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SEA AiR
Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists
in the European Union
Saroot
Supasuthivech
Thailand
Cycle 2
Priyageetha Dia
Singapore
Ngoc Nau
Vietnam
Künstlerhaus
Bethanien
Berlin
Jan van Eyck
Academie
Maastricht
Rupert
Vilnius
PASSAGES
1 December 2023
– 28 January 2024
�Welcome to the second exhibition of SEA AiR (Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian
artists in the EU) at Gillman Barracks. I am delighted to experience with you here the
works of three artists in the second cycle of SEA AiR: Priyageetha Dia (Singapore –
residency at Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands); Ngoc Nau (Vietnam – residency
at Rupert, Lithuania) and Saroot Supasuthivech (Thailand – residency at Künstlerhaus
Bethanien, Germany).
Through the second cycle of SEA AiR – a made-in-Singapore programme – we deepen
our ties with Singapore in line with the EU Global Gateway initiative. Global Gateway
connects people, goods and services around the world in sustainable ways. SEA AiR
was launched jointly by EU Delegation to Singapore and NTU Centre for Contemporary
Art Singapore and celebrates people-to-people connectivity and diversity. We started
the project in 2022 when the EU and ASEAN commemorated the 45th anniversary of
our partnership. It is only fitting that we conclude the second cycle in another landmark
year, on this occasion for EU-Singapore relations, since 2024 marks 20 years of the
establishment of the EU Delegation to Singapore.
For me, experiencing the art in this truly inspiring project is a journey. This is reflected
in the exhibition title: Passages, referencing the artists’ journeys across geographical
Foreword
Iwona Piórko
Ambassador of the
European Union
to Singapore
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 the thought-provoking artworks you see in this exhibition.
Through SEA AiR we drive further the development of Southeast Asia’s contemporary
art scene and the initiative serves also as a springboard for dialogue between European
art institutions and Southeast Asian artists. These established European art institutions
have a long history of running residency programmes and offered the artists a threemonth residency and an opportunity to create new works, inspired by their experiences,
engagements, dialogues and interactions with the public in Europe. In the current geopolitical context, they experienced too the narratives dominating the European political
and social landscape.
Art is not just a powerful tool for sharing stories and emotions. It helps also shine a light
on our world in creative ways. Together with art lovers from the region and beyond, I am
looking forward to seeing how travels, cultural exchanges and the realities shaping our
world have impacted and shaped the art practices of talented artists Priyageetha Dia,
Ngoc Nau and Saroot Supasuthivech.
Ngoc Nau at the Berlin Wall Memorial, Germany,
May 2023. Photograph by Hong Nhung.
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I wish all the artists a successful exhibition filled with conversations, ideas and exchanges.
�I am honoured to host at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA
Singapore), SEA AiR—Studio Residencies in the European Union for Southeast
Asian Artists, developed and curated by NTU CCA Singapore and supported by the
European Delegation (EU) to Singapore. This residency aims to enrich artistic creativity
and foster cross-cultural exchanges and collaboration across cultural and geographical
boundaries. This year marks the 10th anniversary of our Centre and to date, we have
hosted nearly 100 local and Southeast Asian artists in our in-house Residencies
Programme. SEA AiR extends our Centre’s commitment to support artists in their
artistic research and creative enquiry beyond the region, through host institutions
in Europe.
Now into its second cycle, SEA AiR oversaw the residencies of Priyageetha Dia
(Singapore), Ngoc Nau (Vietnam) and Saroot Supasuthivech (Thailand) at three new
partner institutions: Jan van Eyck Academie (Netherlands), Rupert (Lithuania) and
Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Germany) through the summer. What surprisingly transpired
from this geographical translocation is the discovery by each artist of elements of
their own culture embedded in another. Their exhibition Passages, which reflects
this journey of travel and discovery, follows after the Cycle 1 exhibition New Works,
presented at our Centre during Singapore Art Week 2023, featuring artists Hoo Fan
Ute Meta Bauer
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, NTU School of Art,
Design and Media
Director’s Welcome
and Social Sciences. Also to the tireless work of our Centre’s team, particularly
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Assistant Director of Programmes, who led SEA AiR fastidiously
with curatorial acumen through its first and second cycles, and Tian Lim, the curator
of Passages; as well as our former staff members Dr Karin Oen, Peter Lin and Maggie
Yin, who have contributed significantly to the development of SEA AiR. Of course,
not forgetting Hicham Khalidi, Director of Jan Van Eyck Academie; Viktorija Šiaulytė,
Director, and Monika Lipšic, Curator of the Residency and Public Programmes, Rupert;
and Christoph Tannert, Artistic Director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien; for being our
partners in the programme.
Chon (Malaysia), Citra Sasmita (Indonesia) and Vuth Lyno (Cambodia). We are pleased
that each one of them has gone on to receive commissions and invitations for work
beyond the region, and we wish the very same for our current SEA AiR artists.
These SEA AiR exhibitions in Singapore provide artists not only an opportunity to
engage with the wider arts community, but also completes each cycle; demonstrating
the facilitation of building cultural bridges and opening up new possibilities and
collaborations for the artists.
Such a multi-institutional, transnational partnership would not have been possible
without the funding by EU Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) and the
efforts of many. Once again, we would like to extend our gratitude to H.E. Iwona
Piórko, EU Ambassador to Singapore, for her trust in and passion for this project and
Deepika Shetty, Press Officer at the EU Delegation to Singapore, for her enduring
support throughout this whole time. Also to Paolo Zingale (former Head) and Michel
Mouchiroud (former Deputy Head) of the FPI Regional Team Asia & Pacific for
their patient guidance during the implementation of SEA AiR. My special thanks to
Nanyang Technological University; Professor Tim White, Vice President (International
Engagement) and Professor Joseph Liow, Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts,
I would like to end with my sincere gratitude to the three participating artists. It is
through their inquiries and resulting art works that we are able to see different facets of
life in Europe and to discover what we might not be aware of. Thank you for that!
2
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Priyageetha Dia’s visit to Pony Club Maastricht,
Netherlands, June 2023.
�Taking black feminist theorist Tina M. Campt’s approach of “engaging the
sonic frequencies of photographs”1 (which Dia explains in our interview that
follows), she has opted for low-frequency speakers to project the sound, so that
it can also be “felt”. On opposite sides of the walls, the phrases “Whirring
Forces” and “Humming Fields” reinforce the haptic quality of low,
continuous sounds. The imageries of these sounds come to mind, bringing
us full circle to reimagining the memories, stories and histories of humans
and other species that have been suppressed, dismissed or forgotten.
Hailing from Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, Priyageetha Dia, Ngoc
Nau and Saroot Supasuthivech were selected for SEA AiR by a Selection
Committee based on their own merits and art practice, without any
consideration for a collective curatorial focus for the end-of-residency
exhibition. Dia has been investigating the past and present lives of rubber
plantations as a point of departure for uncovering power structures
and dominance. Nau, concerned with the rapid urban development in
her country and its social and environmental impact, had planned to
look at her host country’s experience. Supasuthivech’s interest lies in
uncovering unwritten narratives of histories, through the understanding
of spiritual beliefs and ceremonial traditions; particularly those sur
rounding death. Despite having knowledge of their research focus, it
was not clear what their final artworks for the exhibition would be, but
this is one of the exciting things about an artist residency programme.
We did not know what to expect, what discoveries the artists would
make, and what surprises await them. The exhibition title Passages,
borrowed from German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s Passagenwerk
(The Arcades Project, 1982), refers to the “passage” the artists have
embarked on for SEA AiR. During this journey, they would have assumed
the role of a “flâneur”: strolling through the streets, observing—and
During her residency in Lithuania, Ngoc Nau visited Grūtas Park, some
120 km away from Vilnius, the capital. An outdoor sculpture garden,
museum, (mini) zoo and playground all in one, Grūtas Park is known for its
collection of Soviet-era monuments, including statues of Communist leaders,
dismantled and abandoned when Lithuania broke away from the Soviet
Union in 1990. The removal of one such Lenin statue from the central
square in Vilnius—without his legs, became emblazoned and celebrated as a
symbol of freedom. As Grūtas Park acknowledges, therein lies a deep-seated
dilemma about these sculptures, representative of the trauma sustained
under the Soviet ideology: destroy or preserve? Nau’s encounters with these
monuments, including Soviet-era architecture, reminded her of her own
Tian Lim
Exhibition Curator
Notes about the Exhibition
country. It prompted her inquiry into what meanings such symbols hold for
the younger generation in Vietnam, where a 5.2 metre-high Lenin statue on
a 2.7 metre-high pedestal in a park in central Hanoi stands, commemorated
every 7th of November on the anniversary of the Russian October Revolution.
In her essay Lenin Park that accompanies Nau’s video work, Phuong Phan, a
Berlin-based Vietnamese researcher and writer, reflects on the significance
of Soviet Russia’s gift of the Lenin statue to Vietnam, the meanings the
leader holds for the country and her people, and the profound complexities
of his legacy. Separately, when Nau visited the “Runde Ecke” Memorial
Museum during her field trip to Leipzig, Germany, she learnt that formerly
classified documents were destroyed in a grinder and mixed with soil after
the fall of the Soviet Union. This, together with the knowledge of how
craftsmen in Vietnam use papier mâché to make artisanal masks for the
Mid-Autumn Festival, inspired her to build her own projection screen
using the same technique. The newspapers Nau collects get repurposed for
a new experience after being soaked in water, mashed in a grinder, then
mixed with glue to be moulded for the screen used in this exhibition.
more—experiencing, participating in and contributing to kaleidoscopic
exchanges that take place in the process. Their cultural experiences
would in turn, shape the ideas for this exhibition.
Dia’s field trip to Sónar, an annual festival in Barcelona, Spain, that
celebrates innovation in music, digital arts and creative technology, was a
defining moment for her in the exploration of sound not only as a medium
or conduit for presentation, but also as the metaphoric narrative itself. She
also made a trip to a rubber and oil palm plantation at Alor Gajah, a town
in Melaka, Malaysia. The field recordings taken on this trip as research
reference captured mainly the sounds of machinery, seemingly for the
expansion of the plantation and its resort, and cicadas. Upon her return,
her eventual proposal for this exhibition moved away completely from the
moving image, which has been the main mode of expression in her recent
practice. Departing from this familiarity and focusing solely on sound
as her artwork, a first for Dia, has been for her, as she shared, intimidating;
and no doubt a challenging process. This process entailed “watching”
and “listening to” archival photographs of palm oil and rubber tree planta
tions in Sumatra from the album of Sumatra Caoutchouc Company, an
Amsterdam and Brussels-based rubber planting company founded in 1907.
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Among the many discoveries that influenced Saroot Supasuthivech’s work
for this exhibition, those at the Berlin State Library in Germany can be
�1
Campt, Tina. “Introduction.” In Listening to
Images. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.
considered critical: the original editions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, first
published as Children’s and Household Tales (1812–15) and the archives
of Simon de la Loubère (1642–1729), a French envoy to Siam (Thailand)
in the 17th century. Compared to the versions that we read as children,
the original Grimm stories are twisted and gory, but it is the diverse
voices, traditional beliefs and fantastical darkness featured in them that
fascinated the artist. This led to him exploring historical sites such as the
Fountain of Fairytales, which is adorned with characters from the fairy
tales (interestingly, the scarier ones have gone missing) and the Old St.
Matthew’s Churchyard, where the gravesites of the Grimm Brothers lie.
Supasuthivech has always been drawn to cemeteries. They, as he shares
in our interview, offer him “not only respite but also unexpected sparks
of inspiration”. Apart from incorporating these sites and Grimm’s story
telling approach in his work, the etchings in this exhibition are also
inspired by the printmaking technique used for illustrations in Grimm’s
subsequent editions.
2
Ruangkham, Theeraphong. “Crossing the
Sithandon River of the ‘Sai Samon’: From the
Court of Versailles to the Royal Crematorium in
the reign of King Rama IX.” THE STANDARD,
October 26, 2017. https://thestandard.co/
a-siamese-song-say-samon/#.
3
Eiland, Howard, and Kevin McLaughlin, trans.
“Translators’ Foreword.” In The Arcades Project,
ix. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 1999.
From Simon de la Loubère’s chronicles, Supasuthivech found a manuscript
of the song Sai Samon (A Siamese Song) from the 17th century. Its
300-year history, a cyclic journey spanning three oceans, three palaces
and nine Thai dynasties, is said to have originated from the Royal Court
of Versailles, under King Louis XIV’s reign, in 1686. Made aware of the
song from the chronicles when he visited France on his first trip to
Europe, His Majesty King Chulalongkorn, King Rama V (1868–1910), had it
arranged as a piano piece for the Thai royal anthem. Since then, the song
has undergone transformations and used for diverse occasions, from a
title song for a Thai movie in 1941 to a requiem for the royal cremation
ceremony of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2017.2 Both Kings
had also gifted Sala Thais (open pavilions), a century apart from each
other, to the spa town of Bad Homburg, Germany, where Supasuthivech
visited and filmed for his work.
Despite the artists’ unique residency experiences and distinct research
topics and practice, each of them has taken a speculative approach to
the presentation of their research and inquiries, employing fiction as a
way to look at historical lapses; the “‘refuse’ and ‘detritus’ of history”.3
In reimagining realities, their works explore liminal spaces between the
historical and contemporary; past and present; real and imagined. As
meanings get deconstructed and recontextualised, the interplay between
individual and collective remembrances across diverse cultures opens
up new explorations and possibilities in perceiving complex (inter)relation
ships. As audience, we also become participants of this “passage”
when we draw our own connections from what Benjamin terms as
“constellations”—an approach in understanding and relating to disparate
elements in a non-linear but more holistic manner.
Above:
Polaroid photographs of Saroot Supasuthivech,
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany,
March 2023. Photograph by the artist.
Following page from top:
Priyageetha Dia in her studio at Jan van Eyck
Academie, Maastricht, Netherlands, April 2023.
Portrait of Ngoc Nau in a CGI-generated landscape,
May 2023.
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Saroot Supasuthivech in Berlin, Germany, May 2023.
Photograph by Sareena Sattapon.
�An Interview with
A PASSAGE
Tian Lim: Could you share your first
impressions of your host city or your
most memorable memory there? For Priya
and Nau, this was your first trip to the
Netherlands and Lithuania respectively;
while for Saroot, what was different for
you this time, having been in Berlin once
prior to this residency?
Priyageetha Dia: In Maastricht, one is
immediately struck by the historic appeal
of the city with its narrow winding cobblestone pavements and medieval architecture. Even the ambience of the air differs significantly when I was transferring
from Schiphol Airport; it’s even more
distinct and crisp, especially when standing in the middle of St Servatius Bridge
where the Meuse River flows beneath.
The city itself is constantly punctuated by
the sound of bicycles, which is a quint
essential mode of local transportation in
the Netherlands. And what’s even better
than the smell of fresh shawarma? There
are even gado-gado fries. Seeing tulips
around kind of provided a charm against
the grey infrastructures even though it’s
not native to the country. A facet of this
city’s social culture is witnessing locals
congregating, soaking up a tan in the
afternoon sun and drinking jenever. As
banal as it sounds, for me laying on the
grass with a book and a takeaway coffee
or even taking a stroll through the forests
of Sint Pietersberg was one of the pleasant memories for me.
Priyageetha Dia
Ngoc Nau
Saroot Supasuthivech
Ngoc Nau: My first impressions of
Vilnius were shaped by its architecture,
fresh air, green spaces and the overall
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peace and quiet. One particular memory
that stands out is when I was wandering
around the city and the architectural
design of Sporto Rūmai (Vilnius Palace
of Concerts and Sports) triggered a sense
of familiarity, almost like a distant memory from Vietnam.
Saroot Supasuthivech: My first trip
to Berlin in 2018 was akin to a brief
introductory course to the city’s artistic
milieu, made possible by an award from
the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre. The
experience was enriching but brief, providing just an exciting glimpse of Berlin’s
multi-faceted art scene. Fast forward to
my second visit, the narrative changed
dramatically. This extended sojourn
allowed a deeper engagement with the
city’s artistic landscape. I had the bandwidth to delve into intricate projects and
form valuable connections within the
art community. Beyond the scope of art,
the residency also served as a playground
for personal growth. I even picked up
cooking as an essential life skill—my own
creative venture in the kitchen, if you will.
How has your impression changed during
the residency and what transpired in the
process to change that?
PD: The sensorial characteristics of
Maastricht were later shaped by the
connections I came to build within the
residency itself. This was through some
of the communal activities, particularly
the weekly Wednesday dinners, where
we would take turns to cook for other
staff and residents. It’s definitely
OF DISCOVERIES
�stressful cooking for over 40 people.
I engaged in conversations with some
of the visiting advisors such as Ahmet
Öğüt and Marina Otero. I also had the
opportunity to attend a session organised by Jan van Eyck for The Decolonial
Summer School and joined the conversation alongside prominent decolonial thinkers and writers such as Jean
Casimir and Catherine E. Walsh, which
was a profound experience. Also, my
interest in working with sound was significantly amplified through interactions
with one of the residents, Sumugan
Sivanesan, who operates fugitive radio.
His guidance laid the foundation for my
understanding of sound work. This also
led to me playing my first DJ set in a bar
in Maastricht, which honestly felt out of
place but I got used to it after playing on
several other occasions.
NN: My impression underwent a significant transformation as I delved deeper
into the local stories through conversations with residents and exploring
the town. I came to realise that the
seemingly serene and green landscape,
along with the historic architecture,
held hidden layers of sad history. Some
streets, as I learnt, concealed the
sombre history of buried bodies from
a bygone era. The ageing Soviet-era
buildings, where many locals still reside
in, cast a shadow of boredom and
melancholy, remnants of the past Soviet
influence.
Understanding the people was
another aspect of my experience that
evolved. I noticed that the locals exhibited caution in their interactions, and it
wasn’t as easy to engage with them as
I had initially thought. This is in contrast
with my home country, where strangers
are often warmly received and invited
into locals’ homes as soon as they smile
and try to interact. Nevertheless I really
appreciated the unique social dynamics
in Vilnius.
aspects of Berlin have inspired me to
explore art forms that I had never con
sidered before.
Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven;
Tropenmuseum, Rijksmuseum and Eye
Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
SS: Initially, my impression of Berlin
was mixed. The city’s raw, unpolished
vibe was intriguing but also somewhat
off-putting. However, my three-month
residency transformed that perception
entirely. The turning point came when
I participated in a community art project
at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. This project
made me realise how deeply integrated
art is in Berlin’s social fabric, serving
as a platform for dialogue and cultural
exchange. It was eye-opening. My
What was a typical day like for you
during the residency? Did you have a
fixed routine for regular days, a planned
schedule to cover specific sites or events, or
did you take a more laissez-faire approach
of allowing each day to surprise you?
Saroot Supasuthivech filming in Bad Homburg,
Germany, May 2023. Photograph by Pitchayapa
Lueangtawikit.
Ngoc Nau at Grūtas Park, Lithuania, June 2023.
Photograph by Ania.
subsequent interactions with the Thai
community in Thaipark Berlin and other
Thai artists residing in Berlin enriched
my experience further. Each group
offered unique insights that expanded
my understanding of the city from
various angles, enabling me to appreciate Berlin’s diversity and openness.
As a result, my view on Berlin shifted
from initial skepticism to deep-seated
respect and admiration. This newfound
perspective is likely to influence my
future projects; the multidimensional
a balance between establishing a routine
and planning my visits to art events and
exhibitions. Most of the events I engaged
with came highly recommended by my
other resident peers and the advisors from
Jan van Eyck. These recommendations
were often exchanged during informal
conversations over dinners, which
played a part in shaping my cultural
engagements during those three months.
Some of these include going to the
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, an international
performing arts festival in Brussels;
NN: A typical day during my residency
followed a somewhat structured routine.
I would usually wake up around 7am,
prepare breakfast along with a cup of
coffee, then head to my studio by 9am.
Throughout the day, I’d take short breaks
to do some yoga or walk from the
residency to the city centre. Cooking
became a regular activity for me; I often
prepared meals that reminded me of
Vietnam and experimented with local
ingredients. I also enjoyed cooking for
friends I made during the residency.
In terms of planning, I always made
sure to prepare before leaving my studio.
The residency building is a bit far from the
city centre, requiring a journey of about
an hour by bus, with a few bus transfers
along the way. On weekends, I particularly
liked visiting the flea market in the city
centre, although I sometimes missed it
since it mainly operated in the mornings.
This flea market took place on the streets
in front of a local market, nestled in a less
affluent area. What intrigued me was the
interactions between local vendors, their
unique merchandise and their attire.
It was like stepping into a piece of local
history, as with Vietnam, where the
elderly often stay at home, tending to
their grandchildren. Exploring the flea
market was a fascinating way to glimpse
into people’s homes. The vendors’ array
of items, seemingly collected from their
households, often held sentimental value
and each piece seemed to reflect a part of
the past. I found it captivating to encounter
such an assortment of little things that
were found items in people’s homes, ready
to be shared with the world through the
market. It felt like a personal journey
through the lives of the local community.
PD: For the first few weeks, I had to
adjust to the longer daylight hours, with
the sun setting after 9pm during the summer months. I adopted a more laid-back
approach to my studio days, trying to find
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�my research as the pavilion serves as a
microcosm of Thai history and culture.
The experience afforded me the chance
to delve into previously unexplored
facets of Thai artistic and cultural heri
tage, enriching my ongoing work. The
trip served as a catalyst for new ideas,
helping me forge connections between
the historical context of the area and my
existing research, thereby adding layers
of complexity and depth to my practice.
SS: Each day typically started with
a loose agenda in mind. I spent the
mornings immersed in research, either
by exploring libraries or engaging in
insightful dialogues at local temples.
My afternoons were generally devoted
to fieldwork and hands-on artistic
experimentation. Although I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish
each day, I also welcomed spontaneity.
Whether it was a captivating film festival
poster that grabbed my attention or an
unexpected invitation to a social gathering, I remained open to diversions that
enriched my experience. When I felt
the need to recharge or reflect, I would
seek time out by aimlessly wandering
through nearby cemeteries. These quiet
moments offered not only respite but
also unexpected sparks of inspiration.
During our first meeting in August upon
your return from Europe, it was already
apparent that the sound component in
your work would be of significant importance. At which point of your residency did
this idea come about, and what led to it?
The SEA AiR programme offers a
research trip to a different city or
country in Europe to enrich your
research and cultural experience.
How did you decide on where to go
and how has the trip helped you in
your practice or research?
Screenshot of Participant Presentation by
Priyageetha Dia at Jan van Eyck Academie,
24 May 2023.
PD: I decided to go to Sónar Barcelona
which is a sound, music, and techno
logy festival in Spain. I was drawn to this
event because it has a strong focus on
the intersections of new media, and AI
in audiovisual production, especially
sound. For me it was a space to acquire
insights from keynote speeches and
presentations that explored the latest
trends, developments and applications
of these emerging technologies.
However, the understanding of these
productions and the knowledge(s)
around it was still focused within a
eurocentric framework. There was an
implicit bias towards Western perspectives on music, art, and technology
which highlights a broader issue within
the industry—the lack of visibility for
non-Western methods of producing in
the digital arts sphere.
In progressing my research for Sap
Sonic, I took on a 3-day trip to a rubber
plantation estate in Alor Gajah, Melaka,
with the primary objective of collecting
field recordings that were relevant to the
soundscapes of the plantations. But during the process, I sort of experienced a
disconcerting moment of ‘triangulation.’
I became aware of the underlying colonial dynamics in the interplay between
self, the recording technology and the
environment. In the end, I decided not
to use any of these field recordings but
instead focused more on repurposing
sampled sounds and stock audio effects,
probing the question: How can we reimagine the aural possibilities of a plantation
that transcends the conventional and the
historically known?
NN: I opted for a field trip to Berlin
and Leipzig due to their historical ties
with the Soviet Union. Germany has a
deep-rooted connection with Lithuania
that extends to the present day. Many
Lithuanians study in Germany, while
Germans venture to Lithuania for work,
research and artistic endeavours.
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SS: I chose to explore the Thai pavilion
in Bad Homburg, situated about an
hour’s drive from Frankfurt. This choice
was deeply instrumental in furthering
PD: Focusing exclusively on soundscapes
has been sort of a challenge for me.
The approach to my practice has predominantly been saturated with visual
elements, and this development has been a
deliberate shift from the visual dominance
in my practice. Understanding sound not
merely as a method of production, but as
a narrative tool that is capable of illuminating the obscure and amplifying the
subdued. This is also an influence from
Tina M. Campt’s Listening to Images (2017)
in which she proposes a method of engaging with photographs that goes beyond
seeing. To sense the resonance and vibration of the photographs is by “listening” to
these images—attuning them to the stories
and histories embedded in them, especially
within Black subjectivity and agency.
NN: While working on my videos,
I gradually realised the importance of
sound as a crucial element. However,
during my research trip in Lithuania,
I didn’t give sound as much attention as
I should have. I did attempt to locate
sound artists in the hope of incorporating
�their work into my project, but my
search didn’t yield the desired results.
Consequently, I decided to collaborate
with my Vietnamese sound producer,
whom I have worked with on previous
video projects. The sound concept
revolves around a foundation of hip-hop
with elements of deconstruction and
reconstruction, creating a distinct vibe
that complements my work.
SS: This focus on the sound component in my work is not accidental; it
evolved from my time in Europe and a
deep dive into the history of music. My
fascination with sound as an artistic
medium began during the first month
of my residency. I attended a screening
of Berlin: Symphony of a Great City,
a 1920 silent film by Director Walter
Ruttmann, and its original orchestra
music score resonated deeply with
me. This newfound interest coincided
with my research at the Thai pavilion
and into King Chulalongkorn’s visits to
Europe. I discovered a rich intersection
between Thai and European cultural
elements, especially in the realm of
music. I explored the concept of music
in German Romanticism and traditional
Thai culture as a universal language,
transcending both geographical and historical boundaries as well as the barriers
of language and geography. The interplay between the two disparate musical
traditions became a harmonious bridge
in my work, illuminating the power of
sound to communicate across cultures
and epochs. This synthesis became
more than just a soundtrack; it became
a vehicle for delivering the themes and
emotions central to my artistic inquiry.
I would like to ask about the notion of the
supernatural and divinity and the adaptation of mythology in your past projects.
NN: During my research trip in Lithuania,
I didn’t place a strong focus on the supernatural and divinity, even though they
have been central themes in my previous
works. Prior to my residency, I had contemplated delving into these topics, but
my perspective shifted upon arriving in
Lithuania. The presence of these themes
wasn’t as apparent, and I found myself
being more intrigued by the post-Soviet
phenomenon, particularly through the lens
of architectural elements within the city.
To what extent do such elements play a
part in your works this time?
PD: My previous works have dealt
with themes around mythology but my
approach to Sap Sonic and Sap Script
looks at the role of the archive as a
place or space of haunting in reference
to Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology. This theory posits that the present
is perpetually haunted by the spectres
of its past, suggesting that the past is
Barbeque with artists from Rupert during their trip
to Zeimiai Manor House, Lithuania, June 2023.
Photograph by Ngoc Nau.
Weekly Wednesday dinners hosted by the residents
of Jan van Eyck Academie, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
April 2023. Photograph by Priyageetha Dia.
never truly obsolete but that it continues
to exert its influence on both our present
and future. From this perspective,
Sap Sonic transforms the archive from
a dormant repository of the past into a
vibrant, living entity. The documents and
images within are imbued with a ghostly
presence, serving as active agents in
shaping narratives and histories. For
me, it is a way to depart from the visual
and into the unheard, sonic qualities;
to unearth and speculate the range of
frequencies these images hold and to
re-evaluate our understanding of history,
memory and time, intertwined with the
past, present and future through these
aural possibilities.
SS: In Spirit-forward in G Major, the
elements of the supernatural and divinity
are more pronounced than in my previous projects. This choice stems from my
interest in how Thai expatriates preserve
their cultural rituals when they pass away
in foreign lands. This theme opens a rich
dialogue about the fluidity and adaptability of traditions and values. As rituals
change, so do beliefs, which can influence
individual behaviour and societal norms.
Places of communal spiritual importance like temples also resonate with me.
These sites serve as anchors for traditions
and beliefs, both physically and spiritually.
Similarly, my work explores spaces that
hold both historical and spiritual value,
14
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including stories of lesser-known or
marginalised communities, presented
through contemporary mediums like
sound and new media art.
In your research and work, each of you
explore the fluidity of culture and the ongoing negotiation of values that takes place in
the process of crossing over space and time,
albeit in very different ways and to varying
extents. What about your own experience
over the three-month residency period?
Despite its short duration, you also had to
immerse yourself in an unfamiliar culture
and may undergo a similar process of
apprehension/excitement; discovery/challenges; adaptation/resignation etc—how has
the experience impacted your practice in
general, or you, on a more personal level?
PD: Navigating the cultural spaces within
this predominantly white, European
setting was a challenge, even when I left.
It took me nearly a month to settle in and
establish a routine that suited me. Some
of the frustrations were managing daily
expenses, given the relatively high cost of
living—a basic meal at McDonald’s costs
13 euros. Even finding well-seasoned,
affordable food and then facing the ultimate moment of passive aggressiveness
for not speaking Dutch were part of the
experience. I managed to remember the
local way of greeting “hoi hoi”, which is
common in the province of Limburg.
One of the other observations was a clear
geographic segregation within Maastricht,
with the locals and the ethnic migrant
communities living apart—the further
from the town centre, the greater
the concentration of black and brown
population on the outskirts. This spatial
division mirrored broader social, class
divisions and racial hierarchies which is
a reminder of the current socio-cultural
fabric in Europe.
�NN: Throughout the residency I have
been adaptable and have remained
open to different perspectives. Sharing
meals and cooking together became a
means of fostering meaningful connections with people. One valuable lesson
I learnt is the importance of careful
planning in advance, especially when
it comes to managing time and scheduling for the creative process. Additionally,
I realised the significance of thorough
documentation, as the information
gathered during the residency proved
to be invaluable for presenting and
shaping the ideas behind my project.
Vilnius not only offered me glimpses
of the past but also underscored my
vision for the future of Vietnam. Cultural
differences between Lithuania and
Vietnam gave me a realisation of what
I value in my country and what changes
I wish for in my country.
