Archival Practice]]> Performance]]> Identity]]>
Loo Zihan presents his ongoing research into Dr Ray Langenbach’s personal archive, comprising over 20 years of documents and archival material on performance art in Southeast Asia. Dr Langenbach, Professor of Performance Art and Theory, University of the Arts, Helsinki, has for the past 22 years been documenting Southeast Asian aesthetic performance (theatre and performance art) and social performance (demonstrations, elections, riots, daily life) and the contexts in which they take place. This is articulated in the performance experiment ‘I Am LGB’, commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) and performed over three days, from 18 – 20 August 2016. Developed in collaboration with Dr Langenbach, Lee Mun Wai, Shawn Chua Ming Ren and Bani Haykal, the work questions notions of identity and social as well as existing power structures.

Post-performance, Loo’s studio session will serve as a moment of reflection and discussion on the collaborative development of ‘I Am LGB’ and its reception by the audience.]]>
Loo Zihan]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Archival Practice]]> Performance]]> Identity]]> 24 Aug 2016, Wed 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Studio #01-07, Block 38 Malan Road

Loo Zihan presents his ongoing research into Dr Ray Langenbach’s personal archive, comprising over 20 years of documents and archival material on performance art in Southeast Asia. Dr Langenbach, Professor of Performance Art and Theory, University of the Arts, Helsinki, has for the past 22 years been documenting Southeast Asian aesthetic performance (theatre and performance art) and social performance (demonstrations, elections, riots, daily life) and the contexts in which they take place. This is articulated in the performance experiment ‘I Am LGB’, commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) and performed over three days, from 18 – 20 August 2016. Developed in collaboration with Dr Langenbach, Lee Mun Wai, Shawn Chua Ming Ren and Bani Haykal, the work questions notions of identity and social as well as existing power structures.

Post-performance, Loo’s studio session will serve as a moment of reflection and discussion on the collaborative development of ‘I Am LGB’ and its reception by the audience.]]>
Loo Zihan]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Institutional Critique]]> Geopolitics]]> Urbanism]]>
The title of the book refers to the framework employed at NTU CCA Singapore in its first cycle of activities, from 2013 to March 2017, which took Singapore, the world’s second-largest trading port and the economic epicentre of Southeast Asia, as a point of departure to investigate the notion of place, the intersection between locality and the global, labour, and flows of capital.

Unfolding across four broad sections of “The Making of an Institution,” “The Geopolitical and the Biophysical,” “Incidental Scripts,” and “Incomplete Urbanism,” this publication reads as an exhibition. Drawing connections across disciplines and merging theory with practice, Place.Labour.Capital. weaves together a constellation of different bodies of materials from essays, poetry, and fiction to artworks and documentation of the Centre’s past exhibitions.

Richly illustrated, the publication brings together the voices of more than 80 contributors, from former Research Fellows such as Tony Godfrey (Philippines), Regina (Maria) Möller (Germany), T. K. Sabapathy (Singapore), Yvonne Spielmann (Germany), to former Artists-in-Residence including Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/United States), Amanda Heng (Singapore), Shooshie Sulaiman (Malaysia), Lee Wen (Singapore), and Yee I-Lann (Malaysia). Other contributions include those from the Centre’s exhibitions and public programmes such as artists, academics, and curators including Amar Kanwar (India), Lee Weng Choy (Malaysia), David Teh (Australia/Singapore), and June Yap (Singapore).

This extensive publication “reminds us that institution building remains enormously significant as a means of opening up new spaces, claims, communities, dialogues, publics, and trajectories for critical artistic practice.” (Felicity D. Scott, Associate Professor Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York)

“Drawing together stories, voices, and thinking by leading artists and academics, Place.Labour.Capital. traces the invention of a remarkable model of an institution. The publication is an inspiration and a valuable tool to anyone trying to find ways of building releveant arts institutions for the future.” (Sally Tallant, Director, Liverpool Biennial)

Place.Labour.Capital. takes a reflective look the art institution, and serves as a means to review the parameters of its own position in the present globalised art world and knowledge-production economies.

