paradise Blueprint</i> (2017), a wallpaper designed by <b>Zac Langdon-Pole</b>, based on a cyanotype photogram of the removed legs of a so-called “Bird of Paradise,” addresses the history of cultural exchange and mythology surrounding the birds native to Papua New Guinea. <b>Lucy Raven</b> creates silk paintings or monoprints, made by imprint of sedimentation in erosion tables, as scrim backdrops she uses for a forthcoming film-production, called <i>Kongkreto</i>, inspired by the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines that finally chased off the Americans from Clark Airbase. Book-aficionado, artist, and writer <b>Shubigi Rao</b> delves into the stories related to the difficult conditions, but also extraordinary examples of solidarity Pramoedya faced on prison island Buru while writing <i>Arus Balik</i>. A new video-installation by <b>Melati Suryodarmo</b>, <i>Dancing under the Black Sky</i> (2019), traces the history behind Reog performances, an art form of resistance and criticism of Ponorogo people of East Java towards Bhre Kertabhumi, a Majapahit king who slowly lost his authority in the 15th century, before Islam became a major force in Demak and controlled the coastal region of Java. <br /><br />The exhibition <i>Arus Balik</i> aims to imagine the implication of histories and politics in processes of transition, such as colonisation and decolonisation, or shifts in maritime power for people and ports below (the straits of Malacca, South China Sea, Java Sea, and further east) and above (the Indian Ocean and further West) the wind. Have the multiple colonisations in Southeast Asia alienated the people from the sea coast? Is it possible to attempt a return? The reversal of the colonial fact, the promise of reversal of a geo-political, -cultural, and social systems, initially embodied by the Bandung conference in 1955, caused Afro-American author Richard Wright to write that “it smacked of tidal waves, of natural forces.” <br /><br />The accompanying public programmes further investigate the topics raised, including a conversation on <b>Saturday, March 23</b>, around the book <i>Arus Balik</i> and the reception of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s oeuvre. On <b>Saturday, May 25</b>, another conversation will focus on living with the sea and the history of the straits. <br /><br /><i>Arus Balik – From below the wind to above the wind and back again</i> is NTU CCA Singapore’s response and contribution to this year’s nation-wide bicentennial commemorations that reflect on Singapore’s history since the arrival of the British statesman Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, considered the founder of modern Singapore. <br /><br />Guest curated by <b>Philippe Pirotte</b>, Rector, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule, and Director, Portikus, Frankfurt, and Visiting Professor (2018/19), MA Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ade+Darmawan">Ade Darmawan</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=ila">ila</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Zac+Langdon-Pole">Zac Langdon-Pole</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Lucy+Raven">Lucy Raven</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Shubigi+Rao">Shubigi Rao</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Melati+Surydarmo">Melati Surydarmo</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Philippe+Pirotte">Philippe Pirotte</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<i>Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore</i>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Botany">Botany</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Urbanism">Urbanism</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ecosystems">Ecosystems</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Archival+Practice">Archival Practice</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Pedagogy">Pedagogy</a>
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore presents <i>Quadra Medicinale Singapore</i>, the late Belgian artist <b>Jef Geys</b>’s first institutional exhibition in Asia. Geys’s conceptual practice adopted an interdisciplinary and collaborative process of research and knowledge-formation, and was driven by his belief that art should be intertwined with the everyday. <br /><br />For <i>Quadra Medicinale</i> (2009), Geys invited residents of Villeurbanne, New York, Moscow, and Brussels to demarcate a geometrical quadrant, with their home or workplace at the centre, and document 12 unassuming street plants, or “weeds.” From this collection, the collaborators uncovered the productive, and often times medicinal, properties of these plants. <br /><br /><i>Quadra Medicinale</i> is structured as a universal manual capable of being replicated anywhere and has, since its first presentation at the Pavilion of Belgium during the 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2009, been realised and shown in various cities including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2010). The exhibition was followed by similar methods of botanical and medicinal plant studies as documented in the accompanying publication <i>Kempens Informatieblad</i>. This alternative model set up by Geys for collective knowledge production, sharing, and documentation has, underlying its process, a socially-active role: Geys asked questions such as, “What can a homeless person who has a toothache, for example, chew-on to ease the pain, and to eventually cure the problem?” <br /><br />On view will be four chapters of the project, including a newly-created Singapore chapter following Geys’s instructions with contributions by local collaborators, Louise Neo and Teo Siyang. Each chapter includes framed plant specimens with their characteristics labelled, photographs of the site where the plants were originally found, as well as maps of the geographical quadrant explored. Through inciting a collaborative process, Geys created a unique model for knowledge production and sharing. <br /><br />Questioning mainstream and organised systems of urban planning and information dissemination, Geys casted doubt on the fundaments of language and visual representation, interrogating art’s relation to meaning-making. He produced a text explaining the <i>Quadra Medicinale</i> project that has been translated into 10 languages, with annotations by the artist himself on the translations. Their display as large-format scrolls, further probes systems of interpretation, communication, and accessibility. A selection of these text scrolls and a Malay translation, produced for this exhibition, will be shown. <br /><br /><i>Quadra Medicinale Singapore</i> introduces an artistic practice that questions the hierarchies and adaptability of nature and society, provoking reflections on both their communicable and imperceptible structures. It also poses the question of whether conceptual artworks can be continued after an artist’s passing. <br /><br />In addition to the elements from <i>Quadra Medicinale</i>, the exhibition includes two paintings from Geys’s <i>Seed-bags</i> series (1963–2018), a long-term project the artist started when, during his own gardening process, he discovered that the image of the vegetables or flowers pictured on the bag did not match the actual plant. With these paintings, which Geys would create every year, he challenged the accuracy and truth of commercial photography. The medium, however, played a significant role in the artist’s practice enabling him to accumulate an extensive archive of his own projects and interests. <br /><br />In The Single Screen, <i>Day and Night and Day</i>… (2002), his 36-hour-long film produced for Documenta 11 (Kassel, Germany), will be screened in parallel to the exhibition. This film is a mesmeric sequence composed of thousands of black-and-white photographs Geys took from the mid-1950s to 1998. <br /><br />The exhibition is made possible by generous loans from the Jef Geys Estate and Air de Paris. <br /><br /><i>Quadra Medicinale Singapore</i> is curated by <b>Dirk Snauwaert</b>, Artistic Director at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, in collaboration with <b>Ute Meta Bauer</b> and <b>Khim Ong</b>, NTU CCA Singapore. Snauwaert was the Curator of <i>Jef Geys: Quadra Medicinale</i> in Venice 2009, commissioned for the National Pavilion of Belgiumby the Flemish Community. Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Louise+Neo">Louise Neo</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Teo+Siyang">Teo Siyang</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Dirk+Snauwaert">Dirk Snauwaert</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Ute+Meta+Bauer">Ute Meta Bauer</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=37&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Khim+Ong+">Khim Ong </a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Southeast+Asia">Southeast Asia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Europe">Europe</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=North+America">North America</a>