SS: The three-month residency was
a transformative period for me, functioning as a lens through which I could
explore the larger themes of cultural fluidity and changing values that frequently
inhabit my work. The initial hesitations
I felt were quickly counterbalanced by
the excitement of fresh artistic discoveries. Although language barriers and
logistical challenges were part of the
experience, they also became stepping
stones for personal and artistic growth.
These obstacles were not roadblocks
but avenues leading me towards a
broader understanding of my craft.
The residency also pushed me to
develop greater self-reliance and adaptability. It even sparked a re-evaluation
of my own cultural norms and identity.
I started to see the unique aspects of
my own culture, as well as those universal threads that connect us all. Not only
did my residency broaden my artistic
vocabulary, it also offered deep insights
into who I am and what shapes me, both
as an artist and as an individual.
of tropical landscapes that are characteristic of Southeast Asia, contrasted against
the weather readings from seasonal
Saroot Supasuthivech’s studio at Künstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, May 2023. Photograph
by the artist.
Ngoc Nau during the filming of her video in
Hanoi, Vietnam, October 2023. Photograph
by Hyo Jung Kim.
Over the course of our conversations,
you also proposed ideas for this
exhibition that were not eventually
included. Could you share the most
important one that you hope to materialise in one form or another, or what
you expect could transpire from it, in
the near future?
climate conditions from the Netherlands.
It was technically challenging to develop
this work, and I needed more resources
and time to gather the data and integrate
it seamlessly with the game-engine software. To even ensure accurate real-time
weather readings in a live simulation
required meticulous calibration of the
data input systems, as well as extensive
testing and debugging to synchronise
the meteorological elements with the
physical engine.
PD: One of my initial concepts involved
developing a dual-channel video instal
lation that utilises advanced gameengine software to integrate real-time
weather data with the landscapes of
these distinct regions: Netherlands,
Malaysia and Indonesia. The examination of weather data serves as a strategic
tool to delve into the ramifications of
geological transformations since the
inception of the colonial plantation
system, as well as the consequences of
extractive capitalism and the contemporary environmental conditions that are
prevalent today. The video installation is
meant to provide viewers with a unique
vantage point that allows an observation
16
17
NN: There were indeed elements that
I didn’t incorporate into my final work,
mainly because our conversations helped
me gain clarity on which ideas held
the strongest and most unique qualities,
ultimately guiding my decision on which
concept to further develop in the project.
For instance, I had initially wanted to
film inside the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship
Palace of Culture and Labour in Hanoi,
but the cost of renting the space was
prohibitively expensive. Also censorship
makes it harder for me to shoot on-site in
physical buildings, so I decided to take a
different approach. I recreated the entire
space in 3D and had performers act
within this virtual environment, realising
my vision without the constraints of a
physical location. This challenge led me
to explore new methods, such as CGI
(Computer-Generated Imagery). I’m
quite satisfied with the outcome and plan
to continue developing this technique,
as a way to gain agency over the spaces
I wish to access for future projects. I am
also curious as to how our human body
will adapt to technology and interact
with it in the future, as the blurring of
the real and the virtual becomes increasingly a part of our lives.
SS: One idea that stood out for me but
was not eventually included, was the use
of technology to create a transformative
video installation that offers a complete
3D experience in Virtual Reality (VR).
The installation would also provide a sensorial experience through the ambient use
of light and sound even for those without
access to VR headsets. My intent was to
evoke a specific emotional impact, perhaps a sense of wonder or transcendence,
that would resonate with each visitor,
whether through the VR video or simply
from the ambient elements. Given the
technological and conceptual complexity,
this idea remains a work-in-progress that
I hope to materialise in some form in
the near future. It holds the potential for
various real-world applications and for
collaborations with tech companies or art
institutions. As I look ahead, I’m optimistic
about integrating such an experience in
my upcoming projects.
This interview was conducted over email
in October 2023.
�PASSAGES
Priyageetha Dia
Interior of the rubber factory under construction in
1927, probably on the Brussels plantation. Part of
the photo album about the Brussels and Pernantian
plantations of the Sumatra Caoutchouc Company
on the East Coast of Sumatra, 1910–1935. Courtesy
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
�Priyageetha Dia
Singapore
As an extension of her research into
the plantations of Southeast Asia and
their colonial histories, including those
of migrant labour and structures of
production and power, Priyageetha
Dia explores gaps in historical records
that are not only text-based, but also
non-textual ones such as photographs,
artefacts and oral interviews. Her
resulting four-channel sound
installation Sap Sonic is a sonification
of images from the photo album of
the Sumatra Caoutchouc Company,
a rubber planting company in the
Dutch East Indies, from the archives of
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The album
charts the growth of palm oil and rubber
trees in the company’s plantations in
Sumatra in the first half of the 20th
century; documenting its operations,
landscapes and activities.
Beyond their visual representations,
the images bear witness to the power
dynamics at play between the coloniser
and labourers, evident in their postures,
gazes, and spatial arrangements; as
well as the hierarchy between nature
and machine. Reframing this landscape
from a visual to a sonic one, Sap Sonic
serves as an aural gateway to the
plantations as it delves into the lived yet
unspoken experiences of those who
work on and inhabit the plantations,
both human and nonhuman. Emulating
a uniform and controlled green lighting
environment, Sap Sonic reflects the
artificial and human-engineered nature
of a monochromatic environment.
Perceiving that which is not visible from
the images or historical narratives, Dia
reimagines and deconstructs plantation
soundscapes by sampling, mixing
and manipulating found sound files
including the synthesis of frequencies
from image to sound conversion and
AI voice modulation. From pulsating
and echoing strengths, marked by
oscillatory and spatial disturbances,
the resulting sonic tapestry represents
a liminal space where past and present,
real and imagined, intersect and
converse with each other.
Accompanying the work, Sap Script is
a text installation in white latex paint on
a black, obsidian-like background. The
choice of material references the sap
from the rubber (also “caoutchouc” in
French) tree, hence the titles Sap Sonic
and Sap Script. The typeface of Sap
Script 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 the aspects
of the visual world agitated by the
listening sense, hence expanding the
agentive possibilities of the uncounted
and the underheard.
Jan van Eyck Academie
Maastricht
20
21
Top: View of the fields with newly planted rubber
trees, Hevea Brasiliensis. Part of the photo album
about the Brussels and Pernantian plantations of the
Sumatra Caoutchouc Company on the East Coast
of Sumatra, 1910–1935. Courtesy Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam.
Bottom: Screenshot of working with an archival
image from the Sumatra Caoutchouc Company
photo album. The image is further processed by
making direct ‘graffiti’ edits, which manipulates
how the sound notes are read between the bright
and dark areas of the image.
�PASSAGES
Ngoc Nau
�Ngoc Nau
Thai Nguyen / Hanoi
Feeling both intrigue and familiarity
towards Soviet-era architecture and
iconic elements in Vilnius, Lithuania,
during her residency, Ngoc Nau
draws from historical references
and collected oral histories in her
host country to explore multifaceted
aspects of post-Soviet realities in
Vietnam. Her video installation, Virtual
Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten Utopia,
portrays contemporary life amidst
the remnants of socialist architecture
and monuments. With the use of 3D
animation and visual effects, the work
demonstrates the transformative
power of technology in reshaping our
perceptions of reality.
Central to the work is a meticulously
constructed representation of the
Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Palace
of Culture and Labour, a venue still
being used for events today. Serving
as a stage for five hip-hop dancers
embarking on an allegorical journey,
the building is symbolic of the enduring
presence of socialist architecture in a
contemporary landscape; representing
the preservation of a bygone era and
the relics of a once-powerful regime.
Also playing a significant role in the
work is an evocative three-dimensional
scan of a Lenin statue originally erected
at Lukiškės Square in the Lithuanian
capital of Vilnius. Its removal in 1991,
with legs severed, became a powerful
emblem of historical upheaval and
transformation: the collapse of
socialism as well as the restoration
of independence. As the characters
traverse across time and space, dancing
and interacting with their environment,
they bridge the gap between historical
artifacts and contemporary experiences.
Echoing the ebb and flow of ideologies,
their passage brings about new
meanings as past memories evolve in
the face of shifting landscapes.
The projection screen in the installation
is created by the artist using papier
mâché, a technique also used by mask
makers in Vietnam. Its textured surface
provides a topographic landscape onto
which the moving image is projected.
Along with the video work is an essay
Lenin Park (2023) by Nau’s collaborator
Phuong Phan, a Berlin-based Vietnamese
researcher and writer. Taking the Lenin
Park in Hanoi as a point of departure,
the essay contextualises socialism in
Vietnam in the present time.
Rupert
Vilnius
24
25
Above and previous spread:
Ngoc Nau, Virtual Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten
Utopia, 2023, video stills.
�PASSAGES
Saroot Supasuthivech
�Saroot Supasuthivech
Bangkok
Fascinated by spiritual beliefs and
rituals especially those surrounding
death, Saroot Supasuthivech studies
them as a point of entry into under
standing the complexities and
nuances of cultures—both his own
and others. Looking specifically at
how funerary practices of Thai people
travel and evolve with their migration
to Germany, Spirit-forward in G
Major is a multimedia installation that
encapsulates the interplay of tradition,
adaptation and preservation within an
evolving cultural landscape. Charting
their transformative journey, the work’s
narrative unfolds in four parts, told
through a metaphoric cycle of life,
death and rebirth.
“New Beginnings” uses therapeutic
dialogues to depict the initial migrant
experience of stepping into a dreamy
yet unknown world; evoking a feeling
of optimism amidst uncertainty.
Subsequently, “A Surreal Interlude”
transports viewers into a realm of
magic and mortality inspired by
Grimm’s fairy tales. Based on interviews
conducted with Thai monks and nuns
in Berlin, it touches on the challenges
and transformation that comes with
cultural assimilation. The third segment
focuses on a Thai music score Sai
Samon, the oldest documented, played
in G major on the violin in a Sala Thai
(open pavilion) in Bad Homburg,
Germany. Finally, “A Glimpse Beyond”,
experienced via Virtual Reality, dives
into a poetic meditation on death and
the afterlife, told from the viewpoint
of the deceased. Serving as a mirror
reflecting the cycle of life and death, this
poignant culmination is an exploration
into a liminal reality between the familiar
and the surreal. Alternating between
the two, it echoes the fragmentation
and reconstitution inherent in a migrant
experience. Using photogrammetry
techniques, images of real-world
locations and architecture taken during
the artist’s residency, such as Alter St.
Matthäus-Kirchhof (Old St. Matthew’s
Churchyard) and Märchenbrunnen
(Fountain of Fairytales), are digitally
reconstructed, distorted and
fragmented to create an ethereal,
otherworldly environment.
Adding to this experience are brass
plate etchings comprising elements
from the migrant journey: a flower
mirroring the ones found around the
Sala Thai in Bad Homburg; the Sai
Samon music score; and Cinderella
from Grimm’s Children and Household
Tales (1833).
Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Berlin
28
29
Above and previous spread: Saroot Supasuthivech,
Spirit-forward in G Major, 2023, video stills.
�Artist
Priyageetha Dia (b. 1992, Singapore)
works with time-based media and
installation. Her practice is braided
between plantation ecologies, post
colonial memory(ies), migration politics,
and the production of labour and
data economics. Structured through
fieldwork and archival research, she
engages in nonlinear and speculative
processes as a practice of refusal
against dominant narratives. Her recent
exhibitions include Frieze Seoul (2023);
Singapore Art Museum (2023); KochiMuziris Biennale, Kerala (2022–23);
La Trobe Art Institute, Australia (2022);
National Gallery Singapore (2020); and
Art Science Museum, Singapore (2019).
She was an artist-in-residence at NTU
Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
in 2022. She was also the recipient
of the IMPART award by Art Outreach
in 2019.
The multimedia practice of Ngoc Nau
(b. 1989, Vietnam) encompasses photo
graphy, holograms and augmented
reality (AR). She is currently working
with 3D software and other open-source
technologies to create new possibilities
for video installation. In Nau’s work,
different materials and techniques
seek to capture the subtle ways in
which new media shape and dictate
our views of reality. Blending traditional
culture and spiritual beliefs with
modern technologies and lifestyles,
her work often responds to Vietnam’s
accelerated urban development. Her
Partner
works have been featured in several
exhibitions across Asia, including the
Thailand Biennale, Korat (2021) and
the Singapore Biennale (2019), among
others. She has also participated in
documenta 15, Kassel, Germany (2022)
with Sa Sa Art Projects.
Saroot Supasuthivech (b. 1991,
Thailand) employs a multifarious
research approach to reimagine a range
of localities, merging chronologies and
perspectives. Not only does he look
at geographical and political facts,
he also takes into account the ways
specific sites are situated and depicted
in memory and discourse. Reacting
to popular and official narratives, he
examines the corruption of our histories
and the dissolution of our identities.
Ritual also emerges as a particular
window of insight for him as he delves
into ancient traditions and their waning
relevance, inspecting the present
through a lens of the past. His moving
images transcend aesthetic or docu
mentary dimensions; often combining
installation, image and sound to conjure
the intangible aura of a socio-historical
location. In studying the ritualistic, his
artistic practice performs a rite in itself,
offering a ceremony of remembrance.
His latest video installation, River Kwai:
This Memorial Service Was Held in
the Memory of the Deceased (2022),
was featured in the Discoveries Section
at Art Basel Hong Kong (2022).
Biographies
Jan Van Eyck Academie
Maastricht, The Netherlands
Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Berlin, Germany
As a post-academic institute, Jan van
Eyck Academie offers residencies to
artists, designers ranging from graphic
and fashion to food and social design,
writers, curators, and architects from all
over the globe. The academy is committed
to exploring the agency, roles and civic
significance of art, design, and other
creative practices in relation to the climate
crisis, environmental breakdown, and their
manifold effects. This institutional focus
opens a wide discourse and creates a framework that embraces a diversity of practices
and allows for a multitude of voices.
The Künstlerhaus Bethanien is an
international cultural centre with an
artist-in-residence programme. It is
dedicated to the advancement of
contemporary visual arts and aims
to establish a lively dialogue between
artists from various backgrounds and
disciplines, and the public at large. The
focus of its manifold missions is the
International Studio Programme, where
artists conceive and present new projects
with the help of its team. Furthermore,
it encourages critical reflection on
subjects related to contemporary art and
culture through its publications,
including the Be Magazine, a yearly
journal for art and criticism.
Rupert
Vilnius, Lithuania
Operating since 2012, Rupert is an
independent, publicly-funded centre for
art, residencies and education. Its mission
is to establish close cooperation between
artists, thinkers, researchers and other
cultural actors through transdisciplinary
programmes and residencies. It manifests
this mission through three related pro
grammes: the residency programme, the
alternative education programme and the
public programmes. They are all dedi
cated to creating platforms for conver
sation, research and learning. Through
these programmes, Rupert supports local
and international thinkers in realising
their projects and establishing their creative
practice on an international scale.
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31
Institutions
�SEA AiR
Selection Process
Cycle 2
Nominators
Since artists from Cambodia, Indonesia
and Malaysia participated in the inaugural
cycle of SEA AiR, the selection process for
the second cycle focused on the remaining
Southeast Asian countries to ensure the
equitable distribution of the programme’s
resources. Seven artists and curators from
these countries were invited to contribute
to SEA AiR as nominators, leveraging
their in-depth knowledge of emerging
contemporary art practices within
their respective countries to nominate
outstanding practitioners who would
benefit from this opportunity.
Con Cabrera, independent curator
(Philippines)
Anna Koshcheeva, researcher (Laos)
Yasmin Jaidin, artist (Brunei)
Ong Kian Peng, artist (Singapore)
Mary Pansanga, independent curator
(Thailand)
Phoo Myat Thwe, independent curator
(Myanmar)
UuDam Tran-Nguyen, artist (Vietnam)
PASSAGES
Priyageetha Dia, Ngoc Nau and Saroot Supasuthivech
1 December 2023 – 28 January 2024
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Residencies Studios
Project Director
Selection Committee
Ute Meta Bauer (Chair),
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, NTU School of Art, Design
and Media
Hicham Khalidi, Director, Jan Van Eyck
Academie
Monika Lipšic, Curator of the
Residency and Public Programmes, Rupert
Dr Karin Oen, Senior Lecturer and Head
of Department, Art History, NTU School
of Humanities
Christoph Tannert, Artistic Director,
Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Eszter Nemeth, former Deputy Head of
Mission, EU Delegation to Singapore
Ute Meta Bauer
Project Curator
Anna Lovecchio
Exhibition Curator
Tian Lim
ARTFACTORY
Auxilio Studio
SPACElogic
Programmes Coordinator
Shipping
Admin and Operations
Acknowledgments
Nadia Amalina Binte Abdul Manap
Jasmaine Cheong
Low Ming Aun
Communication
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Shortlisted Artists
From the nominations, five other artists
besides the three selected ones, were
shortlisted by the Selection Committee.
We would like to acknowledge them here
in recognition of the merit and remarkable
promise of their artistic practice:
Deepika Shetty
Press Officer
European Union Delegation to Singapore
33
NTU CCA Singapore would like to
thank our partner institutions Jan van
Eyck Academie (Netherlands), Rupert
(Lithuania) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien
(Germany) for rendering their support
to this programme and the artists during
their residencies.
mono.studio
Funded by the European Union
In collaboration with
Graphic Design
32
Malca-Amit Singapore
We would also like to acknowledge the
EU Service for Foreign Policy Instruments
(FPI) for their generous funding, and
express our gratitude to the FPI Regional
Team Asia & Pacific: Andreas Roettger
(Head), Francesca Arato (Team Leader)
and Loreta Valerio (Finance and Contracts
Assistant).
Sarah Bagharib
Shine Bright Media
Lin Htet Aung (b.1998, Myanmar)
Lena Bui (b.1985, Vietnam)
Ronyel Compra (b.1985, Philippines)
Pam Quinto (b.1991, Philippines)
Nat Setthana (b.1995, Thailand)
Exhibition Fabrication and
Audiovisual Consultancy
�Artwork
Credits
Priyageetha Dia
Sap Sonic, 2023
Four-channel sound installation,
green LED tube lights, 14 min
Sap Script, 2023
White latex paint, black enamel paint
Dimensions variable
Lettering design: Studio Darius Ou
Ngoc Nau
Virtual Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten
Utopia, 2023
Single-channel video installation, colour,
sound, papier-mâché projection screen,
metal chains, 6 min 24 sec
Essay: Lenin Park (2023) by Phuong Phan
Video editor and CGI (Computergenerated Imagery): Ngoc Nau
Assistant directors:
Ha Dao and Hyo Jung Kim
Camera: Linh DN
Lighting:
Thao Hoang, Son Hoang and Tu Le
Sound: Dustin Ngo
Dancers: C.O. crew
Saroot Supasuthivech
Spirit-forward in G Major, 2023
Two-channel video installation,
4K, colour, 4.1 sound, PAR light,
19 min 34 sec; Virtual Reality,
9 min 10 sec; brass plate etchings
Dimensions variable
Project consultant:
Chalida Asawakanjanakit
Video editor: Sornpannath Patpho
Music composer: Thanet Asawakanjanakit
Violinist: Pitchayapa Lueangtawikit
3D technical designer:
Phattara Chattuphattarakun
System design consultant: H-Lab
Camera assistant: Jonathan Mungnonbo
German translator: Wandi Phaensombun
The artworks were produced by SEA
AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast
Asian Artists in the European Union,
a programme developed by NTU Centre
for Contemporary Art Singapore and
funded by the European Union.
All artworks courtesy of the artists.
Image Credits
Unless otherwise stated, images courtesy
of the artists.
Top: Ngoc Nau making her papier mâché projection
screen, October 2023. Photograph by Phuong Thu.
Middle: Screenshot of Priyageetha Dia’s field recording
playback on Audacity of the rubber plantation
soundscapes in Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia, 2023.
Bottom: Illustration of Cinderella in Brothers Grimm’s
Children and Household Tales (1833), Berlin State
Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage, Germany, June
2023. Photograph by Saroot Supasuthivech.
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�NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
Situated within Singapore’s premier art precinct Gillman Barracks, NTU CCA Singapore
is a pioneering institution that has been instrumental in shaping the contemporary art
landscape in Singapore and beyond. With a focus on fostering creativity, innovation, and
critical thinking, the Centre’s programmes have consistently challenged the status quo,
encouraging artists to explore new realms of artistic expression.
CO-CHAIRS
Professor Joseph Liow, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Low Eng Teong, Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council, Singapore
MEMBERS
Professor Tim White, Vice President (International Engagement), NTU
Professor Simon Redfern, Dean, College of Science, NTU
Kay Vasey, Chief Connecting Officer, Mesh Minds Pte Ltd / Mesh Minds Foundation
Kathy Lai, Independent consultant
SPACES OF THE CURATORIAL
The Centre seeks to engage the potential of “curating” and its expanded field. What
are the infrastructures and modes of presenting and discussing artistic and cultural
production in diverse cultural settings and in particular throughout Southeast Asia’s
vastly changing societies?
NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, School of Art,
Design and Media, NTU
Jasmaine Cheong, Senior Assistant Director, Business Operations Management
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Assistant Director, Programmes (on leave)
Regina Yap, Manager, Finance
Low Ming Aun, Assistant Manager, Programmes and Operations
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Residencies & Public Programmes
Nadia Amalina Binte Abdul Manap, Programmes Coordinator
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36
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LOCATED AT
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is funded by the European Union
PART OF
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed in November 2023 by First Printers.
Cover: Saroot Supasuthivech, Spirit-forward
in G Major, 2023, VR still.
�
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SEA AiR Cycle 2 Exhibition Guide
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SEA AiR Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union Cycle 2: Passages Exhibition Guide
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NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore presents the second-cycle exhibition of SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union (SEA AiR), a programme developed by NTU CCA Singapore and funded by the European Union.
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1 December 2023 - 28 January 2024
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Anna Lovecchio
Tian Lim
Kai von Rabenau
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Southeast Asia
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Basic Object of Knowledge [B.O.O.K.]: The Contemporary Book And Its Model guide as part of Singapore Art Book Fair 2014.
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Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Place.Labour.Capital.
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<em>Basic Object of Knowledge [B.O.O.K.]: The Contemporary Book And Its Model</em>
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<em>Basic Object of Knowledge [B.O.O.K.]: The Contemporary Book And Its Model </em>guide as part of Singapore Art Book Fair 2014.
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2014
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Danné Ojeda
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Southeast Asia
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Available for browsing onsite at NTU CCA Singapore physical archive. Contact ntuccareseach@ntu.edu.sg to make an appointment.
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1
Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Films. Exhibition
17 October 2020 –
28 February 2021
�2
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Forgetting Vietnam, 2015, film still.
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Forgetting Vietnam, 2015, film still.
3
�4
NOTES FROM THE CURATOR
“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
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. The spatial
configuration of five small-scale movie theatres, one next to the
other in our Exhibition Hall, evokes Trinh’s exhibition at the
Secession, Vienna, in 2001. In each theatre we present a film, shot
in different parts of Asia over a quarter of a century: Forgetting
Vietnam (2015), Night Passage (2004), The Fourth Dimension
(2001), A Tale of Love (1995), and Shoot for the Contents (1991).
Trinh does not see herself as an Asian filmmaker, yet she deeply
engages with Asia’s colonial, postcolonial, and the imperial histories
of Vietnam, Japan, and China. In each of Trinh’s cinematic work,
she questions different aspects of filmmaking and investigates the
way we perceive, see, and listen, pushing frontiers of cultures,
genres, disciplines, and realms.
Creating unique physical and temporal spaces to be inhabited
between and across her films constitutes an alternate mode of
viewing a cinematic narrative initially produced by Trinh for a
single screen. The spatial proximity of one film to another, each
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Night Passage, 2004, film still.
unfolding a specific context and history in time, invites the viewer
to wander from one theatre to the next, and the different layers
of Trinh’s oeuvre, from the visual to the sonic to voice, begin to
oscillate and interrelate. The conjoining of historical time and
narrative of each film within the same time-space frame, that of
the exhibition, reveals unexpected connecting threads. Another
juxtaposition, both across and within each featured film, is Trinh’s
deliberate integration of footage filmed through the years, shifting
in aspect ratio, image quality, or colour palette. Also, the journey
of each film from one format to another, from celluloid to video,
from analogue to digital, brings to the fore the inherent history and
materiality of moving image.
At the Centre’s Single Screen is Trinh’s most recent production,
What about China? (Part I of II, 2020–21), initiated by NTU CCA
Singapore and co-commissioned with Rockbund Art Museum
(RAM), Shanghai. At the core of the film is the notion of harmony,
which has played an important role in the lives of Chinese people
Cover: Trinh T. Minh-ha, A Tale of Love, 1995, film stills.
�6
since ancient times, summing up three main relations: harmony
with society; harmony with nature; and harmony with oneself.
Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, Trinh grew up in Ho Chi Minh City
where she studied music. Her environment, background and
identity are, however, multiple and transnational. In 1970, she
left Ho Chi Minh City for the United States, where she graduated
in music and French literature. She has studied, taught, and lived
in a range of countries and cultures, including the United States,
France, the Philippines, Senegal, Japan and Korea. It was in
Senegal where she got involved in cultural theory and cinema. She
shot her first two films in Africa: Reassemblage (1982), and Naked
Spaces—Living is Round (1985). Combining ethnographic and
documentary elements with the personal and the subjective makes
Trinh’s practice and her experimental approach so distinctive.
Over four decades, as an artist and writer, she has developed a
multi-layered theoretical, visual, and poetic language as a way to
engage the complexity of the implicit politics that regulate images
of cultural difference and the production of discourse. Viewers are
able to encounter her practice as a writer through Trinh T. Minhha. Writings., two reading platforms displaying her books, along
the passageway connecting the five theatres.
In The Lab, Why are they so afraid of a lotus? showcases a yearlong research season on Trinh’s multifaceted practice, conceived
by CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (Wattis),
San Francisco. The convening, Mother Always Has a Mother,
presented by the Centre, Wattis, and RAM, connects the various
institutions that joined this long-term conversation on Trinh’s
practice. Curated by NTU film faculty, Speaking / Thinking
Nearby, an online film programme, juxtaposes films by Trinh
with those of other filmmakers, historical and contemporary,
and addresses the complicatedness of engaging cultural heritage,
identity, and roles of language, voice, and translation. “Speaking
and thinking nearby” points to the existence of a narrator and the
subjectivity and fictionality inherent in documentary films. This
programme ends with “There is no such thing as documentary” 1,
a conference that brings together filmmakers, film historians,
and curators to question the politics embedded in presentation
and representation, perception, context, and the spatial.
I express my heartfelt gratitude to Trinh T. Minh-ha for the
commitment and time she has generously dedicated to this multiyear endeavour. I would also like to thank the members of our
trans-institutional partnership, Kim Nguyen, Curator and Head
of Programmes, Wattis; Larys Frogier, Director, and Billy Tang,
Senior Curator, RAM; and Hans D. Christ and Iris Dressler,
Directors of Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.
I further thank the Secession, Dr Annette Südbeck, for
providing us with the architectural plans of Trinh’s 2001
exhibition.
1
The conference title is derived from Trinh T. Minh-ha’s text “Documentary Is/Not a Name”,
October, 52 (Spring, 1990): 76–98.
7
My thanks go to NTU Associate Professor Laura Miotto for her
spatial consultancy; NTU Assistant Professors Dr Marc Glöde and
Dr Ella Raidel for curating the film programme and co-convening
“There is no such thing as documentary”; Dr Erika Balsom, King’s
College London, for chairing the conference with us; and the
NTU Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences for supporting
this collaboration.
We are immensely grateful to the U.S. Embassy Singapore for their
generous support of this exhibition.
exhibition, Paradise Lost (2014), alongside works by Zarina Bhimji
and Fiona Tan. Come March 2021, as life goes, the curtain of our
Exhibition Hall closes with Trinh.
I take this opportunity to thank NTU CCA Singapore’s entire
team, present and past, for the seven years and 55 exhibitions.
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor, NTU School of Art, Design and Media
Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films. is NTU CCA Singapore’s final presentation
in its current exhibition space, coinciding with the Centre’s seventh
anniversary. Her film Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) was
presented as a video installation in the Centre’s inaugural group
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Shoot for the Contents, 1991, film still.
�8
BEFORE, BESIDE, BEYOND
Artist Statement
Reality is more maddening, more strangely manipulative than fiction.
To realise this is to recognise the naivety of a development of a
cinematic technology that promotes increasing unmediated access
to reality.
No real under the fake
No frame without framing
Whenever it erupts
Intruding into symbolic reality
The real remains in permanent dislocation
In the tuning in with the forces of a life event, a form is attained
only to manifest the formless. While raising questions about
the social and political dimension of form, a work at odds with
classifications such as documentary, fiction, or experimental film
art, also explicitly explores its fluid relation to infinity within the
finite. To use an image, it’s not only the shape or the flowers and
fruits of a plant that matter, it’s the sap that runs through it.
Form in its radical sense should address the formless as it
ultimately refers to the processes of life and death. Affirming form
is recognising the important contribution of each vibrant life
as a continual creative process. All the while, letting form go is
acknowledging our own mortality—or the necessity to work with
the limits of every instance of form.
9
On the surface of silence
So they both said
Thoreau and Cage
Reality is wilder, weirder than fiction
Merely adding up facts leads not to truth
For the resilient question never fails to rebound
“What really happened?”
In these times of ending and returning decolonial struggles,
postmodern recovery, “green sustainability”, and global pandemic
resilience (to use some trendy terms), artists working in third
intervals, at the margins of mainstream productivity would have to
be at once very primitive and very cultured—awkwardly, efficiently
“low” and competently, unfittingly “high”; shuttling effortlessly
between the avant- and arrière-garde; and thriving in the fissures
of categories. Socially marginalised groups could, accordingly, be
both provocatively high-tech and defiantly vernacular.
Coupled with the advent of new technology and of social media,
the phenomenon of massive migration and refugeeism has
substantially changed our sense of identity and stability, of home,
family, community, and nation. What seem to pertain to our
era are the countercultural feel for both continual displacement in
interconnectedness and the sensibility for the fragile, the ephemeral,
the marginal, the small, the portable, and the mobile in our everyday.