The visual concept of the book was conceived by renowned Singapore design firm H55.]]>
Mousse Publishing]]> H55]]> Koh Nguang How]]> Paul Tan]]> Eugene Tan]]> T. K. Sabapathy]]> Khim Ong]]> Fareed Armaly]]> Jesko Fezer]]> Julian "Togar" Abraham]]> Post-Museum]]> Kray Chen]]> Vera Mey]]> Amanda Heng]]> Yan Jun]]> Lee Wen]]> Marc Glöde]]> Jeremy Sharma]]> Heman Chong]]> Shooshie Sulaiman]]> Mona Vătămanu]]> Florin Tudor]]> Hilde Van Gelder]]> UuDam Tran Nguyen]]> James Jack]]> Jegan Vincent de Paul]]> Dennis Tan]]> Erika Tan]]> Regina (Maria) Möller]]> Hamra Abbas]]> Mercedes Vicente]]> Bo Wang]]> Ho Rui An]]> Stefano Harney]]> Arjuna Neuman]]> Bani Haykal]]> Tiffany Chung]]> Amar Kanwar]]> Helena Varkkey]]> Nikos Papastergiadis]]> Saleh Husein]]> Sam Durant]]> June Yap]]> Roslisham "Ise" Ismail]]> Shubigi Rao]]> Guo-Liang Tan]]> Tamara Weber]]> Loo Zihan]]> Zac Langdon-Pole]]> Trinh T. Minh-ha]]> Jompet Kuswidananto]]> Otty Widasari]]> Yvonne Spielmann]]> Mark Nash]]> Arin Rungjang]]> Filipa Ramos]]> Yason Banal]]> Kenneth Dean]]> Yee I-Lann]]> Alex Mawimbi]]> anGie seah]]> Alexandra Murray-Leslie]]> Andrew Johnston]]> Zulkifle Mahmod]]> Newell Harry]]> Jason Wee]]> Anocha Suwichakornpong]]> Shirley Surya]]> Sissel Tolaas]]> Tan Pin Pin]]> SHIMURAbros]]> Etienne Turpin]]> Li Ran]]> Gary-Ross Pastrana]]> Yvonne P. Doderer]]> Matthew Mazzotta]]> Art Labor]]> Xu Tan]]> Weixin Chong]]> Pratchaya Phinthong]]> Marc Glode]]> Mona Vatamanu]]> Regina Moller]]> Publication]]> Asia]]>
The Making Of An Institution A Public Report]]> Artistic Research]]> Curatorial Practice]]> Institutional Critique]]> Knowledge Production]]> The Making Of An Institution Programme Guide]]> åbäke]]> Hamra Abbas]]> Rodolfo Andaur]]> Diana Campbell Betancourt]]> Dinu Bodiciu]]> Kray Chen]]> Chris Chong Chan Fui]]> Heman Chong]]> Renée Staal]]> Weixin Chong]]> Choy Ka Fai]]> Ann Demeester]]> Rosemary Forde]]> Marc Glöde]]> Yuko Hasegawa]]> Bani Haykal]]> Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad]]> Maria Hlavajova]]> Ho Rui An]]> James Jack]]> siren eun young jung]]> Christoph Knoth]]> Koh Nguang How]]> Wilfried Kuehn]]> Bastien von Lehsten]]> Li Ran]]> Loo Zihan]]> Zulkifle Mahmod]]> Ato Malinda]]> Alice Miceli]]> Laura Miotto]]> Regina Möller]]> Arjuna Neuman]]> UuDam Tran Nguyen]]> Nikos Papastergiadis]]> Jegan Vincent de Paul]]> Emily Pethick]]> Thao-Nguyen Phan]]> Souliya Phoumivong]]> Ana Prvački]]> Arin Rungjang]]> anGie seah]]> Jeremy Sharma]]> SHIMURAbros]]> Alec Steadman]]> Sanne Oorthuizen]]> Anocha Suwichakornpong]]> Erika Tan]]> Guo-Liang Tan]]> Tan Pin Pin]]> Philip Tinari]]> John Tirman]]> Mona Vătămanu]]> Florin Tudor]]> Bo Wang]]> Farah Wardani]]> Tamara Weber]]> Jason Wee]]> Otty Widasari]]> abake]]> Marc Glode]]> Regina Moller]]> Mona Vatamanu]]> Ana Prvacki]]> Guide]]> Southeast Asia]]> The Making Of An Institution Exhibition Guide]]> The Making Of