In ancient African and Asian “arts,” if composition, legibility, or
resemblance never really constitutes the criteria for true artistic
work, it is mainly because rather than abiding by the old pair of
Hear not then
For sound is vibration
Trinh T. Minh-ha on set of A Tale of Love, 1995, with crew. Courtesy the artist.
form or content, emphasis is laid on the “breath” that animates
a work and brings it to life. In my practice, such a work remains
attentive to its own “nature,” to the movement of its unseen
undercurrents, and to its continual processes of formation and
de-formation. Highly attuned to moments of transition and to
the transience of visible realities, it threads its way in the seen,
the unseen, the barely seen, and is free to move between genres,
between the photographic realism of mainstream films, the antirepresentative materiality of experimental films, and the antiphotographic of virtual reality.
Of sounds and sound effects
They’re mere bubbles
When reality starts speaking to us differently, it leads, in my work,
to what I called an elsewhere within here: a between that breaks
with a here and a there, and with the prevailing systems of binary
oppositions. Films and installations are made to induce in the
viewers a state where “they see sounds and hear images” and to let
the world come to them with each step taken. They are conceived
so as to shift our perception of reality and to experience soundimages as immersed in the whole of our body. This is aesthetics’
radical force. Otherwise, without an awareness of its inter-social
and existential dimension, aesthetics remains largely conventional
and normative.
A dimension of one’s consciousness in being, politics permeates
our everyday, which is said to be most difficult to discover because
it is what we are, ordinarily. The everyday escapes; it allows
no hold; it is where the familiar could show itself to be most
surprising. Rather than merely speaking of production of images
or of meaning, working with an ear and eye for the empty field
of potentials and possibilities allows one to approach image and
�10
sound making as a net of under- and crosscurrents—a manifesting
of forces.
Art could then be the force that enables change and keeps history
alive, while the poetics of the creative everyday could be both a
dimension of political consciousness and a transformative mode
of history. Of relevance to our Age of migration is a film and art
practice in which form is fully lived so as to feel the vitality of no
form. Such a practice resists consumption in its most intimate
needs, and remains a challenge for many programmers and curators
to work with.
What one sees in an image is a manifestation of
how one sees it.
Whether one is conscious of it or not, rhythm, for example, marks
one’s experience of film. A commentary, a dialogue in film is first
viewed and felt as a rhythm, a sound, and a colour before it takes
on a meaning. So in conceiving an image, a shot, or a sequence,
one is above all working with rhythm. Rhythm is what determines
nonverbally the quality of a relationship. It should convey a
multiplicity of experiences between what is seen, heard, and felt;
experiences in which neither the word is ruled by the image, nor the
image by the word; and hence experiences which can continually
shift one’s ground in one’s perception of people and events. Rhythm
is the base from which a work is created and undone. It defines
both social and sensual relationships. In the dance of hear and see,
silence and sound, stillness and movement, the hearing eye and the
speaking ear are constantly at play, and form and formless are the
two facets of a single process—or of life and death.
To be real, one needs to go before, beside, beyond the “real”.
Trinh T. Minh-ha
BIOGRAPHY
Trinh T. Minh-ha (b. 1952, Hanoi, Vietnam) is Professor of Gender
& Women’s Studies and of Rhetoric at the University of California
(UC), 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 obtained a Master of Arts in French Literature, a Master
Photos of Trinh T. Minh-ha. Courtesy the artist.
11
of Music, and a doctorate in French and Francophone Literatures
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.
Trinh’s eight feature-length films have been honoured in over
sixty retrospectives and surveys at film festivals around the world.
She has also participated in biennales across the globe including
Documenta11, Kassel (2002), and most recently at Manifesta
13, Marseille (2020). Her cinematic oeuvre includes large-scale
installations such as Forgetting Vietnam at The Asia Culture Center,
Gwangju for its inauguration (2015–2018); Old Land New Waters,
commissioned for the opening of Okinawa Prefectural Museum
and Art Museum (2007) and exhibited anew in 2009; and L’Autre
marche (The Other Walk) in collaboration with photographer
Jean-Paul Bourdier for the inauguration of musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac (2006–2009).
As a prolific writer, Trinh has authored nine books, with an
additional seven in collaboration with others, and over 160 articles
and book chapters on cinema, cultural politics, feminism, and the
art. She is also the recipient of numerous awards, including a threeyear Toban Faculty Fellowship, funded by UC Berkeley, Arts &
Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Toban Family,
United States (2016–2019).
�FORGETTING VIETNAM, 2015
Digital, colour, sound, 90 min.
12
NIGHT PASSAGE, 2004
Digital, colour, sound, 98 min.
Made in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the end of the
Vietnam War, Forgetting Vietnam is framed by two ancient myths,
one concerning land, and the other, water. Together, they suggest
the multi-dimensional roles of these two elements in Vietnam, once
called “the land of ten thousand springs”. A dialogue between the
two unfolds, featuring picturesque landscapes, religious rituals,
cultural traditions, and scenes of everyday life with a focus on
ordinary women, shot between 1995 and 2012.
Resisting the binary opposites of remembering and forgetting,
Trinh engages both instead, suggesting that there are always
multiple entries into the film’s narration. In place of the spoken
voice, text comprising evocative questions and quotations appear
and dissolve throughout the film. At one point, a quote by
Vietnamese contemporary writer Pham Thi Hoài reads: ”To really
forget, we must fully know what we want to forget”. In addition
to insights of witnesses to the war, and snippets of conversations
about the State and the Communist Party, the historical, cultural,
and social memory of the war is brought to remembrance through
traditional Vietnamese folk music and pre-1975-era ballads.
Inspired by Miyazawa Kenji’s novel Milky Way Railroad (1927)
in which a train takes a boy and his companion on a journey
through the Milky Way to heaven, Night Passage takes a female
immigrant and her two companions on a spiritual journey centred
on friendship and loss. Appearing within a series of vistas that
moves like a speeding strip of celluloid film, rhythmic image
sequences reveal the hopes and memories of the three passengers
as they experience new encounters during their train ride. As a
mode of transportation, the train provides the means of access to
new discoveries and possibilities.
In this film, Trinh’s second in the digital format, specific filmic
gestures of lighting, colours, sound, silence, and resonances, as well
as a distinct choreography of camera and body movements, are
used to depict the transformation of time. It is through this passage
of time between fact and fiction, life and death, where one finds
magic and the freedom to dream. In an interview by Dr Alison
Rowley, Reader in Cultural Theory, in 2013, Trinh summarises:
“Life is not explicable when it is lived intensely, with magical
freshness. What I kept of Miyazawa in Night Passage were spirit,
structural forces, and field of action.”
�THE FOURTH DIMENSION, 2001
14
Digital, colour, sound, 87 min.
A TALE OF LOVE, 1995
35mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound, 108 min.
Set in Japan and similarly framed by a journey on a train, The Fourth
Dimension examines the spiritual world—a fourth dimension,
through its culture. The fourth dimension refers also to cinematic
time itself, highlighting the unseen in our everyday reality, and
pointing to our own spirituality. In exploring the role of rituals in
ordinary, everyday life, Trinh juxtaposes modernity with tradition,
using it as a creative tool to question how meanings are assigned
to imagery and categories. Two main characters—the train and the
drum—the film’s guiding rhythms, are drawn from Trinh’s own
experience as a Visiting Professor in Tokyo in 1998.
Veering away from the sophistication of rehearsed, seamless
panning, Trinh used a handheld camera for shooting; embracing
the hesitation of movement, and allowing the audience to follow
her steps in the process of filming. In doing so, she highlights
the unexpected found in intervals between each scene, following
French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s theory of the time-image,
in which the film unfolds over time. As her first digital film, it
uses special video effects to composite a multi-layered montage of
images, text and sound, creating an experience of time and speed
in stillness, that evokes a new way of seeing.
A Tale of Love is an allegorical retelling of 19th-century Vietnamese
national poem Tale of Kieu (1820). The female protagonist, Kiều,
is seen as a personification of Vietnam, who has suffered from
continued invasion and foreign domination. She speaks of the
condition of many immigrant women and more, particularly to
those of the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States.
With the camera following the characters throughout the film,
moving from performed reality, memory, and dream, the thread
of voyeurism runs through the film, forming its narrative.
Offering intimacy to the viewer while at the same time evoking
a sense of discomfort, voyeurism is also played out provocatively
through the photographer. Experimenting with forms of lighting,
scenography, camera movements, script, sound, and “acting” itself,
Trinh draws connections between sensuality, voyeurism, identity,
and consumption, bringing to the fore, the fictionality inherent
in love. This fictionality is further intensified by varying musical
textures as well as the film’s tonality, with the use of primary
colours yellow, blue, red.
15
�SHOOT FOR THE CONTENTS, 1991
16
16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound, 101 min.
WHAT ABOUT CHINA? (Part I of II), 2020–21
Digital, colour, sound, 58 min.
In Shoot for the Contents, Trinh examines the culture and identity
of China from her situated position, both as an outsider and
intimate neighbour to China, with a desire to transform her
own consciousness of the country, at the same time, allowing
her to dive deeper into the heritage of Vietnamese culture. The
film opens with two women playing a Chinese guessing game,
to which the title refers, followed by a dialogue between them
that incorporates sayings of Mao, Confucius, and other classical
Chinese philosophers.
Engaging with rural life, storytelling, calligraphy, and Chinese
musical and operatic traditions interwoven throughout the film
with interviews with cultural workers on topics ranging from
independent filmmaking to gender and class inequality, Trinh
creates a layered composition of multivocal reflections on the
shifting culture and politics of China.
Drawing from footages shot mostly in 1993–1994 in Eastern
and Southern China, specifically the provinces of Anhui, Hubei,
Zhejiang, Fujian and Guanxi—all linked in common lore to
the remote origins of Chinese civilisation—What about China?
(part I of II was edited for this exhibition) takes the notion of
harmony in China as a site of creative manifestation. As a core
value of governance, it has been used by the Chinese leadership
to promote societal balance, and to pursue social development
and co-existence. Featured in a wide and inclusive sense in the
context of this film, “harmony” involves not only the way music
fundamentally defines reality, or the way space takes shape and
structures daily life, but also the dynamic agents in the ongoing
process of safeguarding the “roundness” of a world of social justice
and equity.
Offering a journey into the wealth of China’s traditional
architecture, for example, the multistoried Hakka roundhouses
amd Ganlan dwellings, while exploring the hinterlands of self
and other in their encounter, the film addresses the process of
“harmonising” rural China, due to the country’s Great Uprooting.
It seeks to engage the viewer further by asking: What exactly is
disappearing? And how?
Situated in the realm between ancient wisdom, avant-garde
experiment, and popular folk acumen, the film features
a multiplicity of voices and narratives embedded in a rhythmic
conversation between the still image and the moving image. Songs,
music, poetry, memoir, history, and theory woven in this cinematic
tapestry, work to enrich rather than illustrate the visuals, to
diversify rather than homogenise the narrative space. By effecting
experiences of transience through an aesthetic of disappearance,
Trinh creates a work that is interrogative and reflexive by nature;
one that exposes the naivety of a cinematic technology and ideology
that claims increasing unmediated access to reality.
�WHAT ABOUT CHINA? (Part I of II)
Credits
TRINH T. MINH-HA. WRITINGS.
TRINH T. MINH-HA. FILMS.
17 October 2020 – 28 February 2021
NTU CCA Singapore
Production
Directed, written and edited by Trinh Minh-ha
Produced by Jean-Paul Bourdier
Co-produced by Ute Meta Bauer and Larys Frogier
Cinematography by Trinh T. Minh-ha (video) and
Jean-Paul Bourdier (still photography)
Music
Wu Wei on sheng, erhu, lusheng, xun, malouqin, bawu,
and voice with Ulrich Moritz on percussion
Haina Jin on guqin and violin
Music editing and sound design by Trinh T. Minh-ha
Books by Trinh T. Minh-ha
Lovecidal: Walking with the Disappeared, 2016
D-passage: The Digital Way, 2013
Elsewhere, Within Here: Immigration, Refugeeism
and the Boundary Event, 2011
The Digital Film Event, 2005
When the Moon Waxes Red. Representation, Gender
and Cultural Politics, 2005
Cinema Interval, 1999
Framer Framed: Film Scripts and Interviews, 1992
Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality
and Feminism, 1989
Curator
Ute Meta Bauer
Voices
Xiaolu Guo
Xiao Yue Shan
Yi Zhong
Trinh T. Minh-ha
Research
Jean-Paul Bourdier: architectural research and filming locations
with Hui Zou for field work assistance
Folk Singers
Cao Xiyun 曹羲匀
Liz Liu (with Ming Bo)
Qin E 秦萼
With special thanks to The Toban Family Faculty Fellowship,
University of California, Berkeley, Arts and Humanities, California.
Exhibition Design Consultancy
Laura Miotto, Associate Professor, NTU ADM
Construction and Technical Installation
SPACElogic
Collaterals
mono.studio
Supported by
U.S. Embassy Singapore
Co-commissioned by
NTU CCA Singapore
Rockbund Art Museum
Incantation, singing
Huan Cheng (Anny)
Assistant Curator
Tian Lim
All films and film stills courtesy the artist, except What about China?,
courtesy Moongift Films.
15
�16
TRINH T. MINH-HA. FILMS.
17 October 2020 – 28 February 2021
NTU Centre For Contemporary Art Singapore
The Exhibition Hall
1. The Fourth Dimension, 2001
2. Shoot for the Contents, 1991
3. A Tale of Love, 1995
4. Night Passage, 2004
5. Forgetting Vietnam, 2015
6. Trinh T. Minh-ha. Writings.
The Single Screen
7. What about China? (Part I of II), 2020–21
The Lab
8. Research presentation:
Why are they so afraid of a lotus?
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
5
17
TRINH T. MINH-HA
7 March – 22 April 2001
Secession, Vienna
7
8
6
4
3
2
1
Exhibition layout, NTU CCA Singapore, Block 43
Exhibition architecture by Adolf Krischanitz. Courtesy Secession, Vienna.
Trinh T. Minh-ha, 2001, Secession, Vienna, installation view. © Pez Hejduk.
A Tale of Love, 1995
Naked Spaces—Living is Round, 1985
Reassemblage, 1982
Shoot for the Contents, 1991
Surname Viet Given Name Nam, 1989
The Secession, in 2001, for the first time, featured Trinh’s
films as an exhibition installation in an institution. In its main
hall, Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz created five spaces as
screening rooms surrounding a central square area. Viewers could
access these theatres through black heavy drapes that operated
as separators, invited to see the films while resting on elevated
platforms or chairs.
�The Lab
WHY ARE THEY SO AFRAID OF A LOTUS?
24 October 2020 – 10 January 2021
18
Saturday, 17 October 2020
10.00 – 11:30am
In Conversation:
Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films.
with Trinh T. Minh Ha and
Ute Meta Bauer
Following an excerpt of What about
China? (Part I of II, 2020–21), her newest
film, Trinh will read from her film script.
This point of departure will bring Trinh’s
multivocal practice in conversation with
the curatorial and spatial concept of this
exhibition.
Tuesday, 27 October 2020
5:30 – 7.00pm
Reading Group:
Good Immigrant, Bad Immigrant
with Billy Tang
Thursday, 29 October 2020
7.00 – 8.30pm
In Conversation:
Speaking/Thinking Nearby
with Dr Marc Glöde and Dr Ella Raidel
Presented in collaboration with RAM
Special attention in the accompanying
film programme has been given to Trinh’s
approach of the withdrawal from the usual
pattern of the documentary with regard to
authenticity, representation, observation,
or the creation of sentiments in favour
of non-linear storytelling in which the
documentary appears as a performance.
This conversation will focus on key aspects
in Trinh’s work, and their correlation to the
films selected for the programme.
the West as the authoritative subject of feminist knowledge?
Expanding the discursive orbit of these questions, the presentation
features projects by artists Hồng-Ân Trương and Genevieve Quick,
among others.
Inspired by the commentary and writings
of novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, this
reading group explores the overlapping
concepts related to immigration and
transnationalism. Moving between
reportage, criticism, and fiction, it will
explore how the framing of good or bad
immigrants is intimately tied to questions
of belonging, otherness, identity, and
empathy. It draws on the archetypal
literary figure of the antihero to challenge
underlying prejudices, and locate counterimages embodying a more fluid way of
identifying with transnational experiences
around the world.
Conceived by Kim Nguyen (Canada/United States), Curator and Head of
Programmes, Wattis
Billy Tang (United Kingdom/China) is Senior
Curator, RAM.
Trinh T. Minh-ha is on our mind, September 2019 –
July 2020, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts,
San Francisco. Photo by Diego Villalobos.
“Speaking nearby” to the exhibition Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films.,
this research presentation showcases CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts’ (Wattis) year-long research season on Trinh’s
multifaceted practice as a filmmaker, writer and theorist. What
does the promise of “speaking nearby” rather than “speaking about”
look like today? What are the politics of hospitality? What are
the problematics of “post-feminism,” and how do we challenge
19
PUBLIC PROGRAMMES
Dr Marc Glöde (Germany/Singapore) is Assistant
Professor, NTU ADM
Dr Ella Raidel (Austria/Singapore) is Assistant
Professor, NTU ADM, and WKWSCI
�20
Tuesdays, 10 and 24 November 2020,
8 and 22 December 2020,
2 and 16 February 2021
5:30 – 7.00pm
Reading Group:
Dislocating/Locating Southeast Asia/
Trinh T. Minh-ha
with Nurul Huda Rashid and Phoebe Pua
This reading group takes ideas central to
Trinh T. Minh-Ha’s writing as points of
access to raise questions about the imagined
histories, geographies, and communities
of Southeast Asia. Over six sessions, the
group will discuss themes of storytelling,
feminism, and identities, and explore
terms such as “third world,” “nusantara,”
“woman,” and “native” with an eye towards
interpreting them as acts and articulations
of counter-narrative.
Nurul Huda Rashid (Singapore) is a visual artist
and writer.
Phoebe Pua (Singapore) is a film scholar.
Saturday, 21 November 2020
2.00 – 5.00pm
Workshop:
The Filmic Soundtrack
by Lim Ting Li
Registration: thefilmicsoundtrack.peatix.com
Explore the art of movie soundtracks
with Lim as she breaks down the layers
of audio behind film sequences, showing
you how dialogue, foley, ambience, and
sound effects add to the action. Then,
apply these principles and create your
own soundscape for a film scene.
Lim Ting Li (Singapore) is an award-winning
sound designer. She was conferred the National
Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 2018 and
is currently the Director of Sound at Mocha Chai
Laboratories.
Saturday, 12 December 2020
10.00am – 1.00pm
A Convening:
Mother Always Has a Mother
Presented in collaboration with Wattis and RAM
In “Grandma’s Story,” the last chapter of
Woman, Native, Other (1989), Trinh T.
Minh-ha writes that, “The story depends
upon every one of us to come into being.
It needs us all, needs our remembering,
understanding, and creating what we have
heard together to keep on coming into
being.” This convening builds upon this
idea of a multiplicity of storytellers and
intergenerational, intercultural linkages in
art, activism, stories, and histories.
21
Session 1: 10:00 – 11:15am
In Conversation:
with Hồng-Ân Trương and
Ranu Mukherjee,
moderated by Kim Nguyen
Screenings
by Genevieve Quick and
Ranu Mukherjee
Hồng-Ân Trương (United States) is an artist and
Associate Professor of Art, and Director of Graduate
Studies in the MFA Program at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Ranu Mukherjee (United States) is an artist and
Associate Professor in Fine Art and Film at the
California College of the Arts, San Francisco.
Kim Nguyen (Canada/United States) is Curator
and Head of Programs, Wattis.
Genevieve Quick (United States) is an artist and
arts writer.
Session 2: 11:15am – 1.00pm
Panel:
The Welling Up and the Very Coursing
of Water: On the Transnational, the
Transgenerational, and the Diasporic
with Eunsong Kim, Jungmin Choi,
Green Zeng and Billy Tang,
moderated by Kim Nguyen and
Dr Karin Oen
Eunsong Kim (United States) is Assistant Professor
of English and Cultures, Societies and Global Studies
at Northeastern University, Boston.
Jungmin Choi (Korea) is a campaigner and
nonviolence trainer at World Without War, Seoul.
Green Zeng (Singapore) is an artist and filmmaker,
and Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore
from April 2020 to January 2021.
Dr Karin Oen (United States/Singapore)
is Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore.
Tuesday, 12 January 2021
7.00 – 8.30pm
Exhibition (de)Tour:
The Life of Memory: Xiaolu Guo on her
writing and filmmaking
by Xiaolu Guo
Co-presented with NTU School of Humanities
and the Asia Creative Writing Programme
In Trinh T. Minh-ha’s newest work What
About China? (Part I of II), Guo reads from
her memoir Nine Continents: A Memoir In
and Out of China (2017) as a voice-over.
Reflecting on her childhood, her early
career in the Beijing art world, and her
current life in Europe, aspects of which
are chronicled in her films and novels as
well as her memoir, this (de)Tour focuses
on the relationship between memories
and art practice.
Xiaolu Guo (China/United Kingdom) is a
novelist, essayist and filmmaker. She is currently
a Visiting Professor at Columbia University in
New York. Her most recent novel is A Lover’s
Discourse (2020).
�22
The exhibition Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films. is part of an in-depth
inquiry into the multi-layered practice of Trinh T. Minh-ha as a
filmmaker, writer, music composer, and educator, that generated
a multi-year (2019–2022) research and programme partnership
between NTU CCA Singapore, Wattis, RAM, and WKV. What
originally started as conversations between the Centre and each
of these institutions more than a year ago, in the meantime led
to discussions across these institutions, not only in the area of
research, but also involving education and outreach.
This transnational, multi-institutional partnership across three
continents, sharing research, co-commissioning new work
and exploring new ways of outreach, creates a larger discursive
space and exchange of artistic practices and cultural knowledge,
demonstrating the possibilities of collaborative efforts beyond this
pandemic-driven global crisis.
Liaison, NTU CCA Singapore
Dr Karin Oen, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
Trinh T. Minh-ha, What about China? (Part I of II), 2020–21, film still.
23
TRANS-INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (Wattis) is a
non-profit exhibition venue and research institute dedicated to
contemporary art and ideas. Part of California College of the Arts
in San Francisco, it operates as a laboratory for testing the future
of contemporary art through public exhibitions, public programs,
and in-depth research.
wattis.org
Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), located in Shanghai, is
developing an oceanic vision of contemporary art, aiming to
explore the importance of seas and archipelagos across Asia in order
to unfold richer perspectives into today’s challenges, practices and
networks within the art world. Its curatorial approach incorporates
alternative learning programmes and para-performative formats.
rockbundartmuseum.org
With a program exploring new and unusual forms of presentation,
conveyance, and participation, Württembergischer Kunstverein
Stuttgart (WKV) is conceived as a place for the open, and also
controversial, investigation of the manifold methods and practices
found in contemporary art.
wkv-stuttgart.de
�24
SPEAKING / THINKING NEARBY
Online Film Programme
17 October 2020 – 28 February 2021
25
Film still courtesy Heidrun Holzfeind and Sixpackfilm.
Trinh T. Minh-ha’s approach to film has addressed a wide field
of discussions—ranging from the ethics of representation in
ethnographic film, to aspects of migration, debates on global
socio-political developments, and different layers of feminist
discourse. Her films are investigations into the question of the
voice as well as the relationship between the visible and audible.
This programme presents a selection of films that echo some
of these discussions negotiated by Trinh in her filmic works as
well as her writings, and create a dialogue with other filmmakers
and scholars.
Co-curated by Assistant Professors, Dr Marc Glöde (Germany/Singapore),
NTU ADM, and Dr Ella Raidel (Austria/Singapore), NTU ADM,
and WKWSCI
Film still © Kimi Takesue.
Film still courtesy Trinh T. Minh-ha.
1 – 14 November 2020
the time is now. (I+II), Heidrun Holzfeind, 2019
15 – 28 November 2020
Heaven’s Crossroad, Kimi Takesue, 2002
Video, colour, sound, 35 min
29 November – 10 December 2020
Naked Spaces—Living is Round, Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1985
16mm transferred to digital file, colour, sound, 135 min
Holzfeind is interested in architectural and social utopias that
create an alternative living. She documents the shamanistic rituals
of the Japanese improvisation/noise duo IRO, Toshio and Shizuko
Orimo, in what they call “Punk Kagura”—in reference to Kagura,
a ritual dance tradition and music for the gods. Holzfeind uses a
visual language that adapts their mystical rituals: breaks in image;
the colour and narrative corresponding with the soundscape; the
modernist architecture of Takamasa Yosizaka; and the surrounding
nature in which the duo performs a choreography for healing our
damaged planet. The urgency is underlined in the title the time
is now.
What does it mean to “look” cross-culturally? This film follows
up on this question by creating a visual journey through
Vietnam. Instead of following the established patterns of the
classic documentary, Takesue creates an experimental experience
that challenges the audience and invites us to reflect on what it
means to “truly see another culture”. Within this beautiful visual
travelogue, questions of desire, projection, and communication
begin to appear, that are embedded in this idea of the cross-cultural
encounter.
Six West African countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso,
Togo, Benin, and Senegal) stand in the centre of this film. The
work explores the life in the rural environments of these countries
by taking a closer look at the everyday. With its nonlinear
structure, the film steps away from the classical traditions of
the documentary/ethnography tradition and offers a sensuous
approach. It is a poetic journey to the African continent in which
the interaction of the encountered people or the spaces in which
they are living becomes relevant.
Colour, sound, 48 min
Heidrun Holzfeind (Austria/Germany), an artist and filmmaker, explores the
interrelations between history and identity, individual histories and political
narratives of the present.
Kimi Takesue (United States) is an award-winning filmmaker and recipient
of the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships in Film.
�26
27
Film still courtesy Women Make Movies.
Film still courtesy Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Film still courtesy Reel Suspects.
Film still courtesy Trinh T. Minh-ha.
11 – 24 December 2020
A Song of Ceylon, Laleen Jayamanne, 1985
25 December 2020 – 5 January 2021
Surname Viet Given Name Nam, Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1989
6 – 19 January 2021
Nervous Translation, Shireen Seno, 2018
20 – 31 January 2021
Reassemblage, Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1982
This film is an intense study of the body, gender, and the multiple
aspects of colonialism. It addresses theatrical conventions by
recreating classic film stills and presenting the body in striking
tableaux. A remarkable film on which Trinh T Minh-Ha, in
Discourse (1989), commented: “The anthropological text is
performed both like a musical score and a theatrical ritual….The
film engages the viewer in the cinematic body as spectacle…”.
This film is Trinh’s complex deep dive into the difficulties of
translation, as well as themes of exile or dislocation. By using
historic material, dance, printed texts, folk poetry, and combining
it with anecdotal narratives, she examines the status of Vietnamese
women since the Vietnam War, as well as the status of images
as evidence. It is a complex approach that invites the audience to
reflect on the modes of perception and encourages a profound
critique of audio-visual strategies.
This film follows the inner voice and play of an eight-year-old girl
who cooks perfect miniature dishes, mimicking the world of adults.
The perception of the child is translated through fragmentation
and sounds that are written into words, such as the ring of the
telephone, and the sound of the aircon, all forming together, an
orchestra of the everyday. Waiting, boredom, and dead time pave
the temporality of her imagination, while she listens to cassette
tapes recorded by her father, a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia.
The personal phantasmagoric vision encounters the political
dimension echoing the times of the People Power Revolution in
the Philippines.
With her remarkable and widely discussed first film, Trinh brings
the conventions of the documentary to our attention and asks
how films in the field of documentary and ethnographic tradition
have consecutively established a power to manipulate the way in
which we perceive different cultures. By gathering filmic means
and techniques that reject the traditional narrative forms, Trinh
constantly alerts us to our own process of perception, furthermore
reminding us that watching a movie is not a passive, but an active
process.
16mm film, colour, sound, 51 min
Laleen Jayamanne (Sri Lanka/Australia) is a filmmaker and Professor of
Cinema Studies at the Power Department of Fine Arts at the University of
Sydney, Australia.
16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound, 108 min
Colour, sound, 90 min
Shireen Seno (Japan/Philippines) studied architecture and cinema at the
University of Toronto before relocating to Manila. Her work addresses memory,
history and image-making, often in relation to the idea of home.
16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound, 40 min
�28
Film still courtesy Icarus Films.
Film still © Kimi Takesue.
1 – 14 February 2021
The Human Pyramid, Jean Rouch, 1961
15 – 28 February 2021
95 and 6 to Go, Kimi Takesue, 2016
At the Lycée Français of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Rouch worked with
students there who willingly enacted a story about the arrival of a
new white girl, Nadine, and her effect on the interactions of and
interracial relationships between the white colonial French and
Black African classmates, all non-actors. Fomenting a dramatic
situation instead of repeating one, Rouch extended the experiments
he had undertaken in Chronicle of a Summer, including having
on-camera student participants view rushes of the film midway
through the story. The docu-drama shows how working together
to make the film changes their attitude towards each other.
—Icarus Film
While visiting her grandfather, a recent widower in his 90s in
Hawai’i, Takesue begins to follow his everyday routines. When he
shows interest in his granddaughter’s stalled romantic screenplay,
an interesting discussion about her work, family, memories, and
identity unfolds. Shot over six years, this film shows how personal
aspects intertwine with a critical reflection of the documentary
genre.
DCP, colour, sound, 93 min
Jean Rouch (France), ethnographer-turned-filmmaker, was the father of
modern cinéma vérité together with his collaborator, Edgar Morin. Their
work has had great influence on French New Wave filmmakers.
Digital, colour, sound, 85 min
29
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DOCUMENTARY”
Conference
Friday and Saturday, 26 – 27 February 2021
This four-part conference brings together
scholars and practitioners across filmic,
anthropological and curatorial disciplines,
addressing notions of multivocality,
performativity, and truth in fiction,
through Trinh T. Minh-ha’s practice as a
filmmaker and theorist.
As Trinh wrote: “There is no such thing
as documentary… The words will not
ring true.” Both a response and homage
to Trinh’s provocation, and at once a
close but also an opening, the conference
extends multiple threads of inquiry
beyond the ontological frames presented
in Trinh’s films, to further explore the
theoretical parallels and proximities
between arrangement and composition,
territorialisation and deterritorisalisation,
that underscore Trinh’s cinematic works.
Friday, 26 February 2021
4.00 – 8.00pm
Session 1: Speaking Nearby
chaired by Dr Erika Balsom
(United Kingdom), Senior Lecturer,
Film Studies, KCL
Keynote lecture by Dr Erika Balsom
Saturday, 27 February 2021
1:30 – 8.00pm
Session 2: Reverberations — Spatialising
the Temporal, the Sonic, and the Pictorial
chaired by Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/
Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA
Singapore, and Professor, NTU ADM
Session 3: Performing the Documents
chaired by Dr Ella Raidel (Austria/
Singapore), Assistant Professor, NTU
ADM, and WKWSCI
Session 4: Filmic Interferences
chaired by Dr Marc Glöde (Germany/
Singapore), Assistant Professor, NTU ADM
Speakers include:
Professor Chris Berry (United Kingdom),
Professor of Film Studies, KCL
Iris Dressler (Germany), Director, WKV
Rosalia Namsai Engchuan (Germany/
Thailand), social anthropologist and
filmmaker
Larys Frogier (France/China),
Director, RAM
Dr Nicholas Helm-Grovas (United
Kingdom), Lecturer in Film Studies
Education, KCL
Dr Philippa Lovatt (United Kingdom),
Lecturer in Film Studies, University of
St Andrews
Dr Karin Oen (United States/Singapore),
Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore
Tan Pin Pin (Singapore), film director
Presented in collaboration with King’s College
London (KCL)
Supported by
�30
31
NTU CCA SINGAPORE PUBLICATIONS
Culture City. Culture Scape. (Forthcoming 2021)
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Sophie Goltz, and Khim Ong.
Climates. Habitats. Environments. (Forthcoming 2021)
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer.
Becoming Palm
Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig.
NTU CCA Singapore and Sternberg Press, 2017.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
(Out of Print)
The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia)
NTU CCA Singapore and World Scientific Publishing, 2020.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Khim Ong, and Roger Nelson.
SouthEastAsia: Spaces of the Curatorial
Jahresring 63. Sternberg Press, 2016.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Brigitte Oetker.
Thao Nguyên Phan: Voyages de Rhodes
Artist’s Book Series. NTU CCA Singapore, 2018.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Theatrical Fields: Critical Strategies in Performance,
Film, and Video
NTU CCA Singapore, König Books, London,
and Bildmuseet, Umeå, 2016.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Place.Labour.Capital.
NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing,
distributed by NUS Press, 2018.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions
Audio Publication. NTU CCA Singapore, 2017.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Publications are available for purchase at Block 43, Malan Road, S109443.
For online purchase and delivery, please email ntuccaresearch@ntu.edu.sg
Trinh T. Minh-ha, What about China? (Part I of II), 2020–21, film still.
�33
NTU CENTRE FOR
CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
SPACES OF THE CURATORIAL
WE NEED YOU!
SHARED ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES
WITH THE SCHOOL OF
ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA, NTU
ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF
ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA, NTU
ABOUT NANYANG
TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
A leading international art institution,
NTU CCA Singapore is a platform, host,
and partner creating and driven by dynamic
thinking in its three-fold constellation:
Exhibitions; Residencies Programme;
Research and Academic Education.
A national research centre for contemporary
art of Nanyang Technological University,
the Centre focuses on Spaces of the
Curatorial. It brings forth innovative and
experimental forms of emergent artistic
and curatorial practices that intersect the
present and histories of contemporary art
embedded in social-political spheres with
other fields of knowledge.
The Centre seeks to engage the
potential of “curating,” and its
expanded field. What are the
infrastructures and modes of
presenting and discussing artistic
and cultural production in diverse
cultural settings and in particular
throughout Southeast Asia’s vastly
changing societies? NTU CCA
Singapore’s exhibition spaces,
designed by artist and curator Fareed
Armaly, respond to this curatorial
framework to unfold different
juxtaposed formats.
Your support is integral to the Centre’s
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nation with Asian sensibilities, the School
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to play a weighty role in transforming the
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inter-disciplinary courses are designed to
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school is equipped with exceptional handson studios, digital creation laboratories,
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�34
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�Trinh T. Minh-ha, The Fourth Dimension, 2001, film still.
Trinh T. Minh-ha, The Fourth Dimension, 2001, film still.
�Trinh T. Minh-ha, The Fourth Dimension, 2001, film still.
Trinh T. Minh-ha, The Fourth Dimension, 2001, film still.
�40
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Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films Exhibition Guide
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Ute Meta Bauer
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Text
NON-ALIGNED
EXHIBITION
4 APRIL –
2 1 JUNE 2020
JOHN AKOMFRAH
NAEEM MOHAIEMEN
THE OTOLITH GROUP
�THE UNFINISHED CONVERSATION TWO MEETINGS AND A FUNERAL
JOHN AKOMFRAH
NAEEM MOHAIEMEN
NUCLEUS OF THE GREAT UNION
THE OTOLITH GROUP
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.
NOTES FROM THE CURATOR
I would like to thank the artists for the sustained conversations that we have shared over the years, including with the film
scholar and curator Mark Nash. I thank him and Vladimir Seput, who put together the screening programme titled
Third Way / After Bandung. I also thank the contributing filmmakers who generously provided us with access to their works.
I would also like to thank colleagues and all the individuals who will contribute to discuss these topics with our audiences.
Non-Aligned brings together three moving-image works by artists, filmmakers, and writers that inquire into the challenging
transition periods from British colonial rule to the independence of nations. The various colonial territories, spanning from
Asia to Australia, from Africa to America to the Caribbean, gained their sovereignty and independence at different times.
These processes of decolonisation played out in the histories of nations, but also determined the lives of individuals.
I also take the opportunity to acknowledge the work of peer institutions that continue to share agency in the effort of critically
engaging with the complexities of history and necessary revisions. I’m particularly grateful for the exhibition Undefined
Territories: Perspectives on Colonial Legacies (2019) at MACBA; Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, in 2019; Haus der Kulturen der Welt that presented Parapolitics:
Cultural Freedom and the Cold War (2017) and The Black Atlantic (2004); documenta 14 (2017) and all the institutions that
co-commissioned Two Meetings and a Funeral; and the 2012 Liverpool Biennale that premiered The Unfinished Conversation.
Amplifying and celebrating outstanding voices that engage in the inherent struggles that define the post-WWII period,
Non-Aligned reflects on a period of new departures for progressive movements that paved the way for post-colonial politics.
This process of examining the interconnected stories of place, identity, and the conscious assertion of difference from
established Western narratives contributes to the still ongoing effort towards complete decolonisation.
The featured artists apply archival material in different ways, presenting documents, photos, and footage collected by
individuals, as well as tracing historic events and sites. This includes the personal histories and the work 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), and the history of political organisation 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.
In memory of Stuart Hall, and a year after the untimely passing of our Centre’s International Advisory Board member
Okwui Enwezor, it is imperative to keep these efforts alive in order to commemorate the calls for change by so many
across time and geographies.
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
and Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
1
Cover: Naeem Mohaiemen, Two Meetings and a Funeral, film still, 2017.
Courtesy the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata.
�THE UNFINISHED CONVERSATION
JOHN AKOMFRAH
The Unfinished Conversation (2012) is an in-depth inquiry by filmmaker John Akomfrah into the personal archive of audio
interviews and television recordings of the influential theorist, educator, and activist 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, oppression, and slavery, and became an influential figure of the British New Left—a movement
that grew out of Marxism but that featured an expanded focus on civil rights and labour organisation—having been the first
editor-in-chief of the political academic journal New Left Review from 1960 to 1962.
Produced from hundreds of hours of archival material, Akomfrah’s film weaves across documentation of historical events
—including the post-World War II migration of nearly half a million Caribbean people to Britain, a group known as the
Windrush generation—together with home videos and photographs from personal moments in Hall’s life. In doing so,
Akomfrah has created a form of storytelling that illustrates Hall’s description of identity as a “matter of becoming” or an
“ever unfinished conversation.” The film’s narrative ends in the late 1960s, but includes recent interviews with Hall
before he died in 2014, echoing his reflection on identity as belonging “to the future as well as to the past.”
The Unfinished Conversation was made over a period of three and a half years, during which Akomfrah worked closely
with Hall. The soundtrack is made up of jazz and gospel music, as well as readings from a wide range of authors, including
William Blake, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Mervyn Peake. The use of different footage and multiple screens
portray how identity is formed as part of a collision of history, culture, and politics. Identity is presented as a conjunction
of the outside and the inside, where individual subjectivities are formed in both real and fictive spaces.
John Akomfrah, The Unfinished Conversation, film stills, 2012.
Copyright Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
�John Akomfrah, The Unfinished Conversation, film stills, 2012.
Copyright Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
�TWO MEETINGS AND A FUNERAL
NAEEM MOHAIEMEN
The Non-Aligned Movement’s history is at the core of Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), a feature-length three-channel
video installation by Naeem Mohaiemen. 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. Mohaiemen’s project is centred on Bangladesh’s hesitant, contradictory
navigation of these two historic meetings and is set against the backdrop of its struggle for United Nations recognition.
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. “The Third World
was not a place, but a project,” according to the book The Darker Nations (2007). This was meant to be a utopian alliance
where the Global South would reconfigure planetary leadership, ending Euro-American dominance. NAM, spanning Asia,
Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, attempted to navigate a “third way.”
Travelling through archival film material, the residues of transnational architecture (Niemeyer, Moretti, Le Corbusier)
in New York, Algiers, and Dhaka, and footage with key leaders, such as Muammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, Indira Gandhi,
Fidel Castro, or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the film looks at the limitations of decolonisation movements that neglected
to liberate their own leadership.
Naeem Mohaiemen, Two Meetings and a Funeral, film stills, 2017.
Courtesy the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata.
�Naeem Mohaiemen, Two Meetings and a Funeral, film stills, 2017.
Courtesy the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata.
�NUCLEUS OF THE GREAT UNION
THE OTOLITH GROUP
In the video essay Nucleus of the Great Union (2017), The Otolith Group traces the African American novelist Richard Wright’s
first trip to Africa in 1953. Travelling the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) for 10 weeks, he witnessed political campaigns for
independence in West Africa, yet felt alienation at his first encounter with the continent. Living as an expatriate in Paris at
the time, Wright had long expressed a wish to travel to Africa, the origin of the Black diaspora and a site of intense political
struggle in the early 1950s. In the spring of 1953, his travel plans were set into motion by the success of the African nationalist
movement in the Gold Coast led by the charismatic politician Kwame Nkrumah. In spite of his high hopes for this voyage,
however, Wright deemed his trip a failure in the end, writing in his journal, “Africa! Where are you! Are you a myth?
I seek you and cannot find you. I am in despair.”
A selection of over 1,500 of Wright’s unpublished photographs from the Gold Coast appear throughout Nucleus of the Great
Union in various forms: individually, in contact prints, and in a digitally rendered spiral with captions derived from Wright’s
notes and correspondence with Nkrumah. Collaborating with award-winning writer and historian Saidiya Hartman, whose
voice-over quotes from her book, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2006), The Otolith Group tallies
Wright’s disappointment at having failed to discover the keys to racial solidarity in Africa with the ongoing need for a politics
of Black internationalism.
The Otolith Group, Nucleus of the Great Union, film still, 2017.
Courtesy the artists and LUX, London.
Wright initially intended his book Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos (1954) to include both text and the
photos taken with his professional-grade camera, but this request was rejected by his publisher. The negatives and paper prints
of this still unseen photographic archive are now housed in the Special Collections at the Beinecke Library in Yale University,
United States; several hundred have recently been digitised. Through this work, The Otolith Group finally honours Wright’s
initial aim of seeing image and text as one single narration.
�The Otolith Group, Nucleus of the Great Union, film stills, 2017.
Courtesy the artists and LUX, London.
�ARTWORKS AND BIOGRAPHIES
The Unfinished Conversation, 2012
John Akomfrah
Three-screen video installation,
7.1 sound, 45 min 48 sec
Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films
and Lisson Gallery.
Commissioned by Autograph ABP, United
Kingdom. Produced by Lina Gopaul and David
Lawson, Smoking Dogs Films, in collaboration
with Professor Stuart Hall. Executive producer
Mark Sealy, Director, Autograph ABP. Funded
by Grants For Arts, Arts Council England and
supported by the Bluecoat, New Art Exchange,
Nottingham; the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute
for African and African American Research,
Harvard University, United States; Royal
College Inspire Programme, United Kingdom;
and Smoking Dogs Films Production. With
kind support from NAXOS Books, The Open
University, BBC, Time/Image, and Getty Images.
John Akomfrah (United Kingdom) is a highly
respected artist and filmmaker of Ghanaian
descent, living and working in London. His
works are characterised by their investigations
into memory, postcolonialism, temporality, and
aesthetics, often exploring the experiences
of migrant diasporas globally. He combines
text, music, and archival documents to shift
debates on politics, media, and conventional
historic narratives. Akomfrah was a founding
member of the influential Black Audio Film
Collective, which started in London in 1982
alongside the artists David Lawson and Lina
Gopaul, who he still collaborates with today.
He has had numerous solo exhibitions including
ICA Boston (2019); New Museum, New
York (2018); Nasher Museum of Art, Duke
University, Durham (2018); SFMOMA, San
Francisco (2018); Barbican, London (2017);
Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2016); and Tate
Britain, London (2013-14). He has participated
in the Ghana Pavilion, 58th and 56th Venice
Biennale (2019 and 2015); Prospect 4, New
Orleans (2017); La Triennale di Milano (2017);
Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017);
SeMA, Seoul (2014); Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013);
Liverpool Biennial (2012); and Taipei Biennial
(2012). He was awarded the Artes Mundi Prize
in 2017.
Two Meetings and a Funeral, 2017
Naeem Mohaiemen
Three-channel digital video installation,
5.1 sound, 89 min
Edition 5 of 5. Courtesy the artist and
Experimenter, Kolkata.
Commissioned by documenta 14, Germany.
Co-commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation,
United Arab Emirates and Ford Foundation
(Just Films), United States. Supported by
Bengal Foundation, Bangladesh; Tensta
Konstshall, Sweden; and Arts Council, United
Kingdom. Additional support by Tate Films,
United Kingdom and Experimenter, India.
10
11
Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh/United
States) was born in London and grew up in
Dhaka. In his works, he uses film, installation,
and essays to research socialist utopias and
incomplete decolonisation. Despite underscoring the left’s historic errors, a hope for a
future global left is always a basis for the work.
Mohaiemen is author of Midnight’s Third
Child (Nokta, 2020) and Prisoners of Shothik
Itihash (Kunsthalle Basel, 2014); co-editor (with
Eszter Szakacs) of Solidarity Must be Defended
(Tranzit, 2020); and co-editor (with Lorenzo
Fusi) of System Error: War is a Force that Gives
us Meaning (Sylvana, 2007). Solo exhibitions
include Tripoli Banchal, Bengal Foundation,
Dhaka (2020); There is no Last Man, Museum
of Modern Art (PS1), New York (2017); and
My Mobile Weighs a Ton, Gallery Chitrak,
Dhaka (2008). Group exhibitions include Chobi
Mela (2019, 2017, 2009); Lahore Biennial
(2018); documenta 14 (2017); Venice Biennale
(2015); and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014).
Mohaiemen has worked in activist collectives
in New York (Gulf Labor Coalition, Visible
Collective, 3rd i South Asian Film, South Asia
Solidarity Network) and Dhaka (Drishtipat,
Alal O Dulal). He was nominated for the
2018 Turner Prize, London, and is a 2020-21
postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University,
New York.
Nucleus of the Great Union, 2017
The Otolith Group
HD video, colour, sound, 32 min 35 sec
Courtesy the artists and LUX, London.
Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt,
Berlin.
The Otolith Group (United Kingdom)
is an award-winning artist-led collective
founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo
Eshun in 2002. Their moving image, audio
works, performances, and installations
are characterised by an engagement with
the legacies and potentialities of diasporic
futurisms that explore modes of temporal
anomalies, anthropic inversions, and synthetic
alienation. Their work is driven by extensive
research into the histories of science fiction
and the legacies of transnationalism. Recent
solo exhibitions include Xenogenesis, Van Abbe
Museum, Eindhoven (2019); Reconstruction
of Story 2, National Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art, Korea (2018); In the Year of
the Quiet Sun, CASCO, Utrecht (2014); Novaya
Zemlya, Museu Serralves, Porto (2014); and
Medium Earth, REDCAT, Los Angeles (2013).
They have participated in exhibitions at Haus
der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019); Carnegie
International, 57th Edition (2018); KochiMuziris Biennale, (2018); Rubin Museum
of Art, New York (2018); Villa Empain
- Fondation Boghossian, Brussels (2017);
Sharjah Biennial 13, (2017); Gwangju Biennale
(2016); and Institute of Contemporary Art,
Philadelphia (2015).
�FILM PROGRAMME
THIRD WAY / AFTER BANDUNG
14 – 19 April 2020
First conference of Non-Aligned
Movement, 1961
21 – 26 April 2020
Borom Sarret,
Ousmane Sembène, 1963
28 April – 3 May 2020
I am Cuba (Soy Cuba),
Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964
5 – 10 May 2020
Black Girl (La noire de... ),
Ousmane Sembène, 1966
Archive footage from the first
conference of the 1961 Non-Aligned
Movement, otherwise known as the
Belgrade Conference, presenting
historical events from the meeting.
The inaugural conference was initiated
by three key figures: Josip Broz Tito,
President of Yugoslavia; Gamal
Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt; and
Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister
of India. Attended by 25 countries
from Asia, Africa, and Latin America,
the conference is a direct response to
the division of spheres of influence
settled between the major world forces
after World War II and the Cold War,
enabling members to independently
formulate their own position in
international politics.
Borom Sarret is often considered the
first film ever made in Africa by
a black African. The stark masterpiece
chronicles a day in the life of a Dakar
cart driver. The frustrating day of this
“borom sarret” (a Wolof expression
for cart driver), where he encounters
an unfortunate array of characters,
leaves him cheated out of his wages and
deprived of his cart. In this powerful
evocative film with urban details and a
socially critical voice, Sembène conveys
the toll of natural loss, poverty, and
the stain of the European colonisation
of Africa.
I am Cuba follows four short stories
outlining the sufferings of Cubans
during the Cuban Revolution. Maria,
a young woman working at a Havana
night club catering to rich Americans
who is forced to entertain and sleep
with tourists for money; Pedro, a tenant
farmer whose sugarcane fields are taken
from him after the landowner decides to
sell the plot to an American company;
Enrique, a young revolutionary and
university student who is part of the
intellectual resistance; and Mariano,
a peasant who is moved to take up
arms and join the rebel army after a
government bomb kills his son. The
film is narrated by Raquel Revuelta,
carrying the story to its conclusion:
the triumph of the revolution.
The film follows Senegal’s first years
of independence through a young
ambitious woman, Diouana. She secures
a job as a maid with a French couple
working in Dakar. Seduced by the
apparent kindness of her employers, she
accepts their offer to follow the family
to the French Cote d’Azur. In France,
she finds herself imprisoned, being
denied any time off and treated like
an object. A harrowing human drama
as well as a radical political statement,
critiquing the colonial mindset of a
supposedly postcolonial world. Black
Girl is the first black African feature
film which screened at Cannes and won
the Prix Jean Vigo and top prize at the
Carthage Film Festival.
Archive footage, colour, sound,
10 min 51 sec
The Single Screen
7 April – 21 June 2020
Screening on loop during opening hours.
This programme features films that
engage postcolonial processes covering
different moments and geopolitical
contexts. The Asian-African Conference
in 1955, known as the Bandung
Conference, amidst the complex
processes of decolonisation, established
self-determination, non-aggression,
and equality as part of the core values
that then formed the Non-Aligned
Movement. This history is unpacked
and contextualised through this series
of screenings.
Co-curated by writer and curator Mark Nash
and film researcher Vladimir Seput
7 – 12 April 2020
Indonesia Calling, Joris Ivens, 1946
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w,
sound, 22 min
The film gives a glimpse of the
immediate post-World War II Sydney,
where trade union seamen and
waterside workers refused to service
Dutch ships which contained arms and
ammunition, destined for Indonesia,
utilising them to bring the Indonesian
National Revolution to a halt. The film
seeks to distil aspects of the historical
context of the events depicted in the
film and gives insight to the major realignments in the relationship between
Australia and Indonesia.
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w,
sound, 18 min
12
13
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w,
sound, 141 min
35mm transferred to digital file, b&w,
sound, 60 min
�12 – 17 May 2020
Memories of Underdevelopment,
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968
35mm transferred to digital file,
b&w, sound, 97 min
The film’s narrative is presented
through the lens of Sergio, a wealthy
bourgeois aspiring writer, during the
aftermath of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
His family decides to retreat to Miami
during the turmoil of social changes.
The film is interspersed with real-life
documentary footage of protest and
political events in which Sergio’s life
and personal relationship unfolds. As
the threat of foreign invasion looms
over Sergio, his desire for companionship also intensifies.
19 – 31 May 2020
Early Works (Rani Radovi),
Želimir Žilnik, 1969
35mm transferred to digital file,
b&w, sound, 58 min
Winner of the Golden Berlin Bear
Award at the 19th Berlin International
Film Festival, Early Works (Ravi Radovi)
recounts a story of youths who took
part in the student demonstrations of
June 1968 in Belgrade. Three young
men and a girl, Yugoslava, set out to
defy the petit-bourgeois routine of
everyday life. Wanting to change the
world and inspired by the writings of
the young Karl Marx, they go to the
country to persuade the peasants to
fight for emancipation. They eventually
get arrested. Frustrated at the failed
revolution, the three young men decide
to kill Yugoslava. They shoot her, cover
her with the party flag and burn her
body. The smoke rising up into the sky
is the only thing that remains of the
intended revolution.
19 – 31 May 2020
Black Film (Cri Film),
Želimir Žilnik, 1971
2 – 7 June 2020
Litany of Happy People (Zdravi ljudi
za razonodu), Karpo Godina, 1971
16mm transferred to digital file, b&w,
sound, 14 min
35mm transferred to digital file, colour,
sound, 15 min
The film chronicles Žilnik picking up
a group of homeless men from the
streets of Novi Sad and taking them
to his home. Žilnik carries along a
film camera to witness his efforts to
“solve the problem of the homeless,”
while the group of homeless men enjoy
themselves in his house. He speaks to
social workers, members of the general
public, and even engages with the
policemen. However, they turn a blind
eye to the “problem” at hand.
The Litany of Happy People is a songfilm about the diverse group of people
living harmoniously in rural Vojvodina,
an autonomous province of Serbia
known for its multicultural and multiethnic identity. The film presents
families with multi-ethnic backgrounds,
standing in front of their seemingly
similar but colourful rural houses.
The film won numerous awards at short
film festivals.
14
15
9 – 14 June 2020
About Art of Love or a Film with 14441
Frames (O ljubavnim veštinama ili film sa
14441 kvadratom), Karpo Godina, 1972
Colour, sound, 10 min
This film presents an almost journalistic
report of the female textile workers
and male military soldiers in the
Macedonian village of Stip. Interwoven
with military footage and shots of the
village, the alternating scenes present
the two groups in proximity, while
being completely isolated. The film
went through a thorough restoration
process in 2016 and was shown at the
30th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato
in Bologna, Italy.
16 – 21 June 2020
Frantz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask,
Isaac Julien, 1995
35mm transferred to digital file,
colour, sound, 70 min
This film interrogates the life and work
of Frantz Fanon, a highly influential
anti-colonial writer, civil rights activist,
and psychoanalytic theorist from
Martinique. The docudrama is interspersed with archival footage of Fanon
as well as interviews with family members
and colleagues. Reflecting on the black
body and its representations, the film
is rooted in the black arts movement in
Britain and North America.
Admission is free.
A selection of films will be streamed
on vimeo.com/ntuccasingapore.
For more information and updates,
please visit ntu.ccasingapore.org
�BIOGRAPHIES
Filmmakers
Karpo Godina (Slovenia) is a prominent
filmmaker and cinematographer. He is an
essential figure and a pioneering member of the
Yugoslav Black Wave film movement of the
1960s and 1970s. His film career was launched
in the 1960s when he independently produced
8mm experimental shorts and numerous sociocritical films. His film Artificial Paradise was
screened at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Cuba) is a prominent
and highly celebrated Cuban film director. He
is an influential figure in shaping Cuba’s film
industry. Originally trained in law, he went on
to study filmmaking in Italy. His socially-driven
works expose the plight of the working class
and the Cuban revolution. He explored various
genres such as Neorealism, comedy, and
historical film to reflect on the lives and people
of Cuba.
Joris Ivens (Netherlands) was a documentary
filmmaker whose career spanned over 60
years. He filmed more than 50 international
documentaries that explored leftist social and
political concerns during the 20th century.
Named film commissioner in 1944 for the
Dutch East Indies, he later resigned in protest
over the Dutch’s resistance to decolonisation.
Among the notable films he has directed or
co-directed, there are A Tale of the Wind
(1988), The Spanish Earth (1937), and Far from
Vietnam (1967). In 1988, Ivens received the
Golden Lion Honorary Award at the Venice
Film Festival and in 1989, he was knighted
in the Order of the Dutch Lion.
Isaac Julien, CBE RA (United Kingdom) is a
distinguished filmmaker and installation artist,
and Professor, UC Santa Cruz. His multiscreen
film installations and photographs incorporate
different artistic disciplines to create a poetic
and unique visual language. Julien’s notable
documentary-drama, Looking for Langston (1989),
garnered him a cult following. His works have
shown in solo shows internationally, and he
has participated in various biennales. Most
recently, he received the Charles Wollaston
Award (2017) for most distinguished work at
the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and in
2018 he was made a Royal Academician. Julien
was awarded the title Commander of the Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE)
in the Queen’s birthday honours, 2017.
Mikhail Kalatozov (Russia) was a prominent
film director who largely contributed to both
Georgian and Russian cinema. He studied
economics before starting his extensive
filmmaking career in 1923. He had his solo
directorial debut in 1930 with the documentary
Salt for Svanetia and directed several propaganda
films during World War II. He also worked as
a cultural attaché at the Soviet Embassy in the
United States, and was later appointed Deputy
Film Minister of the Soviet Union. He is best
known for his World War II drama, The Cranes
Are Flying (1958), which won the Palm d’Or
at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.
Ousmane Sembène (Senegal) was a
preeminent Senegalese film director and writer.
His writings observed the political scene in
Senegal where he wrote several volumes on
the developing national consciousness. In the
early 1960s, he turned to film and went to
study in Moscow. He is often called the “Father
of African Cinema,” a title befitting the first
African to make a film distributed outside of
Africa. His works examine the multiplicities of a
continent emerging from the colonial era, at grips
with the tensions of independence and modernity,
historicising Africa’s political and social transformation throughout the 20th century.
Želimir Žilnik (Serbia) is best known as
one of the major figures of the Yugoslav Black
Wave film movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
He is noted for his socially engaging style of
filmmaking and focus on contemporary issues—
social, political and economic assessments of
everyday life. His feature film Early Works
(Rani Radovi) won him a Golden Berlin Bear
Award at the 19th Berlin International Film
Festival. Not only has his work been included
in programmes of art galleries and museums
worldwide, he is also a mentor and executive
producer in many international workshops for
students in South-Eastern Europe. He is also
a visiting lecturer at film schools.
16
17
Film programme guest curators
Mark Nash (United Kingdom/United States)
is a curator and writer, and Professor,
University of California Santa Cruz. He was
Head of Department Curating Contemporary
Art at the Royal College of Art London, and
prior Director of Fine Art Research at Central
St Martins. He was a senior lecturer in Film
History and Theory at the University of East
London, visiting lecturer at the Whitney
Museum Independent Study Program, and
visiting research fellow at the NTU CCA
Singapore (2015). He holds a PhD from
Middlesex University. Nash has written
extensively on artists’ work with the moving
image, having curated One Sixth of the Earth,
ecologies of image at ZKM, Karlsruhe and
MUSAC, Leon (2012-13) and Experiments
with Truth, Fabric Workshop and
Museum, Philadelphia (2004-5).
Vladimir Seput (Croatia/United Kingdom)
is a curator and researcher based in London.
He studied film in Zagreb and did postgraduate
research in film/video studies at University
Paris 8 (2013-14), where he wrote about
Mediterranean iconography in film and moving
image, and researched the cinematic aspects
of the sea as a place where politics, history,
and mythology intersect. He holds a Masters
in Film Curation from Birkbeck, University
of London (2017). For the last 10 years, he has
published on film and moving image art, and
translated and edited books on philosophy,
literary criticism, and contemporary art for
various publications in Croatia and the
United Kingdom.
�EXHIBITION (DE)TOUR
Thursday, 18 June 2020, 7.00 – 8.30pm
Exhibition (de)Tour: Nonlinear
Trajectories with Dr Itty Abraham,
Professor and Head, Department of
Southeast Asian Studies, NUS
Taking the dis-connections between
the three cinematic projects in the
exhibition as points of departure,
Professor Abraham will engage in a
critical conversation about the multiple
pasts of what is today called the Global
South. A historical overview of the
Bandung Conference and its links
to the Non-Aligned Movement, real
and imagined, will help contextualise
different Cold War trajectories
as structure and as possibility.
Dr Itty Abraham (United States/Singapore)
is Professor and Head of the Department
of Southeast Asian Studies at the National
University of Singapore (NUS). Earlier, he
was director of the South Asia Institute at the
University of Texas at Austin and program
director at the Social Science Research Council
(SSRC), New York. He was a Fulbright-Nehru
senior fellow in 2011 and has received research
grants from the US National Science Foundation,
Ford, Rockefeller, and MacArthur foundations,
among others. He has written about nuclear
power, criminal borderlands, foreign policy,
digital cultures, and postcolonial technoscience.
He is currently working on a book on refugees
and forced migration in Asia.
WORKSHOPS
Saturday, 16 May 2020, 2.00 – 4.00pm
Workshop: Personalising the Political
with writer Balli Kaur Jaswal
Registration: personalisethepolitical.peatix.com
How can we personalise the political?
What is the role of storytelling in
our understanding of current events?
Narrative writing can distil headlines
and issues to individual experience,
and remind us of our personal stake in
a world of multitudes. In this creative
writing workshop, participants will
draw from the global sociocultural
landscape to create fictions that illuminate the stories of individuals in the
context of wider events. Activities will
include guided writing exercises and
critical feedback sessions to deepen
our understanding of character, form,
tension, and resolution.