An Institution Exhibition Guide]]> åbäke]]> Hamra Abbas]]> Rodolfo Andaur]]> Diana Campbell Betancourt]]> Dinu Bodiciu]]> Kray Chen]]> Chris Chong Chan Fui]]> Heman Chong]]> Renée Staal]]> Weixin Chong]]> Choy Ka Fai]]> Ann Demeester]]> Rosemary Forde]]> Marc Glöde]]> Yuko Hasegawa]]> Bani Haykal]]> Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad]]> Maria Hlavajova]]> Ho Rui An]]> James Jack]]> siren eun young jung]]> Christoph Knoth]]> Koh Nguang How]]> Wilfried Kuehn]]> Bastien von Lehsten]]> Li Ran]]> Loo Zihan]]> Zulkifle Mahmod]]> Ato Malinda]]> Alice Miceli]]> Laura Miotto]]> Regina Möller]]> Arjuna Neuman]]> UuDam Tran Nguyen]]> Nikos Papastergiadis]]> Jegan Vincent de Paul]]> Emily Pethick]]> Thao-Nguyen Phan]]> Souliya Phoumivong]]> Ana Prvački]]> Arin Rungjang]]> anGie seah]]> Jeremy Sharma]]> SHIMURAbros]]> Alec Steadman]]> Sanne Oorthuizen]]> Anocha Suwichakornpong]]> Erika Tan]]> Guo-Liang Tan]]> Tan Pin Pin]]> Philip Tinari]]> John Tirman]]> Mona Vătămanu]]> Florin Tudor]]> Bo Wang]]> Farah Wardani]]> Tamara Weber]]> Jason Wee]]> Otty Widasari]]> abake]]> Marc Glode]]> Renee Staal]]> Ana Prvacki]]> Regina Moller]]> Mona Vatamanu]]> Guide]]> Southeast Asia]]> Archival Practice]]> Cane (2011, 2012), Archiving Cane (2012) and Artists’ General Assembly: The Langenbach Archive (2013), which have stemmed out of specific documentation from the archive. Loo aims to tap into the mostly unexplored parts of the archive, of abstract and informal, day-to-day recordings of memories and incidents. As a nostalgic and intimate reflection on the arts scene of the early to mid­ 1990's in Singapore, Loo will unpack the archival material and return to the medium of an experimental essay film that aims to challenge the boundaries between documentary, fiction and experimental filmmaking.]]> Loo Zihan]]> Film]]> Multimedia Installation]]> Southeast Asia]]> Labour]]> History]]> Loo Zihan]]> Southeast Asia]]> The Making Of An Institution]]> Knowledge Production]]> Cultural Production]]> Institutional Critique]]> Artistic Research]]> The Making of an Institution captures different moments in the development of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) connecting artistic projects, discursive manifestations, and the institutional apparatus in a seamless display. It looks back into its young past in order to shape its future. Challenging the format of an exhibition, The Making of an Institution creates a communal space where projects and research explorations by the Centre’s Artists-, Curators-in- Residence, and Research Fellows coexist with ongoing series of talks, screenings, performances, and workshops. The project engages the Centre’s main pillars–Exhibitions, Residencies, Research and Academic Education – bringing to a close the overarching curatorial narrative Place.Labour.Capital. that served as a framework for its activities since 2013.