Saturday, 13 June 2020, 2.00 – 5.00pm
Workshop: Discovering Histories,
Designing Stories with artist Robert
Zhao and filmmaker Andre Quek
Registration: historiesandstories.peatix.com
How can physical traces of the past
help us visualise new narratives? This
workshop begins with a nature trail by
artist Robert Zhao through the secondary
forest surrounding Gillman Barracks.
Unearth the history of the Queen’s
Own Hill from a plantation to military
barracks, and to its current status as a
visual arts precinct. Be inspired to create
visual narratives about the area under
the guidance of filmmaker Andre Quek.
Learn basic principles of film language
and visual storytelling, composition,
and production design, and bring home
your very own beatboard.
Balli Kaur Jaswal (Singapore) is the author
of four novels, including Singapore Literature
Prize finalist Sugarbread, and the bestselling
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, which was
a selection of Reese Witherspoon’s book club.
Her debut novel Inheritance won the Sydney
Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian
Novelist award. A former writing fellow at the
University of East Anglia, she teaches creative
writing at Yale-NUS College. Jaswal’s nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times,
Cosmopolitan.com, Harper’s Bazaar India and
Salon.com, among other publications. Her latest
novel The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill
Sisters was released internationally in 2019.
18
19
Andre Quek (Singapore) is a filmmaker
who specialises in 2D hand-drawn animation.
Graduated with honours from the School of
Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological
University (2014), he co-founded Finding
Pictures in 2018, an animation studio in
Singapore. He draws inspiration from all walks
of life, believing that abstracting the details
of reality enlivens his animations. Quek’s film
Princess has been screened at over 50 international film festivals, winning multiple awards
for best animation short film, including Best
Animation Award at the National Youth Film
Awards (NYFA) 2015, and Gold award in the
Crowbar Awards 2015. He has since focused
on directing commercial shorts and produced
Automatonomy (2017) that won Best Animation
at NYFA 2019.
Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore) is a multidisciplinary artist and the founder of the Institute
of Critical Zoologists. Persistently twisting
reality and fiction, his artistic practice addresses
the human relationship with nature, challenging
accepted parameters of objectivity and scientific
modes of classifications. Zhao received his
Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Photography
from Camberwell College of Arts and London
College of Communication respectively. He has
exhibited in solo shows and biennales internationally. He was awarded the Young Artist
Award by the National Arts Council in 2010.
He was named as a finalist for the Benesse Prize
2019 and the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2017.
Workshop Fees: $12
READING CORNER
The exhibition is accompanied by
a library with over 50 books on
postcolonialism, decoloniality, the
history of the Cold War, the NonAligned Movement, archiving, as well
as theory of the moving image and
publications on and by John Akomfrah,
Naeem Mohaiemen, and members of
The Otolith Group. Authors include
Stuart Hall, Richard Wright, Frantz
Fanon, Aimé Césaire, as well as Leela
Gandhi, Paul Gilroy, Walter Mignolo,
Rosalind Morris, Stephen Morton,
Edward Said, and Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak, among many others.
If you wish to organise reading groups
(capped at 8 pax) in the reading corner
during opening hours, please contact us
at ntuccaexhibition@ntu.edu.sg
�NON-ALIGNED
4 April – 21 June 2020
NTU CCA Singapore
Curator:
Ute Meta Bauer
Film Programme:
Mark Nash
Vladimir Seput
Deputy Director, Curatorial
Programmes:
Karin Oen
Assistant Curator:
Ana Sophie Salazar
Exhibition Design Consultancy:
Laura Miotto, Associate Professor,
NTU ADM
Education Programmes:
Magdalena Magiera
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi
Exhibition Production:
Frankie Fang
Isrudy Shaik
Construction and Technical Installation:
SPACElogic
Collaterals:
mono.studio
Acknowledgements:
The exhibition is made possible
by generous loans from the artists;
Lisson Gallery; and LUX, London.
Special thank you to David Lawson,
Smoking Dogs Films.
The film programme is made possible
through the kindness of Cineteca di
Bologna; Filmske Novosti, Belgrade;
Isaac Julien Studio, London; Karpo
Godina, Ljubljana; Mr Bongo, London;
and Želimir Žilnik, Novi Sad.
Right: NTU CCA Singapore,
Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore.
20
�NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCIES
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
GOVERNING COUNCIL
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
RESEARCH & ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES
CO-CHAIRS
CHAIR
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
Kong Yin Ying, Young Professional Trainee, Research
Professor Joseph Liow, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts,
and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Low Eng Teong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Sector
Development, National Arts Council (NAC)
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit
in Public Cultures, and Professor, School of Culture and
Communication, The University of Melbourne, Australia
MEMBERS
Dr Karin Oen, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Frankie Fang, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Senior Executive, Production
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi, Curatorial Assistant,
Outreach & Education
Seet Yun Teng, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Susan Htoo, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Nurshafiqah Zainudin, Young Professional Trainee,
Exhibitions
Arabelle Zhuang, Young Professional Trainee, Exhibitions
Jolene Lau, Intern, Production
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC
DEVELOPMENT
MEMBERS
Tay Tong, Director, Sector Development, NAC
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life),
President’s Office, NTU
Cindy Koh, Director, Consumer, Economic Development Board
Mike Samson, Managing Director, Regional Head,
Corporate Finance ASA & Regional Head, Leveraged and
Structured Solutions ASEAN
Professor Michael Walsh, Chair, School of Art, Design
and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Dr June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Programmes and
Publications, Singapore Art Museum
Peter Lin, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director,
Operations & Human Resource
Jillian Kwan, Assistant Director, Development
Joyce Lee, Manager, Finance
Cheryl Ho, Manager, Communications
Perla Espiel, Special Project Assistant
Iris Tan, Senior Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Ong Xue Min, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
Annette DeSouza, Young Professional Trainee,
Communications & Development
22
23
Antonia Carver, Director, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator,
M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, Deputy Director in charge of Research and
Globalisation, MNAM/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Professor Patrick Flores, Professor, Department of Art Studies,
University of the Philippines and Curator, Jorge B. Vargas
Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ranjit Hoskote, cultural theorist and independent curator,
Mumbai, India
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward
Chair of Southeast Asian Art, SOAS University of London,
United Kingdom
Philip Tinari, Director, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art,
Beijing, China
�ABOUT NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL
UNIVERSITY, SINGAPORE
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
PUBLICATIONS
A research-intensive public
university, NTU has 33,000
undergraduate and postgraduate
students in the colleges of
Engineering, Business, Science, and
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences,
and its Graduate College. NTU’s
campus is frequently listed among
the top 15 most beautiful university
campuses in the world and has 57
Green Mark-certified (equivalent to
LEED-certified) buildings. Besides
its 200-ha lush green, residential
campus in western Singapore, NTU
has a second campus in the heart of
Novena, Singapore’s medical district.
Culture City. Culture Space.
(Forthcoming 2020)
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Sophie Goltz,
and Khim Ong.
The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia).
NTU CCA Singapore and World Scientific
Publishing, 2020. Edited by Ute Meta
Bauer, Khim Ong, and Roger Nelson.
Voyages de Rhodes.
Artist’s book by Phan Thảo Nguyên.
Commissioned and published by
NTU CCA Singapore, 2018.
Place.Labour.Capital.
NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse
Publishing, distributed by NUS Press, 2018.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra.
Jam Sessions. NTU CCA Singapore, 2017.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
NTU CENTRE FOR
CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
Theatrical Fields: Critical Strategies in
Performance, Film, and Video.
NTU CCA Singapore, König Books,
London, and Bildmuseet, Umeå, 2016.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
SouthEastAsia: Spaces of the Curatorial.
Jahresring 63. Sternberg Press, 2016.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and
Brigitte Oetker.
Publications are available for purchase at our
store at Blk 43, Malan Road, S109443. If you
wish to have copies delivered to you please
contact us at ntuccaresearch@ntu.edu.sg
WE NEED YOU!
A leading international art institution,
NTU CCA Singapore is a platform, host,
and partner creating and driven by dynamic
thinking in its three-fold constellation:
Exhibitions; Residencies Programme;
Research and Academic Education. A
national research centre for contemporary
art of Nanyang Technological University,
the Centre focuses on Spaces of the Curatorial.
It brings forth innovative and experimental
forms of emergent artistic and curatorial
practices that intersect the present and
histories of contemporary art embedded
in social-political spheres with other fields
of knowledge.
Becoming Palm.
Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig. NTU
CCA Singapore and Sternberg Press, 2017.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
(Out of print)
SPACES OF THE CURATORIAL
The Centre seeks to engage the potential
of “curating,” and its expanded field.
What are the infrastructures and modes
of presenting and discussing artistic and
cultural production in diverse cultural
settings and in particular throughout
Southeast Asia’s vastly changing societies?
NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibition spaces,
designed by artist and curator Fareed
Armaly, respond to this curatorial framework to unfold different juxtaposed formats.
Your support is integral to the Centre’s
ongoing success from presenting
internationally acclaimed, research-driven
exhibitions, to artist residencies and
extensive educational programmes!
Regardless of the amount, your contribution
goes a long way in supporting the development of local, regional and international
art scenes and our Centre. If you are a
taxpayer in Singapore, your donation is
not only eligible for a 250% tax deduction
for yourself but also qualifies for the
Cultural Matching Fund.
Pledge your support now to make a
positive and tangible difference through
art and education.
For enquiries, please contact
ntuccacomms@ntu.edu.sg
or scan here to donate
24
�VISITOR INFORMATION
Free admission
Enquiries:
ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
School/ Group Tours
To schedule a tour, please email
ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
ntu.ccasingapore.org
ntu.ccasingapore
ntu_ccasingapore
Gillman Barracks Tours
For a tour, please register at
www.gillmanbarracks.com
or Friends of the Museums
at www.fom.sg
A RESEARCH CENTRE OF
LOCATED AT
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road,
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38 Malan Road,
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
In light of Covid-19, we are following the
advisories of the Ministry of Health and
implementing contact tracing, social distancing,
and other measures to ensure the safety of our
staff and visitors. For more information please
visit www.moh.gov.sg
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed in April 2020 by First Printers.
Exhibition Hours
Tue – Sun: 12.00 – 7.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on Public Holidays
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
Non-Aligned Exhibition Guide
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Place.Labour.Capital.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<i>Non-Aligned</i> Exhibition Guide
Description
An account of the resource
<i>Non-Aligned</i> Exhibition Guide
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-04
Contributor
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John Akomfrah
Naeem Mohaiemen
The Otolith Group
Mark Nash
Vladimir Seput
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Guide
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
South America
Asia
Africa
Subject
The topic of the resource
Decolonialism
Race
Regionalism
Geopolitics
-
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PDF Text
Text
CLIMATES .
HABITATS .
CITY
EXHIBITION
23 NOVEMBER 2019
— 8 MARCH 2020
ENVIRONMENTS .
POSTHUMAN
THE
�NOTES
THE CURATORS
CITY
HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS.
POSTHUMAN
CLIMATES.
THE
FROM
Lucy + Jorge Orta, OrtaWater – Portable Water Fountain, 2005.
Courtesy the artists.
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 at the expense of
human and other species alike. THE POSTHUMAN CITY features a diverse
range of cultural practitioners who propose a shift in perspective.
Taking NTU CCA Singapore’s overarching research topic CLIMATES.
HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS. as point of departure, the exhibition THE
POSTHUMAN CITY 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.
1
�Irene Agrivina, SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE, 2014.
Courtesy Ars Electronica, Linz.
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. ORTAWATER focuses on
the general issues surrounding clean water, and the privatisation
and corporate control affecting 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 PORTABLE WATER FOUNTAIN (2005) and MOBILE
INTERVENTION UNIT (2007). These devices have been used to
purify and distribute water from Venice’s Canal Grande (2005)
and the Hang Pu River in Shanghai (2012), among others, and
now from the creek that runs through Gillman Barracks.
Similarly combating water pollution, IRENE AGRIVINA’s SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE
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. SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE was developed
in collaboration with XXLab, an all-female transdisciplinary collective that
Agrivina co-founded in 2013. Usually, large amounts of wastewater pollute
the water in the rivers surrounding the plants, causing cholera and skin and
bowel diseases in humans. SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE 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 Acetobacter xylinum, generates
alternative energy sources, foodstuffs, and biological material. This process
creates cellulose sheets that can either be used for consumption—for
example nata de coco, 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.
2
3
�Marjetica Potrč, The Pot Maker Shapes Unity, 2016, from The Earth
Drawings, 2009–19. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nordenhake,
Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City.
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 POTRC’s EARTH DRAWINGS refer to these
unique 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 Australia), and the Sami (in northern Norway). These EARTH
DRAWINGS, a series on paper, point to the growing alliances between
indigenous groups and bottom-up initiatives in the effort to ensure more
resilient futures, beyond the social and economic agreement of the global
neoliberal order. Potrc stresses that the world’s diverse societies, in their
entirety, 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 way of living.
4
5
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 TERMITE ECONOMIES
(PHASE 1) 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
an alternative complex and globalscale system for people to live and
work together, better regulating and
metabolising human consumption,
production, and digestion.
TERMITE ECONOMIES combines
footage Mangan filmed 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 initial
idea was to produce a 1:100 scale
model to train termites.
Nicholas Mangan, Termite Economies
(Phase 1) (detail), 2018. Courtesy the
artist; Sutton Gallery, Melbourne;
Hopkinson Mossman, Wellington; and
LABOR, Mexico City.
�Animali Domestici, Bangkok
Opportunistic Ecologies (detail),
2019. Courtesy the artists.
For UNTITLED (HUMAN MASK), artist PIERRE HUYGHE filmed a monkey,
who in real life has a work permit as a “waitress” in a traditional sake house
in a city near Fukushima. 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 the monkey moving around in the dark. The
animal 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.
In BANGKOK OPPORTUNISTIC ECOLOGIES, the
design practice ANIMALI DOMESTICI studied the
urbanity of the Thai capital 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 inspired by
the representation techniques, colour palettes, and
composition of Thai traditional mural paintings. The
artists’ work process translates research and statistics
on Bangkok 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.
Pierre Huyghe, Untitled (Human Mask) (film still), 2014.
Courtesy the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York;
Hauser & Wirth, London; Esther Schipper, Berlin;
and Anna Lena Films, Paris.
6
7
�Ines Doujak, Ghostpopulations, 2016–19.
Courtesy the artist.
GHOSTPOPULATIONS, 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 Doujak is giving visibility to such marginalised, abused,
and displaced populations, her collages draw a dystopian mirage, reminding
us of the pending threat of pandemic illnesses.
Jae Rhim Lee, Coeio – Infinity Burial
Suit, 2016. Courtesy the artist.
8
9
Death, from a posthumanist
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 INFINITY
BURIAL SUIT, a handcrafted garment
to be worn by the deceased, is
completely biodegradable, and
co-created with zero waste fashion
designer Daniel Silverstein. The
featured FOREVER SPOT PET
SHROUD also consists of a built
in bio ix of mushrooms and other
m
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.
Lee advocates for a post-mortem
responsibility towards the natural
world and a direct engagement with
our own mortality, turning funerals into
new beginnings instead of endpoints,
becoming more emotionally and
socially accessible.
�Hito Steyerl, Liquidity Inc. (film still), 2014.
Courtesy the artist; Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York;
and Esther Schipper, Berlin. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019.
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 LIQUIDITY INC.,
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.
THE POSTHUMAN CITY, 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. Feminist philosopher 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.”1
Curated by UTE META BAUER, Professor NTU ADM, and Founding Director,
NTU CCA Singapore, and LAURA MIOTTO, Associate Professor, NTU ADM.
A selection of 11 artist films will be screened on loop in the Single Screen,
from 26 November 2019 to 9 February 2020. The accompanying public
programmes include seminars addressing techno-optimism and eco-hacktivism
on 23 November 2019, and biodiver-city and urban futures on 18 January 2020,
deepening the discussion around posthumanism and the urban condition.
The second edition of NTU CCA Ideas Fest, guest curated by IdeasCity,
New Museum, New York, takes place from 15 to 23 February 2020.
10
11
1
Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman, (Oxford, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2013), 138.
�HALL
Irene Agrivina
SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE, 2014
Mixed media installation, dimensions ttvariable.
Courtesy the artist.
Animali Domestici
BANGKOK OPPORTUNISTIC
ECOLOGIES, 2019
Printed synthetic fabric canvas, embroidery,
300 x 300 cm. Courtesy the artists.
Ines Doujak
GHOSTPOPULATIONS, 2016–19
Collages of historical prints from early 20th-century
botanical wall charts and medical books, 120 x 87 cm,
120 x 90 cm, 150 x 119 cm, 75 x 70 cm, 80 x 93 cm.
Courtesy the artist.
Pierre Huyghe
UNTITLED (HUMAN MASK), 2014
Single-channel video, colour, stereo sound, 2.66:1, 19 min.
Courtesy the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York;
Hauser & Wirth, London; Esther Schipper, Berlin;
and Anna Lena Films, Paris.
Jae Rhim Lee
COEIO – INFINITY BURIAL SUIT, 2016
Handcrafted garment, mushrooms, microorganisms,
dimensions variable.
THE FOREVER SPOT PET SHROUD, 2016
Handcrafted garment, mushrooms, microorganisms,
dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist.
Nicholas Mangan
TERMITE ECONOMIES (PHASE 1), 2018
3D printed plaster, dirt, synthetic polymer paint,
plywood, painted mild steel, fluorescent bay lights,
2 Sony Trinitron monitors, archival and recorded
footage (continuous loop), dimensions variable.
Courtesy Michael Buxton Collection.
THE
THE
EXHIBITION
Lucy + Jorge Orta
ORTAWATER – PORTABLE WATER
FOUNTAIN, 2005
SINGLE
SCREEN
26 NOVEMBER 2019 – 9 FEBRUARY 2020
Screening on loop during opening hours.
Steel structure, water drum, rubber wheels,
OrtaWater life jacket, copper tube, bucket, taps,
31 OrtaWater bottles, 180 x 190 x 50 cm.
ORTAWATER – M.I.U. STUDY, 2007
Steel, mirror, diverse textile, 3 bivouacs,
4 wheels, 115 x 85 x 45 cm.
26 November – 1 December 2019
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, WASTE FLOW, 1984
Video, colour, 58 minutes
Waste Flow is one of two videos chronicling Ukeles’s groundbreaking performance
Touch Sanitation (1978–80), in which she shook hands with over 8,500 New York
City Sanitation workers to appreciate and destigmatise their labour. The film
portrays a large grid of coloured photographic prints, and sundry text-based
archival materials depicting the performance work.
Courtesy the artists.
Marjetica Potrc
THE EARTH DRAWINGS, 2009–19
Ink on paper, 76 x 56 cm each.
The Elders, the Land and the Rest of
Us, 2009
Nomads Inhabit Islands, Settlers Build
Walls, 2016
3 – 8 December 2019
De Rijke/De Rooij, BANTAR GEBANG, 2000
35mm film, colour, sound, 10 min
This film consists of a single static view of a shanty
town built on a vast rubbish dump near Jakarta,
Indonesia. It begins in semi-darkness before dawn, to
broad daylight, and ends with the light shifting from
dreamy twilight to daybreak. The entrance to the
walled shanty town is framed in the centre, where roads
intersect with people walking along them. The structure
of the sobering image is revealed, as the viewer observes
its details and actions in the changing light.
The Ashaninkas, Along with Their
Friends in Tirana and New Babylon,
Contemplate the Power of Pattern,
2009
The Sami, Along with Their Ashaninka
Friends, Contemplate Coexistence with
the Earth, 2016
The Basket Weaver Weaves Difference,
2016
With fibre basket 19 x 25 cm.
The Pot Maker Shapes Unity, 2016
With clay pot 26 x 28 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin,
Stockholm, Mexico City.
10 – 15 December 2019
Lucy Walker, WASTE LAND, 2010
Colour, sound, 99 min
This feature documentary follows Vik Muniz, a Brazilian
artist and photographer, on an emotional journey from Jardim
Hito Steyerl
LIQUIDITY INC., 2014
Video, colour, sound, 30 min 19 sec, and architectural
environment. Courtesy the artist; Andrew Kreps
Gallery, New York; and Esther Schipper, Berlin.
12
13
�24 – 29 December 2019
Ursula Biemann, DEEP WEATHER, 2013
Video essay, colour, sound, 9 min
This video draws a connection between the relentless reach for fossil resources and
the impact on broad indigenous populations in remote parts of the world. Water
and oil form the undercurrents of all narratives as they are activating profound
change in the planetary ecology. The work documents communities living in the
Deltas of the Global South that are building protective mud embankments by
hand without any mechanic help. In Bangladesh, such measures are taken when
large parts of the country become submerged and water is declared a territory of
citizenship for populations forced to live on water.
Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill on the outskirts of
Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom.
Muniz collaborates with “catadores,” pickers of recyclable
materials who live on the landfill, to create photographic
images of themselves out of garbage. The process
portrays their plight; at the same time, the resulting work
highlights their dignity, the transformative power of art,
and the beauty of the human spirit.
17 – 22 December 2019
Tejal Shah, BETWEEN THE WAVES, 2012
HD Video, colour and b&w, multi-channel sound
Five-channel video installation, adapted to two-channel
(back-to-back loop)
Channel I, A FABLE IN FIVE CHAPTERS, 26 min 15 sec
Channel II, LANDFILL DANCE, 5 min
Channel III, ANIMATION, 1 min 40 sec
Channel IV, MOON BURNING, 26 min 15 sec
Channel V, MORSE CODE, 26 min 15 sec
Between the Waves portrays personal/political metaphors—
embodiments of the queer, eco-sexual, inter-special,
technological, spiritual, and scientific—within sensual,
poetic, heterotopic landscapes. Neither bourgeois or asexual,
the subjects can be read as assertively political in their local
context, where freedom of speech and creative expression
often face serious censorship. The immersive environments
they are in represent spaces of refuge or expulsion, while their
activities feel both archaic and futuristic, filled with urgency
and agency. Multiple historic and mythological references
are woven and problematised within the video. A Fable in
Five Chapters touches on the ecological importance and
parthenogenetic nature of corals and reef fish; Landfill Dance
explores the potency of the geological, social, and cultural
histories embedded in a landfill; Animation and Morse Code
move between low-tech animation to the use of iPhone Morse
code application; and Moon Burning highlights the cyclic
nature of existence and impermanence, and the fluid entities
of things and beings.
31 December 2019 – 5 January 2020
Jan Peter Hammer, TILIKUM, 2013
HD-video, colour, sound, 45 min
The film charts the entangled history of behaviourism, neuroscience,
animal training, interspecies affection, and English-speaking
dolphins. Its narrative starts on 25 February 2010 with a 911 call.
Seconds after having completed a live performance at SeaWorld
Orlando, Florida, a trainer Dawn Brancheau was dragged underwater,
drowned and dismembered by Tilikum, a bull orca. He was Tilikum’s
third victim. The film reveals details about the entertainmentindustrial complex which SeaWorld is a part of, and the connections
between the earliest oceanic leisure centres and Cold War military
research, from Hammer’s research on the incident.
7 – 12 January 2020
Jonathas de Andrade, O PEIXE [THE FISH], 2016
16mm film transferred to 2K video, sound, colour, 37 minutes
The film adopts an aesthetic style typically employed in
ethnographic films by anthropologists from the 1960s and 70s
when recording the cultures and traditions they study. In a series
of vignettes shot on 16 mm film, we witness what seems to be
an intimate ritual—one actually invented by the artist—among
fishermen in a coastal village in North-eastern Brazil. The camera
captures individual fishermen as they catch and then tenderly hold
their prey to their chest until it stops breathing. There lurks an
understanding that this gesture disguises violence as benevolence
and suggests a symmetry between the power that humans wield
over other life forms.
14
15
�14 – 19 January 2020
Fabrizio Terranova, DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR
EARTHLY SURVIVAL, 2016
Colour, sound, 81 min
Donna Haraway is a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology,
a feminist, and a science-fiction enthusiast who works at building a bridge
between science and fiction. She became known in the 1980s through her work
on gender, identity, and technology, which broke with the prevailing trends
and opened the door to a frank and cheerful trans-species feminism. Haraway
is a gifted storyteller who paints a rebellious and hopeful universe teeming
with creatures and futuristic trans-species in an era of disasters. The filmmaker
Fabrizio Terranova visited Donna Haraway at her home in Southern California,
producing this rare, candid, intellectual portrait of a highly original thinker.
4 – 9 February 2020
Karlos Gil, UNCANNY VALLEY, 2019
The film is a dystopian sci-fi story that takes the replacement of waiters in
Japanese restaurants by androids as its starting point. It explores complex
existential problems due to the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis in the field of
robotics: in which an android created too much in the image and likeness
of a human faces rejection. The underlying themes of the video deal with
the relationship between machines and humans based on the encounter
between an android and its doppelgänger. Through this relationship and the
implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday life, the film reflects
the socio-economic paradigm effects by the technological transformation.
ONE-TIME SCREENINGS:
21 – 26 January 2020
Armin Linke, PULAU-PULAU KELAPA SAWIT, 2017
In collaboration with Giulia Bruno and Giuseppe Ielasi.
HD video, colour, sound, 95 min
With footage of oil palm plantations, active peat fires, and olive-related
production sites in Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan (Borneo), the film
illustrates why the oil-farming business has grown so rapidly in Asia.
Various stages of palm oil production are linked through provocative
interviews with residents, activists, scientists, and government officials
who express their often-conflicting views on the transformation of
Indonesia into a palm oil nation. While the pace of production has
positively impacted Indonesia’s GDP, the steep rise in demand for palm oil
and its derivatives has dire consequences for Indonesia and its rainforests.
Thursday, 19 December 2019, 7.30pm
Fritz Lang, METROPOLIS, 1927
B&W, sound, 2h 30 min
This German expressionist science-fiction drama film presents
a futuristic utopian city that exists above a grim underground
world populated by exploited workers who run the machinery
that keeps the utopian world above functioning. Freder, the son
of the city’s master is intrigued by a young woman named Maria,
who brings a group of workers’ children to the city and eventually
learns about their living conditions. Freder seeks to be a mediator
between the separating classes and this puts him in conflict with
his authoritative father. This quickly culminates into a revolution
that spells disaster for those involved.
Thursday, 26 December 2019, 7.30pm
Ridley Scott, BLADE RUNNER, 1982
Colour, sound, 117 min
In the year 2019, Rick Deckard, a Blade Runner and law enforcer, is forced
out of retirement to hunt down and kill four illegally bio-engineered
humans known as replicants before they kill more people. These
replicants are androids that look virtually identical to human beings.
They are designed with superior strength and higher intelligence but feel
no emotions. Centred on the theme of humanity, the film examines the
effects of technology on the environment and society; where other forms
of natural life no longer exist and the future is depicted as both high-tech
and hopeful in some places but decayed in others.
28 January – 2 February 2020
Liam Young, SEOUL CITY MACHINE, 2019
Digital 3D film, sound, 7 min 41 sec
Seoul City Machine is an abstract sequence of vignettes, fragments and moments
of a city where machines and technology are now the dominant inhabitants.
It portrays the urban landscape of tomorrow—a city in which all of the fears
and wonders of emerging technologies have come true. An AI chatbot voices
its own creation story through its City Operating System to the citizens it
affectionately manages. Using contemporary Seoul as a visual backdrop,
the present-day city is overlaid with cinematic visual effects to depict an
autonomous world where drones fill the sky, cars are driverless, streets are
draped in augmented reality, and everyone is connected to everything.
16
17
�PUBLIC
Friday, 17 January 2019,
8.00 – 9.30pm
PERFORMANCE: POKOKNYA
by TINI ALIMAN, musician, and guests
PROGRAMMES
Saturday, 23 November 2019,
2.00 – 7.30pm
SYMPOSIUM: TECHNOOPTIMISM & ECO-HACKTIVISM
with IRENE AGRIVINA, artist;
UTE META BAUER, Founding
Director, NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor, NTU ADM;
INHABITANTS, artists;
artist NICHOLAS MANGAN,
Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine
Art, Monash University; LAURA
MIOTTO, Associate Professor,
NTU ADM; DR KARIN OEN,
Deputy Director, Curatorial
Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore;
SERINA ABDUL RAHMAN, Visiting
Fellow, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute,
Singapore; HALLAM STEVENS,
Associate Professor, School of
Biological Sciences, NTU; and
JANELLE THOMPSON, Associate
Professor, Asian School of the
Environment, NTU
Tuesday, 4 February 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
EXHIBITION (DE)TOUR:
THE PENDING THREAT OF
PANDEMICS
by OLIVO MIOTTO, Associate
Professor, University of Oxford
Mahidol Oxford Research Unit
Thursday, 5 December 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
EXHIBITION (DE)TOUR: LIVING
WITH OUR CREATIONS
by HALLAM STEVENS, Associate
Professor, School of Biological
Sciences, NTU
Humans are engaged in a constant
battle against infectious diseases.
The weapons used by microbes
are different from those we employ,
but very effective at frustrating our
efforts to control and eliminate
disease. For example, malaria
parasites can rapidly develop
mutations that make treatments
less effective; the more people use
antimalarial drugs, the more dramatic
the response from the parasites.
The battlefield also plays a decisive
role: for pathogens like dengue or
malaria, which are transmitted by
insects, changes in the environment
that affect natural habitats make
a profound difference. Can humanity
create a disease-free future while
protecting the environment?
We are now surrounded by the
living products of our own ingenuity.
Hybrid fish, transgenic corn, and
Wolbachia mosquitoes. We tend
to view such creatures with dread,
thinking of them as unnatural hybrids
that confuse boundaries and cross
categories. But what if we found
ways of loving our creations more?
What if embracing these hybrids
allowed us to find new ways of living
with and in nature? New institutional,
structural, and philosophical
relationships to our genetically
modified cousins might just help us
survive in the Anthropocene.
18
19
Exploring plant consciousness
and communication networks in
forests, sound artist Tini Aliman has
developed a practice that involves
collaborating with diverse plant
species. Together with her guests, the
artist will translate captured biodata
into music and aural architecture.
Finding ways of interspecies communication through pick-up mics and
feedback loops, this performance
allows for a deeper contemplation of
what it means to share existence and
listen to life. Pokoknya is a term in
Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia that translates to “essentially” or referring to the
root of an issue, which is a play on
the word “tree.” The word could also
be read as the “tree belonging to...”
Saturday, 18 January 2019,
2.00 – 5.00pm
SYMPOSIUM: BIODIVER-CITY
AND URBAN FUTURES
with ANIMALI DOMESTICI, artists;
UTE META BAUER, Founding
Director, NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor, NTU ADM;
JASON FARAGO, art critic,
New York Times; YUN HYE HWANG,
Associate Professor, School of Design
and Environment, NTU; SARAH
ICHIOKA, Desire Lines; MICHELLE
LAI, TANAH; and LAURA MIOTTO,
Associate Professor, NTU ADM
�WORKSHOPS
Sunday, 24 November 2019
2.00 – 5.00pm
WORKSHOP: DIY ECOPRINTS
ON BIO-LEATHER
by artist IRENE AGRIVINA
Workshop fee: $25
Register via Peatix: ecoprints.peatix.com
Get a hands-on experience in
making your very own eco-prints
using easily available materials such
as flowers and leaves. You will get
the opportunity to print on SOYA
C(O)U(L)TURE, a bio-leather
derived from the by-product of
soy production. This is a BYOF
workshop: Bring your own flowers!
Sunday, 29 December 2019
2.00 - 5.00pm
WORKSHOP: THE IMPACT OF
INSECTS IN OUR WORLD – AN
ARTISTIC EXPLORATION
by artist WENDY.GNAHZ in
collaboration with social enterprise
MIGRANT X ME
Saturday, 18 January 2020
11.00am – 12.30pm
WORKSHOP: UPCYCLING FOOD
WASTE WITH ECO-ENZYME
by ground-up initiative ZEROWASTE
FOOD SINGAPORE
Workshop Fee: $12
Register via Peatix: impactofinsects.peatix.com
Insects are crucial to our ecosystem.
However, rapid environmental
degradation has caused a major
decline of their population. This
in turn affects humans and other
interdependent ecosystems. In this
workshop, participants will learn
the impact of insects and foster a
deeper appreciation for them. Using
recycled materials, participants
will study and create their own
six-legged animals through printed
images and real insect specimens
brought in by Wendy.gnahZ.
Workshop Fee: $12
Register via Peatix: ecoenzyme.peatix.com
763,100 tonnes of food waste were
generated in 2019, accounting for
10% of the total waste generated
in Singapore. In this workshop,
you will learn how to reduce your
environmental impact by upcycling
fruit waste into non-toxic multipurpose cleaning solutions for your
home and gardens. Bring home a
bottle of eco-enzyme to share the
love towards a healthy waste-free
lifestyle. You are encouraged to bring
your own wide-mouth bottles or
containers.
This workshop is held in
collaboration with Migrant x Me,
a registered social enterprise that
aims to provide public education
and raise awareness of the migrant
worker community in Singapore.
Participants will work hand-inhand with the local migrant worker
community, and exchange thoughts
and experiences on how to share our
resources more consciously.
20
21
Sunday, 19 January 2020
1.00 – 5.00pm
WORKSHOP: VISUAL WILD
MAPPING
by artists ANIMALI DOMESTICI
Workshop Fee: $12
Register via Peatix:
visualwildmapping.peatix.com
The presence and roles of different
species within urban metropolitan
environments are often overlooked
or not perceived at all, even if they
represent fundamental components
of urban ecologies. This workshop
aims for a collective sharing of
such species through immediate
and trans-disciplinary storytelling
techniques. Participants will learn
to engage with different graphic
composition techniques, utilising
both prearranged and personalised
elements. They will also be using
multiple scales, from fragments of
cities to small objects, to expand the
range of layers that can be included
in the narrative from technical to
cultural, superstition to institutional,
and many more.
�worked in Singapore from 2010 to 2014,
and since 2015 have been teaching
architectural design at the International
Program in Design and Architecture (INDA)
of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
BIOGRAPHIES
Irene Agrivina (Indonesia) is an open
systems advocate, technologist, artist,
and educator. She is a graduate of the
Graphic Design faculty at the Indonesia
Institute of Art (ISI), and the Culture and
Religion Master Program at Sanata Dharma
University in Yogyakarta. As a founding
member and current director of HONF
(House of Natural Fiber), a Yogyakartabased new media and technology laboratory
created in 1998, Agrivina runs its Education
Focus Programme (EFP) which focuses on
the application and practical use in daily
life of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and
technological actions responding to social,
cultural, and environmental challenges. She
has participated in numerous festivals such
as re:publica, Transmediale, Pixelache, Mal
Au Pixel, New Museum Triennial, and APAP
5. She has also exhibited her work and
given lectures around the world in cities
such as Vienna, New York, Paris, London,
Tokyo, Berlin, Prague, and Singapore. In
2013 she co-founded XXLab, an all-female
collective focusing on arts, science, and
free technology as a second generation
of HONF’s spin-off communities. Their
project Soya C(o)u(l)ture (2014) was
crowned a winner of the 2015 Prix Ars
Electronica awards, a prestigious European
Commission-supported competition for
cyberarts in Austria.
Tini Aliman (Singapore) is a sound designer,
field recordist, and foley artist who works
at the intersection of theatre and film
sound design, live sound art performance,
installation, and collaborative projects. Her
research interests include forest networks,
aural architecture, plant consciousness, and
the variables of data translations via biodata
sonification. In 2018, she was nominated
for the Best Sound Design category for Life!
Theatre Awards for her work for Angkat by
Ursula Biemann (Switzerland) is an artist,
writer, and video essayist who investigates
global relations under the impact of the
accelerated mobility of people, resources,
and information. Her works explore space
and mobility, and more recently ecology,
oil, and water. Her video installations have
been exhibited in museums and international
art biennials worldwide. She received a
doctor honoris causa in Humanities by the
Umeå University, Sweden, and the Prix
Meret Oppenheim, the national art award of
Switzerland. She has a BFA from the School
of Visual Arts and attended the Whitney
Independent Study Program in New York
(1988). Biemann’s research is currently based
at the Zurich University for the Arts.
Teater Ekamatra. She has been involved in
projects and exhibitions across Asia Pacific
and Europe. Her recent projects have been
presented at NTU CCA Singapore, Biennale
Urbana at Caserma Pepe, Venice, and Museum
of Contemporary Art Taipei.
Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil) is one of the
most promising Brazilian artists of his
generation. Over the last decade, he has
developed works in photography, video, and
installation that stem from observations of
everyday life in Brazil and what he regards as
its “urgencies and discomforts.” He considers
how the Brazilian national identity and labour
conditions have been constructed in the midst
of colonialism and slavery, and reinterprets
the methodologies of education and social
sciences to question underlying assumptions.
De Andrade studied communications at
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil,
and has had solo exhibitions worldwide.
Ines Doujak (Austria/United Kingdom) is an
artist, researcher, and writer, who teaches
in the areas of visual culture and material
aesthetics with a queer-feminist, anti-racist,
anti-colonial focus. Doujak received two
research grants from the Austrian Science
Fund: Loomshuttles, Warpaths (2010–18),
a study of textiles to investigate their global
history characterised by cultural, class,
and gender conflict; and Utopian Pulse:
Flares in the Darkroom (2013–15). She
studied at the University of Applied Arts in
Vienna (1988–93). Selected exhibitions
include Actually, the Dead are not Dead,
Bergen Assembly (2019); Possibilities
for an Non-Alienated Life, Kochi Muziris
Biennale, Kerala (2018); A Beast, a God,
and a Line, Dhaka Art Summit, Para Site,
Hong Kong, TS1 Yangon, and Museum
of Modern Art, Warsaw (2018); Arte para
pensar la nueva razón del mundo, Muntref,
Buenos Aires (2017); The Conundrum
of Imagination, Leopold Museum, Vienna
(2017); Not Dressed for Conquering,
Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
(2016); The Beast and the Sovereign,
MACBA, Barcelona (2015); Ape Culture,
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2015);
The School of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial (2015);
Animali Domestici (Italy/Thailand),
founded by Antonio Bernacchi and Alicia
Lazzaroni (both b. 1983), is a duo and
design practice based in Bangkok. They
focus on the development of experimental
and speculative projects, products, and
processes, beyond the dichotomies of
culture and nature, “infra-ordinary” and
“ab-normal,” human and non-human. With
admittedly fragmented and heterogeneous
sources of inspiration, they are interested in
post-anthropocentric spaces, subjects,
and materialities, in human and animal
behaviour, vernacular crafts and traditions,
popular tastes and everyday life references,
rendered “lifestyles” and marketing
strategies. Animali Domestici is also
intensively involved in teaching and
research. Lazzaroni and Bernacchi, who
obtained a postgraduate Master from
ETSAM, Polytechnic University of Madrid,
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Universes in Universe, São Paulo Biennial
(2014); Garden of Learning, Busan
Biennale (2012); The Potosi Principle,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofía, Madrid (2010); and Documenta 12,
Kassel (2007).
Jason Farago (United States) is an art critic for
the New York Times. He reviews exhibitions in
New York and abroad, with a focus on global
approaches to art history. From 2015 to 2018
he edited Even, an art magazine he co-founded,
whose ten issues are collected in the anthology
Out of Practice. He has also been a regular
contributor to the Guardian, the New Yorker,
the New York Review of Books, Artforum,
and Frieze. Farago studied art history at Yale
University and at the Courtauld Institute of
Art in London. In 2017 he was awarded the
inaugural Rabkin Prize for art criticism.
Karlos Gil (Spain) is an artist whose multiple
art practice thrives on paradox, memory, and
navigation between the past and the present to
articulate or question the codes that construct
meaning. Through a variety of media, he
researches the movement of sense regarding
the art object and examines its cognitive value
as a specific system of knowledge production.
Gil studied at Facultad de Bellas Artes UCM
and at the School of Visual Arts New York. He
has shown his work in CA2M, Matadero and
Casa Encendida in Madrid, and at LABoral
(Gijón), as well as at the Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris, and the Moscow Biennale.
In 2014 was recipient of the Fundación Botín
Arts grant.
Jan Peter Hammer (Germany) is an artist
who creates films and performances that
connects literature and cinema. He is primarily
interested in the narrative structure of a work.
His videos, films, and synchronised slideshows
allow for a literary reading or a point of view
for criticism. He studied painting and sculpture
before attending courses at the New School’s
Film Theory department and graduating in
Fine Arts at the Hunter College. In 2016 he
was selected as artistic research fellow at KHiO
– Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway.
His works have been shown in international
solo and group exhibitions and screened at
several international film festivals.
�Pierre Huyghe (France/United States)
attended the École Supérieure d’Arts
Graphiques (1981–82) and the École
Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
(1982–85). Based in New York, he is
the Artistic Director of Okayama Art
Summit 2019. In the 1990s, Huyghe
emerged as part of a wave of secondgeneration Conceptualists known for their
relational aesthetics approach towards
art. Throughout his career, he has been
involved in multimedia collaborations with
other artists. His works, which seek a
high degree of control over the viewer’s
experience, often present themselves as
complex systems characterised by a wide
range of life forms, inanimate things, and
technologies. His constructed organisms
combine not only biological, technological,
and fictional elements, they also produce
an immersive, constantly changing environment, in which humans, animals, and nonbeings learn, evolve, and grow. In 2001,
he received a Special Award from the Jury of
the Venice Biennale and in 2002, he was
awarded the Solomon R. Guggen-heim
Museum’s Hugo Boss Prize. His recent
projects/exhibitions include UUmwelt
at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2018);
Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); The Roof
Garden Commission at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York (2015); a touring
solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou,
Paris, and other museums (2013–14);
and Documenta 13 (2012).
knowledge of urban ecology from academia to
practice through active interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary collaborations.
Yun Hye Hwang (South Korea/Singapore)
is an accredited landscape architect in
Singapore, and Associate Professor of
Landscape Architecture at the School of
Design and Environment, NUS, currently
serving as Programme Director of the
Bachelor’s programme. She holds two Master’s
degrees in landscape architecture, one from
Seoul National University in Korea and
another from Harvard University’s Graduate
School of Design. Her research, teaching,
and professional activities speculate on
emerging demands in fast-growing Asian
cities by exploring ecological design and
management versus manicured greenery
and the multifunctional role of everyday
landscapes. She focuses on transferring
Fritz Lang (Austria/United States) was an
influential filmmaker, producer and actor. He
moved to the United States at the age of 46 and
is best known as an émigrés from the German
school of Expressionism. He had directed 23
features in his 20-year American career and is
considered to have set the precedence for the
evolution of American genre cinema; more
specifically to film noir. His work consists of
a variety of genres revolving around fate
and justice.
between the body and the built and
natural environment. She is a pioneer in
the green burial movement as the inventor
of the INFINITY BURIAL SUIT (aka
Mushroom Death Suit) featured in National
Geographic, Vogue, NPR, Wired, the New
York Times, and TED, among others. Her
work follows a research methodology which
includes self-examination, transdisciplinary
immersion and dialogue, and DIY design,
ultimately taking the form of living units,
furniture, wearables, recycling systems,
and personal and social interventions.
She studied psychology and the natural
sciences at Wellesley College, received
a Master of Science in Visual Studies
from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), and holds a certificate
in permaculture design. She has given
keynote lectures and exhibited her work
internationally, including the Aspen Ideas
Festival, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian
Museum Design Triennial, Cube Museum
Netherlands, FACT Liverpool, and the Zero1
Biennial. Lee has taught at MIT, Stanford
University, and George Washington University.
She is the Founder and CEO of venturebacked startup Coeio, Inc.
Sarah Ichioka (United States/Singapore) is
an urbanist, curator and writer, currently
leading Desire Lines, a strategic consultancy
for environmental, cultural, and social-impact
organisations and initiatives. She is the Curator
for the upcoming International Architecture
Biennale Rotterdam 2020. In previous
roles, she has explored the intersections of
cities, society, and ecology within leading
international institutions of culture, policy,
and research. Ichioka’s outlook is glocal,
interdisciplinary, and future-facing. She has
been recognised as a World Cities Summit
Young Leader, one of the Global Public
Interest Design 100, a British Council/ Clore
Duffield Cultural Leadership International
Fellow, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Institute of British Architects.
Michelle Lai (Singapore) is an urban farmer
and forager, who spends her time tinkering
with food experiments at Native, a cocktail bar
in Singapore. Interested in issues related to the
local agricultural and food system, she explores
community-driven innovation and community
engagement practices, forming symbiotic
relationships through everyday participation,
research, and dialogue. Lai is also part of
TANAH, an interdisciplinary collective that
playfully questions urban living via site-specific
interventions within and around the city.
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany) is a photographer
and filmmaker who combines a range of
contemporary image processing technologies
to blur the border between fiction and reality
of the natural, technological, and urban
environment in which we are living. His
oeuvre of photographs and films function as
tools for different design strategies and expand
on multiple levels of discourse. Linke has
served as a research affiliate at the MIT Visual
Arts Program, guest professor at the IUAV
Arts and Design University in Venice, and
professor for photography at the Karlsruhe
University for Arts and Design, and is
currently a guest professor at ISIA Urbino.
Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, and
Argentina/France) develop a collaborative
visual arts practice focused on social and
ecological issues. It employs a diversity of
media including drawing, sculpture, and
performance to realise major long-term
bodies of work structured in series: Refuge
Wear and Body Architecture are portable
Jae Rhim Lee (South Korea/United
States) is a designer, entrepreneur, and
transdisciplinary artist whose living units
and wearables reimagine basic life systems
and propose alternative relationships
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minimum habitats bridging architecture
and dress; Nexus Architecture explores
alternative modes of establishing the
social link; Antarctica highlights the urgent
need to consider the dignity of people
affected by climate change; ORTAWATER
examines water scarcity and the problems
arising from its pollution and corporate
control; HortiRecycling and 70 x 7 The
Meal examines the local and global food
chains and the ritual of community dining.
In recognition of their contribution to
sustainability, the artists received the Green
Leaf Award for artistic excellence with an
environmental message, presented by the
United Nations Environment Programme in
partnership with the Natural World Museum
at the Nobel Peace Center in Norway (2007).
Their work has been included in numerous
international exhibitions worldwide. Lucy
Orta is also Professor and Chair of Art and
Environment at the University of the Arts
London, United Kingdom.
Nicholas Mangan (Australia) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in
Melbourne. He is senior lecturer at Monash
University. Through a practice bridging
drawing, sculpture, film, and installation,
Mangan creates politically astute and
disconcerting assemblages that address
some of the most galvanising issues of our
time; the ongoing impacts of colonialism,
humanity’s fraught relationship with the
natural environment, and the complex and
evolving dynamics of the global political
economy. His recent solo exhibitions include
Limits to Growth, Monash University
Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne, the
Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane,
Kunst-Werke Institute of Contemporary
Art, Berlin, Dowse Art Museum, Wellington
(2016); Ancient Lights, Chisenhale Gallery,
London, (2015); Some Kinds of Duration,
Centre for Contemporary Photography,
Melbourne, (2012). His work has been
included in major international exhibitions
including Biennale of Sydney (2018); Let’s
Talk About the Weather: Art and Ecology
in A Time of Crisis, Guangdong Times
Museum, Guangzhou (2018); 74 million
million million tons, Sculpture Center,
New York (2018); The National 2017:
�new Australian art, AGNSW, Sydney
(2017); 4.543 BILLION. The Matter of
matter, CAPC, Bordeaux, (2017); New
Museum Triennial: Surround Audience,
New York (2015); 9th Bienal do Mercosul,
Porto Alegre (2013); and the 13th Istanbul
Biennial (2013).
Migrant x Me (Singapore) is a social enterprise
that provides public education on the migrant
worker community in Singapore through
experiential programmes, workshops, and
learning journeys. It collaborates with
like-minded organisations such as schools,
corporates, and NGOs to provide education to
Singaporean youths. It also conducts monthly
art sessions for migrant workers at clinics run
by its partner NGOs.
Olivo Miotto (Italy/Thailand) is Associate
Professor at the University of Oxford based
at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine
Research Unit in Bangkok, where he specialises
in genomic epidemiology of malaria parasites.
Miotto is the principal investigator of GenReMekong, a regional genetic surveillance project
that uses advanced genomic technologies to
produce maps of drug resistance and gene
flow in local parasite population, which are
used by national malaria control programmes
to make strategic decisions on treatments
and interventions. He also collaborates
with researchers across the globe, analysing
thousands of parasite genomes to understand
the evolution of antimalarial drug resistance
and, ultimately, help support the eradication of
this diseases.
Marjetica Potrc (Slovenia/Germany), an
artist and architect based in Ljubljana
and Berlin, is known for her ingenious
reimagining of architectural structures
in “unplanned” cities mostly in South
America where resources are lacking in
the communities. She deals with issues
such as social space and contemporary
architectural practices, sustainability,
and new solutions for communities.
Her practice is strongly informed by
her interdisciplinary collaborations in
research-based on-site projects, where
she translates these investigations into
lyrical brush-worked, text-based drawings
meditational quality. Their work has been
shown worldwide, most notably at the 2005
Venice Biennale. They were also nominated
for the 2005 Hugo Boss Prize.
and large-scale architectural installations.
Her work has been exhibited extensively
throughout Europe and the Americas,
including the Venice Biennial (1993, 2003,
2009); the São Paulo Biennial (1996,
2006); Guggenheim Museum in New York
(2001); the List Visual Arts Center at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(2004); the de Appel Foundation for
Contemporary Art in Amsterdam (2004);
The Curve at the Barbican Art Galleries in
London (2007); the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin (2013,
2018); and the PAMM Perez Art Museum
Miami (2015). She was a professor at the
University of Fine Arts/HFBK in Hamburg
(2011–18), a visiting professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(2005) and the IUAV Faculty of Arts and
Design in Venice (2008, 2010).
Sir Ridley Scott (United Kingdom) is a
visionary director, acclaimed producer and
one of the greatest British filmmakers. His
work, known for an atmospheric and highly
concentrated visual style, continues to
push boundaries in style and genre. He was
awarded the BAFTA Fellowship in 2018 and
an honorary doctorate by the Royal College
of Art in 2015. In 2003, Scott was knighted
at the Queen’s New Year Honours in the
United Kingdom for having made substantial
contribution to the British film industry.
Tejal Shah (India) is an artist whose practice
incorporates video, photography, performance,
drawing, sound, and educational workshops.
Their work unselfconsciously manifests “the
inappropriate/d other” within a feminist
and queer framework, and often challenges
normative social hegemonies. They are interested in the intersections of art, ecology, and
non-duality and their relationship to consciousness. Shah obtained a BA in Photography from
the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
Melbourne, and is currently pursuing an MA
in Nalanda Buddhist philosophy.
Dr Serina Abdul Rahman (Singapore/
Malaysia) is a conservation scientist and
environmental anthropologist. Her research
interests lie in human, floral, and faunal
marine communities, as well as their
interaction and preservation. She specialises
in sustainable development and education;
community empowerment; environmental
issues; and innovations; including development
for urban and rural poor. In 2004, she moved
to Malaysia to dedicate her time to marine
environmental organisations and island/coastal
communities. In 2009, she co-founded Kelab
Alami, a community organisation in a fishing
village in Johor to empower the community
through environ-mental education for habitat
conservation. Since 2015, the programme
evolved to focus on community capacitybuilding.
Hallam Stevens (Australia/Singapore) is
Associate Professor of History in the School
of Humanities at Nanyang Technological
University and the Associate Director of the
NTU Institute of Science and Technology
For Humanity. He is the author of Life out of
Sequence: a data-driven history of bioinformatics
(Chicago, 2013), Biotechnology & Society: an
introduction (Chicago, 2016), and the co-editor
of Postgenomics: Perspectives on Life After the
Genome (Duke, 2015). At NTU he teaches
courses on the history of the life sciences and
the history of information technology.
Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij (both
Netherlands) were a collaborative artist duo
creating video installations, performances, TVprogrammes and 16mm film shorts. They met
while attending the Gerrit Rietveld Academie
in Amsterdam and worked together from 1994
until de Rijke’s passing in 2006. They chose
film as a medium to engage their audience for
a longer period and with greater intensity.
An efficient use of the inherent time and light
qualities of the film medium in their static
camera work gives their subjects an almost
Hito Steyerl (Germany) is a filmmaker,
artist, and writer whose work explores
the complexities of the digital world,
art, capitalism, and the implications of
Artificial Intelligence for society. Steyerl
studied cinematography and documentary
filmmaking at the Academy of Visual Arts in
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Tokyo, the University of Television and Film
in Munich, and holds a PhD in Philosophy
from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. She
often works with the format of the video
essay, combining a heterogeneous range
of material, including interviews, found
footage, fictional dramatizations, pop-music
soundtracks, and first-person voiceovers.
Her work focuses on the intersection
of media technology, political violence,
and desire by using humour, charm, and
reduced gravity as political means of
expression. Her work has been exhibited in
numerous exhibitions including Documenta
12, Taipei Biennial 2010, and 7th Shanghai
Biennial. She is involved in the movement
of feminist migrants and women of colour
in Germany and is currently a professor
of New Media Art at the University of the
Arts in Berlin. She has also lectured at
Goldsmith’s College, London, and at the
Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College,
New York.
Fabrizio Terranova (Belgium) is a filmmaker,
activist, dramaturge, and lecturer at the École
de Recherche Graphique (ERG) in Brussels,
where he launched and co-runs the Master’s
programme in Narrations and Experimentation/
Speculative Narration. His films include Josée
Andrei, An Insane Portrait (2010), an experimental documentary that was later published
into a book by Les Editions du Souffle. He is
also a founding member of DingDingDong, an
institute to jointly improve knowledge about
Huntington’s disease.
Dr Janelle Thompson (United States/
Singapore) is an environmental microbiologist
whose research and teaching drive towards
careful stewardship of energy and water. Her
ongoing work harnesses bacteria as indicators
of water quality and for bioproduction of
renewable fuels. She holds graduate degrees
from Stanford University and MIT and is
newly appointed as an Associate Professor at
the Asian School of the Environment, NTU,
and Principal Investigator (PI) at the Singapore
Centre for Environmental Life Sciences
Engineering. In previous roles she taught
Environmental Engineering at MIT and was
Associate Director and PI at the SingaporeMIT Alliance for Research and Technology.
�Mierle Laderman Ukeles (United States) is an
influential pioneer of maintenance art. Her
work also revolves around feminist art. She is
best known for her Manifesto for Maintenance
Art 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”
(1969), a proposal for an exhibition to display
maintenance work as contemporary art. Since
1977, she has been an unsalaried artist-inresidence at the New York City Department of
Sanitation where she creates art that deals with
urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban
sustainability, and our power to transform
degraded land and water into healthy
inhabitable public places.
Liam Young (Australia/United States) is a
speculative architect and director who operates
in the spaces between design, fiction, and
futures. He is the founder of a think tank
Tomorrows Thoughts Today, a group whose
work explores the possibilities of fantastic,
speculative, and imaginary urbanisms. Young
also co-runs the Unknown Fields Division,
a nomadic research studio that travels on
location shoots and expeditions to the “ends of
the Earth” to document emerging trends and
uncover the weak signals of possible futures.
He has taught internationally including the
Architectural Association and Princeton
University, and now runs an MA in Fiction
and Entertainment at Southern California
Institute of Architecture.
Wendy.gnahZ (Singapore) is an artist
volunteer with Migrant x Me, and a scientific
illustrator. Fascinated with the strange, the
dead, and the unseen matter in nature, she is
driven to learn more about them and the role
they play in our ecosystem.
THE POSTHUMAN CITY
CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS.
23 November 2019 – 8 March 2020
NTU CCA Singapore
ZeroWaste Food Singapore (Singapore) is a
new ground-up initiative that aims to help
Singapore reduce food waste and accelerate our
shift towards becoming a zero-waste nation.
They raise awareness on food waste issues in
Singapore through food waste education and
hands-on workshops such as composting,
fermenting, and eco-enzyme workshops.
Curators:
Ute Meta Bauer
Laura Miotto
Assistant Curator:
Ana Sophie Salazar
Public and Education Programmes:
Magdalena Magiera
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi
Exhibition Production:
Frankie Fang
Isrudy Shaik
Construction:
Design 18
Lucy Walker (United Kingdom/United States)
is an esteemed Emmy-winning film director
who uses dramatic filmmaking techniques
to make documentary films. Renowned
for her ability to connect with audiences
through creating riveting character-driven
nonfiction, she follows memorable characters
on transformative journeys that grant unique
access inside closed worlds. Walker obtained
her MFA from the Graduate Film Programme
at the New York University Tisch School
of the Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship after
graduating at the top of her class with a BA
Hons and MA Oxon in Literature at Oxford
University. She has twice been nominated for
an Academy Award and her films have been
nominated for seven Emmys, having won over
one hundred film awards.
Conservation:
Global Specialised
Services
Lighting Design:
Torene Project
Logistics:
Agility Fairs & Events
Collaterals:
mono.studio
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Acknowledgements:
The exhibition is made possible
by generous loans from the artists
and their studios; Michael Buxton
Collection, Melbourne (Nicholas
Mangan); Esther Schipper, Berlin
(Pierre Huyghe and Hito Steyerl);
and Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin,
Stockholm, Mexico City
(Marjetica Potrc).
A collateral event of
�IN THE LAB
NTU CCA IDEAS FEST
WHAT IS DEEP SEA MINING?
IDEASCITY SINGAPORE
INHABITANTS, IN COLL ABORATION WITH MARGARIDA MENDES
2 NOVEMBER 2019 – 18 JANUARY 2020
G U E S T C U R AT E D B Y I D E A S C I T Y, N E W M U S E U M , N E W YO R K
15 – 23 FEBRUARY 2020
NTU CCA Ideas Fest is a platform to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage
thinking “out of the box.” It is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and the academic
with community groups and grassroots initiatives. The second edition is guest curated by
IdeasCity, the New Museum’s platform that explores art and culture beyond the walls of
the Museum. It will feature a residency and public programme on the theme of solidarity
with nature—exploring bonds and connections between the built environment, natural world,
and social movements. IdeasCity Singapore will take place across multiple locations
through satellite programmes and partnerships in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.
Deep sea mining is a new frontier of resource extraction located on the ocean
seabed. It is set to begin in the next few years, as the technology is currently under
development. Mining companies are, at present, leasing areas for exploitation in
national and international waters in order to assess the potential to extract minerals
and metals such as manganese, cobalt, gold, copper, iron, and other rare earth
elements. The main geological sites targeted are areas rich in polymetallic nodules,
seamounts, and hydrothermal vents; areas typically found where tectonic plates
meet. The areas to be mined could cover parts of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the
Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean in international waters, and national
waters off the islands of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Japan, and
the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Assessment of the impact on deep
sea ecosystems is underway, though their cumulative effects remain difficult to
comprehend given the unprecedented variety and expanse of the mining sites
targeted. At the same time, local and indigenous communities living in these
regions are not being adequately consulted.
The presentation features four episodes: Tools for Ocean Literacy (2018), Deep
Frontiers (2018), The Azores Case (2019), and A Deep Sea Mining Glossary (2019).
INHABITANTS (Portugal/United States) is an online channel for exploratory video and documentary
reporting. Founded in New York in late 2015 by visual artists Mariana Silva and Pedro Neves Marques,
inhabitants produces and streams short-form videos intended for free, online distribution. All episodes
are available at www.inhabitants-tv.org, as well as on Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
What is Deep Sea Mining? was developed in collaboration with MARGARIDA MENDES, curator and activist
from Lisbon, Portugal, consultant of Sciaena NGO and founding member of Oceano Livre, an environmental
movement against deep sea mining. What is Deep Sea Mining? is a web series and art project commissioned
by TBA21–Academy.
Curated by MAGDALENA MAGIERA, Curator, Outreach & Education
inhabitants, What is Deep Sea Mining?, 2 November 2019 – 19 January 2020,
The Lab, NTU CCA Singapore, installation view.
The prospects of this form of mining re-actualise a colonial, frontier mentality and
are redefining extractivist economies for the twenty-first century. What is Deep Sea
Mining? addresses both knowledge of the deep sea and ocean governance, but
also efforts to defend a sustained ocean literacy beyond the United Nations’ “blue
economy” at a time when the deep ocean, its species, and its resources remain
largely unmapped and understudied.