Established in 2013, the Centre embodies the complexity of a contemporary art institution in times of knowledge economy and global art. The role of a contemporary art institution should not be limited to the presentation of art. It feeds off and nurtures the cultural ecosystem it belongs to through a complex series of actions that often reside in the realm of the immaterial. The Centre’s inaugural programme Free Jazz addressed the foundational question “What can this institution be?” highlighting the skill of improvisation and free play. Three years later, different questions are to be raised: What could the role of the NTU CCA Singapore be for the years to come within a fast changing local, regional, and global cultural landscape? What are the criteria to evaluate its achievements and impact?

In revisiting its own process of institutional building, NTU CCA Singapore appropriates the format and language of a “public report”. While a public report is conventionally employed to deliver an official written narrative, the Centre’s report unfolds in the exhibition space through the languages of the performative, the discursive, and the archival.

“It’s amazing how far we were able to come in just three years,” said Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore. “The Making of an Institution is a celebration of the international community we have built, including scholars, artists, and the public. Now it is time for us to reflect and analyse our achievements before the exciting next steps ahead.”

The Making of an Institution is divided into four sections borrowed from the structure of a public report: Reason to Exist: The Director’s Review; Ownership, Development, and Aspirations; Artistic Research; and Communication and Mediation. The first section, Reason to Exist: The Director’s Review maps out a network of institutions, like NTU CCA Singapore, that place research at the core of their identity. Each guest director will closely examine the vision, mission, and operative model of her respective organisation in a series of talks aimed at deepening our understanding of the changing role of contemporary cultural institutions. Ownership, Development, and Aspirations is a public panel with several members of the NTU CCA Singapore’s International Advisory Board and its stakeholders representatives that stresses the importance of feedback and exchange among peers especially in the development phase of an institution. The section dedicated to Artistic Research frames the material and immaterial aspects that constitute contemporary art practices. It takes over the Centre’s physical Spaces of the Curatorial—The Exhibition Hall, The Single Screen, The Lab, and The Vitrine—juxtaposing artworks and research projects by NTU CCA Singapore’s Artists-, Curators-in- Residence, and Research Fellows alongside various formats of public programming. Finally, Communication and Mediation explores the production of an institution’s identity through visual communication and spatial practices. Through workshops and presentations, artists, architects, and designers will discuss how they create diverse visual and spatial identities for art institutions.

The public report will culminate into a book planned for publication in mid-2017, gathering the voices of all the artists, curators, researchers, and academics who have contributed to this first phase of the Centre. The Making of an Institution is curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies, and Anca Rujoiu, Manager, Publications.]]>
åbäke]]> Hamra Abbas]]> Rodolfo Andaur]]> Diana Campbell Betancourt]]> Dinu Bodiciu]]> Kray Chen]]> Chris Chong Chan Fui]]> Heman Chong]]> Renée Staal]]> Weixin Chong]]> Choy Ka Fai]]> Ann Demeester]]> Rosemary Forde]]> Marc Glöde]]> Yuko Hasegawa]]> Bani Haykal]]> Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad]]> Maria Hlavajova]]> Ho Rui An]]> James Jack]]> siren eun young jung]]> Christoph Knoth]]> Koh Nguang How]]> Wilfried Kuehn]]> Bastian von Lehsten]]> Li Ran]]> Loo Zihan]]> Zulkifle Mahmod]]> Ato Malinda]]> Alice Miceli]]> Laura Miotto]]> Regina Möller]]> Arjuna Neuman]]> UuDam Tran Nguyen]]> Nikos Papastergiadis]]> Jegan Vincent de Paul]]> Emily Pethick]]> Thao-Nguyen Phan]]> Souliya Phoumivong]]> Ana Prvački]]> Arin Rungjang]]> anGie seah]]> Jeremy Sharma]]> SHIMURAbros]]> Alec Steadman]]> Sanne Oorthuizen]]> Anocha Suwichakornpong]]> Erika Tan]]> Guo-Liang Tan]]> Tan Pin Pin]]> Philip Tinari]]> John Tirman]]> Mona Vătămanu]]> Florin Tudor]]> Bo Wang]]> Farah Wardani]]> Tamara Weber]]> Jason Wee]]> Otty Widasari]]> abake]]> Reee Staal]]> Marc Glode]]> Regina Moller]]> Ana Prvacki]]> Installation]]> Film]]> Print]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Stagings. Soundings. Readings. Free Jazz II]]> Body]]> Performance]]> Identity]]> Institutional Critique]]> Stagings. Soundings. Readings. Free Jazz II reviews the performative format that marked NTU CCA Singapore’s inauguration in 2013. Free Jazz 2013 was a series of talks and performances where participants of various disciplines were invited to imagine and envision a new institution and its potential. On its five-year anniversary, the Centre continues advocating for free spaces, celebrating the practice of improvisation, as well as of collective and performative approaches. Discussing ethical values with an expanded sense of community, territorial, and environmental concerns, Stagings. Soundings. Readings. employs an open, multidisciplinary structure that challenges traditional modes of presentation and re-presentation through a range of artistic practices and formats.