The week-long Residency will feature performances, screenings, seminars, site-visits,
and workshops. It invites emerging practitioners to develop projects and research on
the environmental, social, and urban networks that shape the way we live together, and
how those networks might reinforce or redefine solidarity with nature. The culminating
public programme on 22 February 2020 will feature conversations, performances,
presentations, and workshops addressing local, global, and planetary concerns defining
Singapore and Southeast Asia today, and the future of communities worldwide.
30
IdeasCity Singapore welcomes proposals for Residency participation and
Public Programme collaboration through an Open Call.
Up to 30 candidates will be selected based on motivation, interest, and availability, on
a rolling basis until 9 December 2019. IdeasCity will provide honoraria and meals to
all participants, and accommodation for those travelling to Singapore. For submission
guidelines and more information, please visit www.ideas-city.org/singapore/open-call/
About IdeasCity
IdeasCity is a collaborative, civic, and creative platform that starts from the premise that art and culture are
essential to the future vitality of cities. This international initiative provides a forum for designers, artists,
technologists, and policymakers to exchange ideas, identify challenges, propose solutions, and engage the public’s
participation. The initiative was cofounded at the New Museum, New York, by Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis
Director, and Karen Wong, Deputy Director. Past international IdeasCity programmes have taken place in
Istanbul (2012), São Paulo (2013), Athens (2016), Arles (2017), and Toronto (2018).
IdeasCity Singapore is conceived and organised by New Museum: Vere van Gool, Gabe Gordon, Nicholas Liong,
Yong Ng, and Karen Wong; and NTU CCA Singapore: Karin Oen, Magdalena Magiera, Samantha Leong,
and Ze-Tian Lim
31
The second edition of NTU CCA Ideas Fest
is supported by:
�NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and
Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
CO-CHAIRS
Professor Joseph Liow, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts,
and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council (NAC)
EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCIES
Dr Karin Oen, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Frankie Fang, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Senior Executive, Production
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi, Curatorial Assistant, Outreach & Education
Seet Yun Teng, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Dyan Hidayat Bin Ismawi, Young Professional Trainee, Outreach & Education
Megan Lam, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Nigel Tay, Young Professional Trainee, Production
Nurshafiqah Zainudin, Young Professional Trainee, Exhibitions
Ze-Tian Lim, Intern, Exhibitions
Jolene Lau, Intern, Production
MEMBERS
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures,
and Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Linda de Mello, Director, Sector Development, NAC
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life),
President’s Office, NTU
Cindy Koh, Director, Consumer, Economic Development Board
Mike Samson, Managing Director and Regional Head ASEAN Leveraged and Structured
Solutions, Standard Chartered Bank
Professor Michael Walsh, Chair, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Dr June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Programmes and Publications, Singapore Art Museum
NTU CCA SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
CHAIR
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes,
and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
Guineviere Low, Young Professional Trainee, Research & Academic Programmes
MEMBERS
Antonia Carver, Director, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, Deputy Director in charge of Research and Globalisation, MNAM/CCI,
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Professor Patrick Flores, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines and
Curator Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ranjit Hoskote, cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai, India
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art,
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Peter Lin, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director, Operations & HR
Jillian Kwan, Assistant Director, Development
Joyce Lee, Manager, Finance
Cheryl Ho, Manager, Communications
Perla Espiel, Special Project Assistant
Iris Tan, Senior Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Ong Xue Min, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
Jaclyn Chong, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
32
33
�NTU CCA SINGAPORE PUBLICATIONS
SHARED ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES WITH
THE SCHOOL OF ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA, NTU
Culture City. Culture Scape. (Upcoming)
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Sophie Goltz, and Khim Ong.
MASTER OF ARTS IN MUSEUM STUDIES AND CURATORIAL PRACTICES
In August 2018, NTU welcomed the first intake of MA students for Museum Studies
and Curatorial Practices. The programme prepares graduates for professional positions
in the highly complex and diverse museum landscape in Southeast Asia and the
ever-expanding field of contemporary curating.
The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia).
NTU CCA Singapore and World Scientific Publishing, 2019.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Roger Nelson , and Khim Ong.
Voyages de Rhodes, artist’s book by Phan Thảo Nguyên.
Commissioned and published by NTU CCA Singapore, 2018.
Place.Labour.Capital. NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing, 2018.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
MASTER OF ARTS (RESEARCH) AND DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PHD)
This research-oriented MA and PhD is designed for students who wish to pursue
cutting-edge research in specific areas of Art, Design and Media with a focus in
Spaces of the Curatorial and Curating the City, both key academic research areas
of NTU CCA Singapore.
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions,
NTU CCA Singapore, 2017. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Application period: 1 September 2019 – 1 March 2020
(for August 2020 intake)
Becoming Palm, Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig. NTU CCA Singapore and Sternberg Press,
2017. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Learn more: adm.ntu.edu.sg/programmes
Theatrical Fields, Critical Strategies in Performance, Film, and Video. NTU CCA Singapore,
König Books, London, and Bildmuseet, Umeå, 2016. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and
Anca Rujoiu.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA, NTU
With Singapore being a cosmopolitan nation with Asian sensibilities, the School of Art,
Design and Media (ADM) seeks to play a weighty role in transforming the island state
into a global media city. The inter-disciplinary courses are designed to mould creative
individuals into outstanding artists, designers, animators, new media performers, and
business leaders. The school is equipped with exceptional hands-on studios, digital
creation laboratories, media studios, and open spaces. ADM’s long-term plan is to
focus on nurturing local talents and providing opportunities for international study and
education at a world class standard.
SouthEastAsia – Spaces of the Curatorial. Jahresring 63.
Sternberg Press, 2016. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Brigitte Oetker.
ARTISTS’ LIMITED EDITION EVERYDAY ITEMS
NTU CCA Singapore’s line of commissioned Artists’ Limited Editions Everyday Items—
ranging from scarves, umbrellas, and raincoats, to notebooks, tote bags,
and beach towels—is created in collaboration with the Centre’s local and international
Artists-in-Residence. Participating artists include: Hamra Abbas (Kuwait), Julian ‘Togar’
Abraham (Indonesia), Yason Banal (Philippines), Heman Chong (Singapore), Duto
Hardono (Indonesia), Alex Mawimbi (Kenya/Netherlands), Alex Murray-Leslie
(Australia/Spain), Arjuna Neuman (United States/United Kingdom), UuDam Nguyen
(Vietnam), Ana Pravcki (Serbia/United States), anGie seah (Singapore), SHIMURAbros
(Japan), Tamara Weber (United States), and Jason Wee (Singapore).
ABOUT NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
A research-intensive public university, NTU has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate
students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts and
Social Sciences, and its Graduate College. NTU’s campus is frequently listed among the
top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world and has 57 Green Mark-certified
(equivalent to LEED-certified) buildings. Besides its 200-ha lush green, residential
campus in western Singapore, NTU has a second campus in the heart of Novena,
Singapore’s medical district.
For enquiries, please contact ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
34
35
�NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
CLIMATES.
A leading international art institution, NTU CCA Singapore is a platform, host,
and partner creating and driven by dynamic thinking in its three-fold constellation:
EXHIBITIONS; RESIDENCIES PROGRAMME; RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC
EDUCATION. A national research centre for contemporary art of Nanyang Technological
University, the Centre focuses on Spaces of the Curatorial. It brings fvorth innovative
and experimental forms of emergent artistic and curatorial practices that intersect the
present and histories of contemporary art embedded in social-political spheres with
other fields of knowledge.
HABITATS.
SPACES OF THE CURATORIAL
The Centre seeks to engage the potential of “curating,” and its expanded field. What
are the infrastructures and modes of presenting and discussing artistic and cultural
production in diverse cultural settings and in particular throughout Southeast Asia’s
vastly changing societies? NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibition spaces, designed by artist
and curator Fareed Armaly, respond to this curatorial framework to unfold different
juxtaposed formats.
WE NEED YOU!
Your support is integral to the Centre’s ongoing success from presenting internationally
acclaimed, research-driven exhibitions, to artist residencies and extensive educational
programmes!
ENVIRONMENTS.
CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS. is NTU CCA
Singapore’s overarching research topic which informs and
connects the Centre’s various activities over a period of
several years. Changes in the environment influence weather
patterns and these climatic shifts impact habitats, and vice
versa. Precarious conditions of habitats are forcing the
migration of humans and other species at a critical level.
The consequences of human intervention are felt on a global
scale, affecting geopolitical, social, and cultural systems.
The Centre intends to discuss and understand these realities
through art and culture in dialogue with other fields
of knowledge.
Regardless of the amount, your contribution goes a long way in supporting the
development of local, regional and international art scenes and our Centre. If you are
a taxpayer in Singapore, your donation is not only eligible for a 250% tax deduction
for yourself but also qualifies for the Cultural Matching Fund.
Kuhl’s lorikeet
Habitat: South Pacific
Conservation Status:
Endangered
Pledge your support now to make a positive and tangible difference through art
and education.
For enquiries, please contact ntuccacomms@ntu.edu.sg or scan here to donate:
36
�VISITOR
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
EXHIBITION HOURS
Tuesday – Sunday, 12.00 – 7.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on Public Holidays
(except on Mondays)
FREE ADMISSION
ntu.ccasingapore.org
facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Instagram: @ntu_ccasingapore
Twitter: @ntuccasingapore
ENQUIRIES
ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
SCHOOL/ GROUP TOURS
To schedule a tour, please email
ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
INFORMATION
EXHIBITIONS
Block 43 Malan Road,
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
RESIDENCIES STUDIOS
Blocks 37 and 38 Malan Road,
Singapore 109452 and 109441
RESEARCH CENTRE
AND OFFICE
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
LOCATED AT
GILLMAN BARRACKS TOURS
For a tour, please register at
www.gillmanbarracks.com
or Friends of the Museums
at www.fom.sg
A RESEARCH CENTRE OF
THE POSTHUMAN CITY.
CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS.
is a collateral event of
© NTU CCA Singapore. Printed in
November 2019 by First Printers.
�THE
POSTHUMAN
CITY
HABITATS.
CLIMATES.
ENVIRONMENTS.
EXHIBITION
23 NOVEMBER 2019
— 8 MARCH 2020
�Saturday, 23 November 2019,
2.00 – 7.30pm
SYMPOSIUM: TECHNO-OPTIMISM
AND ECO-HACKTIVISM
The Single Screen
Block 43 Malan Road
2.00 – 2.15pm
INTRODUCTION
by UTE META BAUER (Germany/
Singapore), Founding Director,
NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor,
NTU ADM, and LAURA MIOTTO
(Italy/Singapore), Associate Professor,
NTU ADM
2.15 – 3.00pm
LECTURE: ON GARAGES AND
GENES, OR THE RISE AND FALL
OF THE CALIFORNIA IDEOLOGY
by HALLAM STEVENS (Australia/
Singapore), Associate Professor, School
of Biological Sciences, NTU
Much of today’s biotech was created
in the image of Silicon Valley. The
first genetic engineers emerged
in California in the 1970s and the
industry continues to bear the imprint
of its origins. But Silicon Valley’s
attitude towards technology is
coming under increasing pressure—
the world is beginning to push back
against “tech bros” and social media
monopolies. What does this mean
for bioscience? Could we perhaps
find other ways of working with and
manipulating biomatter and living
things that move beyond the worlds
of venture capital, startups, and
IPOs? Could such models even
provide clues for new ways of living
with others in the Chthulucene?
BIODIVER-CITY
SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, 18 January 2019,
2.00 – 5.00pm
SYMPOSIUM: BIODIVER-CITY
AND URBAN FUTURES
The Single Screen
Block 43 Malan Road
2.00 – 2.15pm
INTRODUCTION
by UTE META BAUER
and LAURA MIOTTO
Animali Domestici, Bangkok Opportunistic
Ecologies (detail), 2019. Courtesy the artists.
& URBAN
TECHNO-OPTIMISM
SYMPOSIUM
& ECO-HACKTIVISM
2.15 – 3.00pm
LECTURE: A GLOBAL ART
CRITICISM FOR A GLOBAL
CLIMATE CRISIS
by JASON FARAGO (United States),
art critic, New York Times
From Schiller and Hegel onward, art
critics and philosophers of aesthetics
have defined art in contrast to nature—
but that distinction has collapsed
in the epoch of the Anthropocene,
when humans have become the
authors of geology itself. This talk will
consider how artists and curators
have approached urbanisation, climate
change, and extinction in the 21st
century, from Hou Hanru’s Zone of
Urgency (Venice Biennale, 2003) to
Maria Stavrinaki’s Prehistory (Centre
Pompidou, 2019). It will also assess
the climate externalities of the global
art market, and how fairs, biennials,
and other nodes of the global art
world might reshape themselves in
a post-carbon economy.
3.20 – 5.00pm
PRESENTATIONS AND
CONVERSATION:
ECO-HACKTIVISM
with IRENE AGRIVINA (Indonesia),
artist; INHABITANTS (Portugal/United
States), artists; DR SERINA ABDUL
RAHMAN (Singapore/Malaysia),
Visiting Fellow, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak
Institute, Singapore; and JANELLE
THOMPSON (United States/Singapore),
Assistant Professor, Asian School
of the Environment, NTU;
moderated by DR KARIN OEN,
Deputy Director, Curatorial
Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore
With practices at the intersection of
art and activism, Irene Agrivina and
inhabitants will share more about
their works, on view in the Exhibition
Hall and the Lab respectively. While
Agrivina teaches local women
communities in Indonesia how to
transform wastewater into valuable
goods, inhabitants informs a wider
public about the threats of seabed
mining. Environmental researchers
Serina Abdul Rahman and Janelle
Thompson will present their findings
on floral and faunal marine communities,
as well as sustainable and ecological
solutions regarding natural resources.
5.30 – 7.00pm
LECTURE: TERMITE ECONOMIES
by artist NICHOLAS MANGAN
(Australia), Senior Lecturer, Department
of Fine Art, Monash University
Nicholas Mangan will work
through some of the research and
histories that have informed the
development of his project TERMITE
ECONOMIES (PHASE 1), on
view in THE POSTHUMAN CITY.
The Australian 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. This anecdote
compelled Mangan through both the
production of the artwork and broader
research to explore insect stigmergy,
trophallaxis, automated mining ant
colony optimisation algorithms,
cement pheromones, biometric
futures, Termodoxia, superorganisms,
and neural network rerouting.
FUTURES
3.20 – 5.00pm
PRESENTATIONS AND
CONVERSATION: BIODIVER-CITY
AND URBAN FUTURES
with ANIMALI DOMESTICI (Italy/
Thailand), artists; YUN HYE HWANG
(South Korea/Singapore), Associate
Professor, School of Design and
Environment, NTU; SARAH ICHIOKA
(United States/Singapore), Desire Lines;
and MICHELLE LAI (Singapore), TANAH;
moderated by LAURA MIOTTO,
Associate Professor, NTU ADM
Thinking through co-existence of
species and the city as a habitat
for diverse life forms, this panel
consists of artists, researchers, and
practitioners for whom interspecies
interaction is at the core of their
practice. Animali Domestici studied
the existence of pythons in the city of
Bangkok, Yun Hye Hwang observes
the outcomes of zero intervention
on landscapes, Sarah Ichioka looks
at social-impact architecture at the
intersections of urban planning and
ecology, and Michelle Lai advocates
for urban farming embedded in local
culture and knowledge.
A RESEARCH CENTRE OF
LOCATED AT
THE POSTHUMAN CITY.
CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS.
is a collateral event of
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
The Posthuman City. Climates. Habitats. Environments Exhibition Guide
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<i>The Posthuman City. Climates. Habitats. Environments</i> Exhibition Guide
Description
An account of the resource
<i>The Posthuman City. Climates. Habitats. Environments</i> Exhibition Guide
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-11-23
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Irene Agrivina
Animali Domestici
Ines Doujak
Pierre Huyghe
Jae Rhim Lee
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Nicholas Mangan
Marjetica Potrč
Hito Steyerl
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Guide
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
Subject
The topic of the resource
Sustainability
Posthumanism
Technology
Climate Crisis
-
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PDF Text
Text
Siah Armajani
Spaces for the Public.
Spaces for Democracy.
Exhibition
20 July – 3 November 2019
�Cover and centre image:
Siah Armajani, Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room
#3, 1988. Installation view of the exhibition Siah
Armajani: Follow This Line, Walker Art Center,
9 September – 30 December 2018. Courtesy Walker
Art Center, Minneapolis. Photo by Bobby Rogers.
�Siah Armajani, Tomb for Heidegger, 2012,
mixed media, 175.2 x 142.2 x 254 cm. Courtesy
the artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
Spaces for the Public.
Spaces for Democracy.
Notes ON THE EXHIBITION
“I am interested in the nobility of usefulness. My intention is to build
open, available, useful, common, public gathering places—gathering places
that are neighbourly.” —Siah Armajani
NTU CCA Singapore is privileged to present the first institutional solo
exhibition of Iranian-American artist Siah Armajani (b. 1939) in Asia.
Considered a leading figure in art in public space, Armajani merges
architecture and conceptual art in his sculptures, drawings, public
installations that range from bridges to gardens, and outdoor structures
such as gazebos for public use. His intrinsically interdisciplinary works
dwell on political, social, economic, philosophical, and metaphysical
considerations, inspired by democratic ideals and values, as well as
American vernacular architecture. The invitation for this exhibition goes
beyond the mere viewing of works of art. The intention is to ally with
Siah Armajani’s advocacy in the understanding that an art institution
should provide Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy. Hence,
we apply Armajani’s guiding principles such as “art on a civic scale”
and its “nobility of usefulness,” for instance, by activating the Reading
Room as such. His entire body of work continuously calls for critical
reflection and communality, driven by a deeply humanistic belief. Of
equal importance and influence to the artist are poetry and mathematics
as systems and counter-systems of logic and order.
Taking centre stage in the exhibition, the large-scale installation Sacco
& Vanzetti Reading Room #3 (1988) unfolds along its several comprising
elements, such as two wooden cabins, various tables and chairs made
of planks, benches, and racks filled with books, magazines, and stacks of
pencils noticeably arranged like spikes. The work’s title refers to the two
Italian-born American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti,
whose verdict of armed robbery and murder steered global protests.
Armajani has dedicated several works to the two, who were executed in
1927 in Boston. In 1977, 50 years later, the then Governor of Massachusetts,
Michael Dukakis, declared 23 August as a memorial day in their honour.
Several of Armajani’s works explicitly remember the repression embedded in
histories of slavery, class struggles, political uprising, and systemic injustice.
1
�The Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3 is designed as a functional and
inviting space to be used by the visiting public, nevertheless provoking
a certain uneasiness that echoes the source of inspiration for this work.
Furthermore, Armajani has referenced the post-revolutionary Russian
avant-garde artist Alexander Rodchenko as an influence for this work,
particularly Rodchenko’s design for a workers’ club at the International
Exhibition, 1925, in Paris. This club, containing racks with magazines and
books, served as a reading space. The purpose of this new kind of public
spaces, built by and for the workers themselves, was to offer a space
for recreation as well as education, with a just and egalitarian society
in view. This speaks to Armajani’s understanding of the artist as a citizen.
However, having experienced a revolution and its aftermath first-hand,
his practice manifests the importance of the act of bridging over dividing,
stimulates conversations and encourages involvement.
Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy. employs the exhibition
format as a civic structure at the threshold of everyday life and artistic
engagement. The presentation at the NTU CCA Singapore includes a
selection of books by or about the poets, philosophers, and political activists
to whom Armajani has dedicated different works over the decades of his
practice. These include Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Dewey, Emma Goldman, Hafez, Frank O’Hara,
Sylvia Plath, Ahmad Shamlou, Henry David Thoreau, Alfred North Whitehead,
Walt Whitman, and Nima Yooshij, of whom many are part of his Tomb
series. Drawing from the title of the exhibition, the Centre launched an
open call to individuals and groups to engage with the books through
reading aloud, convene reading groups, or propose related activities.
Siah Armajani, Tomb for Richard Rorty, 2016,
ink on mylar, 101.6 x 76.2 cm. Courtesy the
artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
2
The Tomb series, to which Armajani returned 30 years later, was
initiated in 1972 with the Tomb for John Berryman, an American poet
and scholar. In the meantime, he has created more than 25 tombs, most
of them comprising drawings, maquettes, and models. Each proposal
acknowledges the influence that each of these historically significant
thinkers and activists had on the artist. In the exhibition, a model and
a drawing are devoted to Arthur Rimbaud, while a larger wooden model
references Heidegger, whose essay “Building Dwelling Thinking” (1954)
inspired Armajani to develop one of his most emblematic concepts —
the bridge. In his writings, Heidegger conceives the bridge not only as
a maker of place, but also as a creator of neighbourhood, as it unites
two separate places with that which divides them. Armajani has used
this typology throughout his career to embody multiplicity and question
difference and distance, understanding the need and difficulty of
connecting between cultures, classes, and generations.
3
�The bridges are a paradigmatic example of sculpture as an embodied,
phenomenological experience, and architectural proposition existing in
space and time. Armajani’s bridges usually employ construction methods
or materials used in rural farm houses, created by artisans, carpenters,
and joiners, which the artist calls the “common-sense architecture” that
has taught him his craft. Armajani does not see architecture and sculpture
as a dichotomy, but works within the interstitial space that connects both.
Presented in the exhibition are two large bridge models cast in bronze,
Street Corner No. 1 and No. 2.
For the first time on public view are twelve small metal objects that
Armajani created by transforming generic kitchen utensils. Rarely
exhibited, Armajani’s computer-generated short films are point-andline animations of mathematical computations that create an abstract
relationship between language and mathematics. The ideas advanced
in these already include visual, spatial, and architectural concerns
that the artist continued to inquire.
Resonating Structures, a film programme curated by Dr Marc Glöde,
takes Armajani’s early experimental films from 1970 as points of departure,
extending the artist’s predilection for working in series of typologies. The
diversity of the public programmes attests to Armajani’s curiosity and
lines of enquiry.
I would like to thank the lenders of the works, MMK Museum for Modern
Art, Frankfurt, in particular Susanne Pfeffer, Director, and Mario Kramer,
Head of Collection, as well as Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong. Fabio Rossi
and Josie Browne, former Deputy Director at NTU CCA Singapore,
strongly supported the idea of a show of Armajani’s works in Asia since
its inception years back. Thanks also to Victoria Sung, Assistant Curator
of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, for traveling all the way to share her
insights, having worked with the artist on his recent retrospective.
I express my sincere gratitude to Siah Armajani for the gift of his work, which
spans more than six decades and can be read not only as a mark in the history
of art and public space, but also as a commitment to civil disobedience.
Ute Meta Bauer,
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and
Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
with Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator,
Exhibitions, NTU CCA Singapore
4
Top: Siah Armajani, Street Corner No. 2, 1994,
bronze, 171.5 x 279.4 x 22.9 cm.
Bottom: Siah Armajani, Street Corner No. 1, 1994,
bronze and wood, 134.6 x 280.7 x 33 cm.
Both courtesy the artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
�BIOGRAPHY
Siah Armajani (b. 1939, Tehran, Iran) moved to the United States from
Iran in 1960. He attended Macalester College in Minnesota, where he
studied philosophy. He lives and works in Minneapolis. His sculptures,
drawings, and public works exist between the boundaries of art and
architecture, informed by democratic ideals. He is recognised as a leading
figure in the conceptualisation of the role and function of public art, with
nearly one hundred projects realised internationally since the 1960s.
Armajani’s education in Western thought and philosophy began in Tehran,
where he attended a Presbyterian school for Iranian students, and
continued through his undergraduate years in the United States.
Early theoretical interests influenced his work, taking form in objects
and architectural spaces designed in homage to literary, philosophical,
and political figures like Theodor Adorno, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Martin Heidegger, Ahmad Shamlou, and Alfred Whitehead.
Armajani’s most celebrated public artworks are bridges, walkways, and
gardens, including the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1988), Minneapolis;
the World Financial Center’s promenade (in collaboration with Scott Burton
and Cesar Pelli), Battery Park City, New York; Gazebo for Two Anarchists
(1992), Storm King Art Center, New York; Floating Poetry Room (2005),
Amsterdam; Bridge for Iowa City (2000), University of Iowa; and numerous
gardens at Villa Arson Museum, Nice. He was commissioned to design
the Cauldron for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.
Top: Siah Armajani, Arthur Rimbaud,
2016, ink on mylar, 101.6 x 152.4 cm.
Bottom: Siah Armajani, Arthur Rimbaud,
2016, painted balsa and aluminium,
48.26 x 39.37 x 39.37 cm.
Both courtesy the artist and
Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
Armajani’s career retrospective, Follow This Line, took place at the
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (9 September – 30 December 2018) and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (20 February – 2 June 2019).
The artist has been the subject of more than fifty solo exhibitions since
1978, including surveys and retrospectives at Parasol unit, London
(2013); the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (2008); Musée d’art
moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2007, tour); Museo Nacional Centro
de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1999, tour); Villa Arson, Nice (1994); Lannan
Foundation, Los Angeles (1992); Kunsthalle Basel (1987); Westfälisches
Landesmuseum, Münster (1987, tour); and the Institute of Contemporary
Art, Philadelphia (1985). His work has also been featured in international
group exhibitions, including Skulptur Projekte Münster (1987); Whitney
Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1981); 39th Venice
Biennale, American Pavilion (1980); Information, Museum of Modern Art,
New York (1970); and Documenta 5, 7, and 8, Kassel (1972, 1982, 1987).
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�Armajani’s work is in various public collections, including Art Institute of
Chicago; British Museum, London; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh;
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; M+, Hong
Kong; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of
Art; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; MMK Museum for
Modern Art, Frankfurt; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum
of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York;
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis.
Siah Armajani, Tomb for Alfred Whitehead, 2013,
felt pen on graph paper, 61 x 48 cm. Courtesy
the artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
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�SIAH ARMAJANI:
Spaces for the Public.
Spaces for Democracy.
Short Films in the Single Screen
Works in the Exhibition
20 July – 3 November 2019
Event, 1970, 6 min 41 sec
Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3, 1988
Glazed wood, synthetic resin, glass, steel, brick, aluminium,
pencils, dimensions variable.
Courtesy MMK Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt.
Tomb for Heidegger, 2012
Mixed media, 175.2 x 142.2 x 254 cm
Utensils, 1975
Aluminium
Tomb for Arthur Rimbaud, 2016
Painted balsa and aluminium,
48.26 x 39.37 x 39.37 cm
Grease Protector, 47 x 33 cm 1
Pie Plate, 26.7 x 26.7 cm 2
Bread Basket, 30.5 x 30.5 cm 3
Pitcher, 25 x 17 cm 4
Cookie Cutter, 13 x 13 cm 5
Potato Peeler, 17.8 x 7.6 cm 6
Slotted Spoon, 23 x 5 cm 7
Fork, 24 x 6.4 cm 8
Spoon, 23 x 5 cm 9
Sieve, 23 x 10 cm 10
Wire Wisk, 32.4 x 7.6 cm 11
Cooking Spoon, 36.8 x 11.4 cm 12
Tomb for Richard Rorty, 2016
Ink on mylar, 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Tomb for Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
2016
Ink on mylar, 91.44 x 152.4 cm
Tomb for Frank O’Hara, 2016
Ink on mylar, 91.44 x 60.96 cm
(See page 18)
Tomb for Arthur Rimbaud, 2016
Ink on mylar, 101.6 x 152.4 cm
Tomb for Alfred Whitehead, 2013
Felt pen on graph paper, 61 x 48 cm
Street Corner No. 1, 1994
Bronze and wood,
134.6 x 280.7 x 33 cm
Street Corner No. 2, 1994
Bronze, 171.5 x 279.4 x 22.9 cm
10
Models, drawings, and utensils:
courtesy the artist, and Rossi & Rossi,
Hong Kong.
18 July – 17 November 2019
Screening on loop during opening hours.
To Perceive 10,000 Different Squares in 6 Minutes and 55 Seconds,
1970, 7 min 37 sec
Before/After, 1970, 1 min 50 sec
Inside/Outside, 1970, 1 min 40 sec
Rotating Line, 1970, 1 min 26 sec
All above: Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2015.
Line, 1970, 1 min 16 sec
Computer-generated 16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w, silent.
Courtesy the artist and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
Since the 1960s, Siah Armajani has explored the use of technology as
a medium, intersecting art and science. In 1970, he produced a series
of experimental films using a computer capable of printing on 16mm
celluloid at the Hybrid Computer Laboratory, University of Minnesota.
He generated moving lines and shapes using mathematical formulae
and computer programming to create the illusion of three-dimensional
space and time, pointing to the functionalism of space.
Event brings together the notions of architecture’s social space through
texts, equations, and diagrams. To Perceive 10,000 Different Squares in
6 Minutes and 55 Seconds presents ten thousand squares, each in a
single frame in descending order of size, with the illusion of a single
hovering square. Before/After suggests spatial and temporal ambiguity,
depicted by two synchronised animated representations of movements
over time. Inside/Outside explores the function of boundaries and the
concept of closed and open systems in a space. Rotating Line illustrates
the blurring of dimensional states within a space through the transition
of a single point into a line that subsequently appears to rotate in and
out of the screen. Armajani reflects upon the inadequacy of painting and
sculpture to express ideas such as a Line, the most basic aesthetic form.
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�OPEN CALL
NTU CCA Singapore has selected books by and about the philosophers,
poets, and political activists whom Siah Armajani has dedicated works
to. During the exhibition, these will be part of the installation Sacco and
Vanzetti Reading Room #3. Interested individuals or groups may use
the installation for reading groups or other events that respond to the
displayed books.
The list of authors of the books 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, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Ahmad Shamlou, Henry
David Thoreau, Alfred North Whitehead, Walt Whitman, and Nima Yooshij.
Interested individuals or groups are welcome to invite their own audience
or to organise events. However, all inhabitations have to happen within
the parameters of a public exhibition space.
For schedule, updates, and more information, please visit
ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/opencall-siah-armajani
Public ProgrammeS
Saturday, 20 July 2019,
3.00 – 3.30pm
Tuesday, 13 August 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
Exhibition Tour by Ute Meta
Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA
Singapore, and Professor, NTU ADM
Talk: Resonating Structures –
Siah Armajani’s Film Works
and other Artist Films
by Dr Marc Glöde, Assistant
Professor, NTU ADM
3.30 – 5.00pm
Talk: Siah Armajani: Follow This Line
by Victoria Sung, Assistant Curator
of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center
Following the major retrospective of
Siah Armajani’s six-decade-long career
held at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
and the Met Breuer, New York, co-curator
Victoria Sung will expand on Armajani’s
practice and public art commissions.