Situated within a complex and contemporary understanding of the Centre’s current overarching research topic CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS., the featured works link theory and practice, emphasising collectiveness. Today, the planet is witnessing a moment of unprecedented loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, and cultural transformations. In the face of such agitated times juxtaposed with advanced communicative tools, contemporary social and environmental issues require responses from a collective body, through establishing processes of instigation, negotiation, and collaboration.

Can we learn from what we see as opposed to being merely seduced by images, becoming active participants instead of only passive observers? Stagings. Soundings. Readings. is an enactment between the artists and the audience. The invited artists engage with a less prescribed environment, reflecting on history, collective action, and human interaction.

Located outside the Centre, Maria Loboda‘s sculptural installation is grounded in historical narratives as a reminder that things can change and be taken down overnight, especially by the invisible mechanisms of power. In the Centre’s foyer, Tyler Coburn addresses forms of labour and examines the notion of writing in the 21st century by engaging with complexities of our legal, technological, and geopolitical networks, while Heman Chong analyses motifs of exchange and its boundaries, embracing the space of inter-human connections.

Unfolding in the exhibition space, Cally Spooner brings to Singapore an exercise in building new vocabulary and knowledge through bodily means. Using the space as a laboratory, the work investigates new ways of organising and working together. Alexandra Pirici’s choreography explores the possibility of collectively assembling memories of human and non-human presence on the planet. Carlos Casas presents his long-term multi-format ethnographic research based on the human ecology and richness of one of the world’s highest inhabited villages, Hichigh, located in the Pamir mountain range in Tajikistan. Together with composer Phill Niblock, they will create an audio-visual experience, traversing landscape, soundscape, and contemporary music that changes with every iteration.

In response to the five-year anniversary and by taking the topic of its celebration Free Jazz literally, Ming Wong will stage an improvisational performance. Similarly, Boris Nieslony (Germany), Co-founder of the artist collective Black Market International, will engage with pioneering Singaporean artist Lee Wen with a discussion and performance.

Further probing conventional formats, the accompanying programmes include readings by curator Anca Rujoiu (Romania/Singapore) and poets Peter Sipeli and 1angrynative (both Fiji), as well as Behind the Scenes conversations with contributing artists. In The Single Screen, works by Anton Ginzburg (Russia/United States), Mariana Silva (Portugal/United States), Luke Fowler (United Kingdom), Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra (both Philippines/Australia), and others, will add a filmic perspective to the dialogue.

This multitude of celebratory events instigates an active engagement with the now, following a conscious desire to become truly present.

Curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, and Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach and Education, NTU CCA Singapore.]]>
Heman Chong]]> Maria Loboda]]> Cally Spooner]]> Maggie Segale]]> Jesper List Thomsen]]> Tyler Coburn]]> Richard Roe]]> Carlos Casas]]> Phill Niblock]]> Ming Wong]]> Alexandra Pirici]]> Ying Cai]]> Weixin Chong]]> Chloe Chotrani]]> Nina Djekic]]> Farid Fairuz]]> Adam Lau]]> Je Leung]]> Loo Zihan]]> Yue Ru Ma]]> Hanna Mikosch]]> Yulin Ng]]> Rachel Nip]]> Isabel Phua]]> Jamil Schulze]]> Performance]]> Sound]]> Installation]]> Asia]]>