Sung will focus on the artist’s Reading
Rooms, particularly the one included
in the exhibition, Sacco and Vanzetti
Reading Room #3, and think through
the role of museums as public and
educational spaces.
Victoria Sung (United States) is Assistant
Curator of Visual Arts at Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, where she co-curated Siah
Armajani: Follow This Line (2018), the
artist’s first major retrospective in the United
States, and co-edited the accompanying
catalogue. The exhibition travelled to the
Met Breuer, New York. Recent projects include
Theaster Gates: Assembly Line (2019); Laure
Prouvost: They Are Waiting for You (2017);
and Katharina Fritsch: Multiples (2017).
She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from
Harvard College, a master’s degree in history
of art and visual culture from the University
of Oxford, and a master’s degree in business
administration from Harvard Business School.
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Siah Armajani’s experimental films
with computer-based graphics in the
early 1970s not only expanded his
practice in relation to public space
and architecture to new territory, but
also paved the way for a new aesthetic
field. Using Armajani’s experiments
on line structures as a point of
departure, Dr Glöde will also cover
films by preeminent artists/filmmakers
presented in the film programme
that accompanies the exhibition, as
well as those beyond, who produced
important films relating to other of
Armajani’s tropes of interest: bridges,
houses, and gardens.
Dr Marc Glöde (Germany/Singapore) is a
curator, critic, and film scholar, and currently
Assistant Professor at the School of Art,
Media and Design, NTU. His work focuses
on the relation of images, technology, space,
and the body, as well as that between fields of
art, architecture, and film. Dr Glöde received
his PhD at the Free University in Berlin
where he also taught. Additionally he has
taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden,
Academy of Fine Arts Berlin, and the ETH
Zürich. He was senior curator of Art Basel’s
film programme (2008–14) and curator/senior
advisor of the abc Berlin (2010–12).
�Thursday, 12 September 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
In Conversation: Curating the City:
Golden Walls and Pink Dots
with Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director,
Research & Academic Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant
Professor, NTU ADM, and Regina
De Rozario (Singapore), artist and
PhD Candidate, NTU ADM
Using best practice examples from
Singapore, Hamburg, and beyond,
artistic and activist strategies, with
which urban spaces have been
appropriated as democratic forums,
will be examined. In addition, the
methodological question will be raised:
how can regionally differently situated
practices of artists and activists be
described more generally as art in the
public sphere? Hence, which cultural
and political implications do arise
for a mutual understanding of urban
and public space in theory and
practice today?
Tuesday, 1 October 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore) is
Deputy Director, Research & Academic
Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore, and
Assistant Professor at the NTU School
of Art, Design and Media. Goltz was the
Artistic Director of Stadkuratorin Hamburg
(City curator) from 2013 to 2016, and has
worked as Senior Curator and Head of
Communication and Public Programmes at
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein between 2008
and 2013, becoming Associate Curator in
2014. Goltz worked as freelance curator, as
well as art educator for various international
exhibitions, including Documenta11 and
documenta 12 (2002 and 2007), 3rd berlin
biennale for contemporary art (2004),
and Project Migration (2004–06).
Regina De Rozario’s (Singapore) artistic
practice investigates how strategies of
walking, mapping, and image-making
can enable us to recognise and respond to
notions of power and control embedded
in the physical and narrative spaces we
inhabit. She is also one-half of Perception3,
an interdisciplinary art duo established in
2007 working with photography, video, and
site-specific text installations, having been
recently exhibited at iLight Singapore:
Bicentennial Edition (2019); 3rd Biennial of
Montevideo, (2016); Singapore Biennale 2016;
and Urbanness: Contemplating the City,
Dubai (2015). De Rozario received the National
Arts Council Postgraduate Scholarship in
2018, and is currently pursuing her doctoral
studies at NTU ADM.
Thursday, 31 October 2019,
7.00 – 8.30pm
Exhibition (de)Tour: Landscape
Design, Hybridity, and Public Art
by Dr Colin Okashimo, landscape
architect and sculptor
Talk: The Political Agency of Art
by Post-Museum
Over the last two decades, Dr Colin
Okashimo has fused art and landscape
architecture as well as sculpture and
design through a strong research
narrative that highlights the unique
aspects of each location. Okashimo
creates environments that are inspired
by the research of the place’s culture,
history, and society. In this talk, he will
reflect on the potentiality of sculpture
and public art in transforming a space
into a place-specific environment
offering meaning and memory.
Dr Colin Okashimo (Canada/Singapore)
is a sculptor, landscape architect, and
master planner. He graduated in landscape
architecture at the University of Guelph.
He moved to Singapore and established
his own practice in 1996. He has designed
intriguing landscapes for hospitality and
residential projects across Asia. He holds a
PhD from London’s University of Arts, and
has published the book Provoking Calm:
The Artworks of Colin K. Okashimo. He was
awarded the Singapore President’s Designer
of the Year Award in 2015.
Post-Museum has worked alongside a
wide network of social actors, cultural
workers, and institutions to stimulate
public engagement with ideas of
identity, society, and community. Their
projects have bridged art and activism
through a diverse oeuvre of events, art
exhibitions, and public interventions.
In this talk, Post-Museum will discuss
how the artistic medium can act as a
galvanising agent to foster positive
social discourse and encourage
collective organisation.
Post-Museum (Singapore) is an independent
social and cultural enterprise founded by
Jennifer Teo and Woon Tien Wei in 2007. It
aims to encourage a thinking and proactive
community while serving as a hub for the
development of local and international cultures. Currently nomadic, it is an
open platform for examining contemporary
life, promoting the arts, and connecting
people. Post-Museum hosts investigative and
experimental projects which respond to their
location and community, such as the Bukit
Brown Index (2014–ongoing) and Really
Really Free Market (2009–ongoing).
All programmes are admission free and
take place at NTU CCA Singapore.
For updates, please visit
ntu.ccasingapore.org
14
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�OUTREACH & EDUCATION Workshops
Saturday, 24 August 2019,
3.00 – 6.00pm
Workshop: Why intervene at all?
by Lin Shiyun, Creative Director,
3Pumpkins
Fee: $12. Registration required via Peatix:
whyintervene.peatix.com
Developed for all ages.
While neighbourhoods in Singapore
may appear homogenous, each local
community faces a unique set of issues
due to its distinct social demographics.
There is no fixed formula for creative
intervention that conveniently applies
to all. In this workshop, Lin Shiyun
will share her practice in community
engagement and development
projects, carried out in public spaces,
as a constant search for answers to
understand and reorganise social
patterns. Through case studies,
participants will attempt to unravel
the purpose and examine various
methods of creative intervention in
communities, and question if such
intervention is necessary at all.
16
Saturday, 14 September 2019,
3.00 – 6.00pm
Lin Shiyun (Singapore) is the Creative
Director of 3Pumpkins, an arts company
rooted in activating and connecting
communities as both creators and audiences
of arts. The company’s flagship social practice
Let’s Go PLay OutSide! is focused on
developing resilience in local communities
through long-term engagement with children
at neighbourhood playgrounds. Since 2012,
Lin has been commissioned by public and
private institutions to produce multidisciplinary participatory programmes. Her
most recent works are Our Time Together,
exploring children’s experiences in grief and
loss, and outdoor giant puppet show The
Rubbish Prince. She is currently working
with Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore) on
designing a comprehensive arts programme
targeted at youth and community
participation.
Saturday, 26 October 2019,
10.30am – 12.30pm
Workshop: “Bridge” as a
Metaphor for Connectivity
and Dis-connectivity
by artists Chiew Sien Kuan
and Joey.Spl
Workshop: Writing for Change
by writer and educator
Dr Yeo Wei Wei
Fee: $12. Registration required via Peatix:
buildingbridges.peatix.com
Developed for all ages.
In this workshop, you will have handson experience in making simple light
circuits and building small wood
assemblage bridges. Through these
works, you will create a narrative
of bridging a connection and learn
simple lighting mechanisms to
emphasise the idea of connectivity
and dis-connectivity.
Chiew Sien Kuan’s (Singapore) work is
preoccupied with issues of environmentalism,
renewal, loss of urban spaces, economic
progress, and technological development
that have inevitably influenced and changed
people’s sense of reality.
Joey.Spl (Singapore) is an artist who creates
interactive installations about mindful
awareness as an inquiry towards an optimal
sense of self. Her works combine whimsical
ephemerality with sensibility of electronic
mechanisms. She has been preoccupied with
and compassed by the research and development of the Mind-Brain-Body interaction
throughout her practice.
17
Fee: $12. Registration required via Peatix:
writingforchange.peatix.com
Developed for ages 17 to 22.
Literature and philosophy have been
guiding lights for artist Siah Armajani
since young. Sharing Armajani’s
conviction in reading and writing for
change to the self and society, this
workshop will focus on creative writing
as self-communing and engagement
with the world.
Dr Yeo Wei Wei (Singapore) is a writer,
translator, and educator. She has 20 years of
experience in teaching, and has worked with
students at primary, secondary, and tertiary
levels. Literature and Creative Writing
were her areas of specialisation at SOTA,
NUS, and NTU. In 2017 she graduated
with Distinction in her MA in Creative
Writing (Prose Fiction) from the University
of East Anglia, for which she was awarded
the National Arts Council Postgraduate
Scholarship in 2016. She holds a PhD in
English from the University of Cambridge.
Her collection of short stories These Foolish
Things & Other Stories was published
by Ethos Books in 2015.
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�Film Programme:
Resonating Structures
Taking Siah Armajani’s film works
from the 1970s that explore structures
and lines using computer graphics as
a point of departure, this film series
presents other filmmakers/artists
working with similar themes such
as “line structures” and three others
of Armajani’s tropes of interests:
bridges, houses, and gardens. Just
as Armajani’s Dictionary for Building
(1974–75) deconstructs the typology
of domestic architecture, these films
explore new meanings of functional,
social, and visual concepts of
architecture and space.
Screening on loop
during opening hours.
20
1. Line Structures
2. Bridges
Tuesday, 23 July –
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Tuesday, 6 – Sunday, 18 August 2019
Stan VanDerBeek, Micro-Cosmos 1–4,
United States, 1983
Colour, sound, 15 min
This is a series of four short computeranimated works, in which the image of
an orb is transformed into a pulsating,
energetic evocation of life forces.
Stan VanDerBeek (United States) was an
American experimental filmmaker at the
forefront of technology. He began making
films in 1955 and working with computers in
1965, when he produced multimedia pieces
and computer animation in collaboration
with Bell Labs. In the 1970s, he constructed
“Movie-Drome,” an immersive audio-visual
laboratory for a new kind of cinema-stage.
His multimedia experiments in “expanded
cinema” included movie murals, projection
systems, planetarium events, and explored
early computer graphics and imageprocessing systems, merging art with
technology and dance with films. He was
a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual
Studies at MIT (1969–72 and 1976–77).
Shirley Clarke, Bridges-go-round,
United States, 1958
16mm film transferred to digital file, colour,
sound, 7 min 30 sec
This film explores the architectural
idea of metropolitan bridges both
visually and acoustically, highlighting
their monumentality. Detailed images
of abstract patterns and geometrical
curves, elevated to eye-level, move
in a fast-paced rhythm. As they lead
the audience through a suspended,
hypnotic, and seamless journey, they
sometimes superimpose on one another
or against an urban skyline, juxtaposed
with a background that ranges from
sepia tones to cellophane colours. The
film plays twice, first with jazz-like music
by Teo Macero, followed by an electronic
score by Louis and Bebe Barron that
creates an almost eerie atmosphere.
Shirley Clarke (United States) was an
esteemed figure in the American avantgarde cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, and
a pioneer of video in the 1970s, receiving
an Academy Award in 1964. She brought
a distinctive aesthetic of “choreography of
images” to her work as a trained dancer
and manipulated image, time, and space by
applying expressive choreographic editing
and dramatic technical effects. She cofounded Film-Makers Cooperative and FilmMakers Distribution Center in New York,
offering alternative distribution methods for
independent filmmakers.
21
Tuesday, 20 – Sunday, 25
August 2019
Gordon Matta-Clark, Fire Child,
United States, 1971
Super 8mm film transferred to HD video,
colour, silent, 9 min 47 sec
Fire Child is not only a performative
work of Gordon Matta-Clark, but also
a documentary on derelict sites. It
begins with an old man and a child
rummaging through trash under a
bridge, followed by the artist building
a small wall made of rubbish, waste
paper, and tin cans collected from the
area. A boy makes a fire with sticks,
but the fire is put out after presumed
intervention by the police. The film
then ends with the artist covering
his wall with printed comics. It was
created for Brooklyn Bridge Event,
a four-day festival held in 1971.
Gordon Matta-Clark (United States),
originally trained as an architect, was an
influential post-war artist. He is best known
for subverting architecture and urban
landscape with geometric interventions of
“building cuts,” converting them into gravitydefying and disorientating walk-through
sculptures. His work is seen not only as a
rejection of the architectural profession but
also as new modes of contemporary artistic
expression. “Anarchitecture,” the name of an
artist group of which he was a member, and
the title of a 1974 exhibition from the group’s
discussion around the dematerialisation of
the art object and activation of space and
place, was attributed to him.
�Tuesday, 27 August –
Sunday, 1 September 2019
Video Earth Tokyo, Under a Bridge,
Japan, 1974
B&w, sound, 13 min
In this film, Ko Nakajima and Video
Earth Tokyo interview a homeless man.
Although the man appears hostile and
frustrated initially, he gradually opens
up and shares about his life. The film
was later broadcast on Japanese cable
television.
Video Earth Tokyo (Japan) is a
community-oriented video art collective
serving as a network for people making
video in Japan. It was founded in 1971 by
Ko Nakajima, a pioneer of video art and
computer animation. He recorded local
communities, social activities, interventions,
and performance experiments using a
portable video recorder—a communication
tool employed by the collective to promote
communal awareness. The collective
broadcast their documentaries and
experimental works on cable television and
participated in international exhibitions as
well as computer graphics conferences.
The film begins with the open end of
the railroad acting as a viewfinder,
where the landscape captured within
it changes like a slow-moving film
strip. Scenes of the railroad alternate
with close-ups of the bridge’s steel
structure, emphasising the details of
its components and their materiality.
Richard Serra (United States) is a
preeminent and visionary artist. In the
1960s, he and other Minimalist artists
employed non-traditional, industrial
materials to emphasise the materiality of
their work. He subsequently expanded his
spatial and temporal approach to sculptures
to large-scale, site-specific work, of which
his arcs, spirals, and ellipses are most
renowned. These monumental works engage
their viewers as they are experienced in situ.
In 1968, he produced his first short film
and experimented with video in the 1970s.
Tuesday, 10 – Sunday, 22
September 2019
Joan Jonas, Brooklyn Bridge,
United States, 1988
Colour, sound, 6 min 12 sec
Tuesday, 3 – Sunday, 8
September 2019
Richard Serra, Railroad
Turnbridge, United States, 1976
16mm film transferred to digital file, b&w,
silent, 19 min
Railroad Turnbridge is an avant-garde
investigation of what “bridgeness”
means to Richard Serra. It records
the bridge opening, closing, turning,
locking, and unlocking, coinciding with
movements of the camera.
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This film investigates the concepts of
identity and place using the Brooklyn
Bridge, a landmark of New York City,
as an object of study. Applying the
transformative power of its medium,
this work fuses photographs, live
video, and superimposed drawings
created on a Quantel Paintbox to
emphasise the cryptic strength and
naturalistic beauty of the bridge.
This is intensified by the artist Joan
Jonas scripting herself as a performer
in the film.
Joan Jonas (United States) is a leading
video and performance artist. She pioneered
the use of the two genres in visual art and
was influential also in other art forms.
Incorporating different media, she presents
multiple viewpoints and layers of material,
texture, and meanings in her work to address
current issues. In 1972, she began producing
video works that were ground-breaking in
emphasising the experience of the medium as
a conceptual device and is known for merging
various genres in her fragmented video
narratives. NTU CCA Singapore presented
the solo exhibition Joan Jonas: They Come
to Us Without a Word in 2016.
Ant Farm (United States) was founded in
1968 in San Francisco by architects Chip
Lord and Doug Michels as a countercultural
collective intersecting between media art and
architecture. Their influential work, which
integrated art into everyday life with an
ironic humour, highlighted environmental
degradation, promoted sustainability, and
challenged the ideologies and pervasiveness
of American mass media, culture, and
consumerism. They disbanded in 1978 after
a fire destroyed their studio.
Tuesday, 8 – Sunday, 20
October 2019
3. Houses
Tuesday, 24 – Sunday, 6
October 2019
Ant Farm, Inflatables Illustrated,
United States, 1971–2003
B&w and colour, sound, 21 min 20 sec
As a critique of consumerism and
reaction to Brutalist architecture, Ant
Farm created an utopian, inflatable
architecture that was participatory
and communal, cheap, and easy to
transport and assemble. It had been
used to host festivals, conferences,
or installed as university campuses.
Without a fixed structure, these
inflatables challenged the notions
of a building as well as the reliance
on expert knowledge of architects.
The film, which brings its audience
through the steps of making a small
inflatable using basic materials
found in a kitchen, is an example of
“open source,” in which concepts
are made accessible to the public.
23
Dan Graham, Pavilions Compilation,
United States, 2014
Colour, sound, 31 min
This film surveys Dan Graham’s series
of sculptures Pavilions, created since
the late 1970s, with documentary
footage of the works in different cities.
Created on a human scale out of glass
or mirror, they serve as instruments of
perception as viewers become both the
object of spectacle as well as the
subject or spectator of themselves
reflected in the glass walls. Representing a hybrid between a quasifunctional space and an installation,
art and architecture, public and
private realms, the sculptures reflect
Graham’s investigation into the social
phenomenology and performativity
of the viewer with the art object.
Dan Graham (United States) is an
influential pioneer of conceptual art and
performance-related video art. His multidisciplinary practice, spanning across
curating, writing, performance, installation,
video, photography, and architecture, aligns
itself with popular culture more than
�contemporary art. His work is informed by a
social awareness, often working with hybrids
that oscillate between quasi-functional
spaces and installations to expose processes
of perception, of which his freestanding,
sculptural structures called Pavilions are an
example. NTU CCA Singapore collaborated
with Mapletree to permanently install
Elliptical Pavillion (2017) at Mapletree
Business City II.
Tuesday, 22 October –
Sunday, 3 November 2019
Carsten Nicolai, Future Past
Perfect Pt. 2 (Cité Radieuse),
Germany, 2007
Digital film, colour, sound, 7 min 43 sec
Shot at Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation
(built in 1952) in Marseille, a classic
example of Brutalist architecture, the
film focuses first on the exterior of the
building followed by its interior before
ending at its rooftop. Twice, the film’s
calm atmosphere is disrupted by a rapid,
flashing sequence, achieving a cinematic
effect while engineering the elements
of time, space, and social relations.
Carsten Nicolai (Germany) is a crossdisciplinary artist whose work intersects
art, music, and science. He introduced the
dimensions of time and temporality and
concepts of ephemerality in his work as
well as experiments with sound and light
frequencies in the mid-1990s. He is interested in the subject of human consciousness
and how the complex phenomena of micro
and macrosystems, and abstract concepts
of physics, influence someone’s behaviour.
For his musical outputs, he uses the
pseudonym Alva Noto.
24
4. Gardens
Tuesday, 5 – Sunday, 17
November 2019
Marie Menken, Glimpse of the
Garden, United States 1957
16mm film transferred to digital file, colour,
sound, 5 min
Siah Armajani
Spaces for the Public.
Spaces for Democracy.
20 July – 3 November 2019
NTU CCA Singapore
Curator:
Ute Meta Bauer
Transporting its audiences to a garden,
with the chirping of birds forming its
soundtrack, this film gives a glimpse
of a vast landscape that includes a
lake, while also showing pure visuals
of flowers and plants filmed through
a powerful magnifying glass. At most
times, the pace is fast, with shots
appearing to be taken randomly or
from a flying insect’s perspective.
In 1958, the film won an award at the
Exposition Universelle et Internationale
at Brussels. In 2007, it was nominated
for the National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress in Washington.
Curatorial Team:
Khim Ong
Ana Sophie Salazar
Sng Yi Xian Issa
Ze-Tian Lim
Film Programme:
Dr Marc Glöde,
Assistant Professor, NTU ADM
Acknowledgements:
Marie Menken (United States) was an
underground experimental filmmaker known
as “the mother of the avant-garde,” having
influenced and worked with internationally
renowned artists such as Andy Warhol. She
progressed from painting to filmmaking
in 1945, when she made her first avantgarde film using a handheld Bolex camera.
Since then, she has been celebrated for her
intuitive, free-form cinematic style and
for taking filmmaking to a new direction
with the way she created poetic patterns
of light, colour, and texture. Her films
are fragmentary encounters with friends,
landscapes, and her urban surroundings.
Exhibition Production:
Frankie Fang
Isrudy Shaik
Jack Kenneth Tan
The exhibition is made possible
by generous loans from the MMK
Museum for Modern Art, Frankfurt,
and Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong.
Logistics:
Agility Fairs & Events Pte Ltd
Global Specialised Services Pte Ltd
Special thank you to Susanne
Pfeffer, Director, and Mario Kramer,
Head of Collection, MMK, as well
as Fabio Rossi and Josie Browne,
project liaison.
Public and Education Programmes:
Magdalena Magiera
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi
Amelia Loh
Conservation:
Ulrich Lang, Senior Conservator,
MMK Museum of Modern Art,
Frankfurt
Global Specialised Services Pte Ltd
Collaterals:
mono.studio
25
Thanks to Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, and Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
With gratitude to Siah Armajani and
Barbara Armajani.
�Culture City.
Culture Scape.
Art, Urban Change, and the
Public Sphere
This collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and Mapletree is a first
of its kind in Singapore. The underlying intention is to bring the arts closer
to the work space, neighbouring communities, and beyond, through
a Public Art Trail, a series of permanent installations and art education
programmes at Mapletree Business City II.
Research Presentation
24 August – 2 November 2019
The Lab
Curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and
Professor, NTU ADM, and Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore
Tours of Public Art Trail at Mapletree Business City II
Wednesdays, 31 July, 14 and 28 August, 11 and 25 September,
9 and 23 October 2019
12.30 – 1.00pm
Led by Clifford Loh and Leon Tan, Project Managers, External Collaborations
Themed Culture City. Culture Scape., this public art project,
commissioned by Mapletree and curated by NTU CCA Singapore,
comprises works by internationally renowned artists Dan Graham (United
States), Zulkifle Mahmod (Singapore), Tomás Saraceno (Argentina/
Germany), and Yinka Shonibare (Nigeria/United Kingdom). Inspired by
the idea of expanded sculptural environments, the artworks explore the
interplay between landscape, architecture, and the broader social and
economic environments they are placed in. More than being monumental
or site-specific, each work alters or permeates its local context to invite
visitors to a broader, richer engagement.
This presentation explores the potential of corporate engagement in
presenting and integrating art in publicly accessible space in Singapore.
Public Art Education Summit
17 – 19 October 2019
This 3-day public art education summit will run alongside closed-door
capability workshops for practitioners in public space. The conference
component features keynote presentations by renowned scholars,
artists, and curators, stimulating debate and reflecting upon global
and regional discourses of art in public space. With a focus on art-led
urbanism, place-making, community building, and social practice, its goal
is developmental and educational: to advance discourse about quality in
public space among artists and allied professionals, as well as decisionmakers in urban planning and design.
Convened by Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore, and Assistant Professor, NTU ADM
In association with the Institute for Public Art and College of Fine Arts
Shanghai University
Supported by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd and Public Art Trust (PAT),
an initiative by the National Arts Council.
Free signup on Eventbrite: bit.ly/31Ipwil
For more information, please visit www.mapletreearts.sg
Right: Yinka Shonibare, Wind Sculpture I, 2013,
steel armature with hand-painted fiberglass resin cast,
340 x 80 x 610 cm.
Far right: Dan Graham, Elliptical Pavillion, 2017,
two-way-mirror glass, stainless steel, 573 x 665 x 240 cm.
26
Both installation view at Mapletree Business City II.
27
�in the Lab
PHYOE KYI: THE MUSEUM PROJECT
22 June – 18 August 2019
Developed in ebbs and flows during the last five years of Phyoe Kyi’s life,
The Museum Project stands out as one of the artist’s most ambitious
undertakings—the design of a museum for the display of his works—albeit
it remained unfinished at the time of his sudden death in 2018. Phyoe Kyi:
The Museum Project traces the three main stages of development of this
project by featuring several mediums the artist experimented with: an
interactive installation (2013), renderings and sketches of artworks and
installations (2014–15), and an architectural model based on the artist’s
last design (2018), which was specifically produced for this occasion in
light of Phyoe Kyi’s growing interest in scale models. This presentation
in The Lab seeks to highlight the generative feedback between art and
architecture, with the artist conceiving new works and environmental
installations as the architecture of the museum evolved. It also includes
a timeline designed by artists Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, Phyoe Kyi’s
close friends and creative peers, to illustrate the collaboration which
originally sparked The Museum Project.
Phyoe Kyi (b. 1977 – d. 2018, Myanmar) was a painter, graphic designer, and
performance artist based in Taunggyi, Shan State, Myanmar. Working with a variety
of mediums, his conceptual and experience-based practice explores existential issues
and the complexities of human relationships and existing social systems. His works
have been exhibited widely across Myanmar and were included in international shows
such as the 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Japan (2005) and the 11th Asian Art
Biennale, Bangladesh (2004). His latest solo show, titled The White Clothes, took
place at Myanm/art Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar (2016). In 2015, he initiated and
curated the 1st Mingun Biennale in Myanmar. Phyoe Kyi was Artist-in-Residence
at NTU CCA Singapore from April to June 2018.
Curated by Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
NTU CCA Singapore wishes to thank Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, Min Thein
Sung, and Po Po for their generosity and support in the realisation of this project.
Tuesday, 30 July 2019, 7.00 – 8.30pm
Talk: On Museums Made by Artists
by Tun Win Aung
Phyoe Kyi, Museum Project #7
(extended), digital rendering, 2018.
Courtesy the artist’s estate.
Tun Win Aung will talk about his long-lasting friendship and multiple
collaborations with Phyoe Kyi. Since the artists first met in Yangon’s art
school, they established a profound connection which unfolded through
continuous conversations, intellectual exchanges, and repeated artistic
partnerships. Tun Win Aung will present the collaborative projects
developed in Mingun from 2003 and 2013 and The Art & Museum Project,
the platform he runs together with artist Wah Nu, which originally
triggered Phyoe Kyi’s The Museum Project. While conveying the
visionary thrust of Phyoe Kyi’s work, Tun Win Aung will also highlight
the challenges related to envisioning a contemporary art institution
in the context of Myanmar.
Tun Win Aung (b. 1975, Myanmar) is an artist based in Yangon, who employs a wide
range of mediums including photography, video, and installation. His practice focuses on
local histories and environments and he often collaborates with artist Wah Nu on largescale art projects and activities. Their works as a duo have been exhibited in institutional
venues such as the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013); 21st Century Museum of
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2011); and biennials including Singapore Biennale (2016);
4th Guangzhou Triennial (2011); and the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (2009).
28
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�NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and
Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
CO-CHAIRS
Professor Joseph Liow, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts,
and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council (NAC)
EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCIES
Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes (until July 2019)
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Seet Yun Teng, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi, Curatorial Assistant, Outreach & Education
Frankie Fang, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Senior Executive, Production
Megan Lam, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Amelia Loh, Young Professional Trainee, Outreach & Education
Sng Yi Xian Issa, Young Professional Trainee, Exhibitions
Ze Tian Lim, NTU MA MSCP Intern, Exhibitions
Jack Kenneth Tan, Intern, Production
MEMBERS
Linda de Mello, Director, Sector Development, NAC
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life),
President’s Office, NTU
Cindy Koh, Director, Consumer, Economic Development Board
Mike Samson, Managing Director and Regional Head ASEAN Leveraged
and Structured Solutions, Standard Chartered Bank
Professor Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen, Chair, School of Art, Design
and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Dr June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Programmes and Publications,
Singapore Art Museum
NTU CCA SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes,
and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Dr Pallavi Narayan, Manager, Research Publications & Public
Resource Platform
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
Guineviere Low, Young Professional Trainee, Research &
Academic Programmes
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Peter Lin, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director, Operations & HR
Joyce Lee, Manager, Finance
Perla Espiel, Special Project Assistant
Iris Tan, Senior Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Zhou Yi Jing, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
30
CHAIR
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in
Public Cultures, and Professor, School of Culture and Communication,
The University of Melbourne, Australia
MEMBERS
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, Deputy Director in charge of Research and
Globalisation, MNAM/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Professor Patrick Flores, Department of Art Studies, University of the
Philippines and Curator Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ranjit Hoskote, cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai, India
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair of Southeast
Asian Art, SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA),
Beijing, China
31
�NTU CCA Singapore Publications
Culture City. Culture Scape. (Upcoming)
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Sophie Goltz, and Khim Ong.
The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia).
NTU CCA Singapore and World Scientific Publishing, 2019.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer, Khim Ong, and Roger Nelson.
Voyages de Rhodes, artist’s book by Phan Thảo Nguyên.
Commissioned and published by NTU CCA Singapore, 2018.
Place.Labour.Capital. NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing, 2018.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions,
NTU CCA Singapore, 2017. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
Shared Academic Programmes with
the School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices
In August 2018, NTU welcomed the first intake of MA students for Museum
Studies and Curatorial Practices. The programme prepares graduates for
professional positions in the highly complex and diverse museum landscape
in Southeast Asia and the ever-expanding field of contemporary curating.
Application period: 1 September 2019 – 1 March 2020
Master of Arts (Research) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
These research-oriented MA and PhD are designed for students who wish
to pursue cutting-edge research in specific areas of Art, Design and Media
with a focus in Spaces of the Curatorial and Curating the City, both key
academic research areas of NTU CCA Singapore.
Learn more: adm.ntu.edu.sg/programmes
Becoming Palm, Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig. NTU CCA Singapore
and Sternberg Press, 2017. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
About THE School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Theatrical Fields, Critical Strategies in Performance, Film, and Video.
NTU CCA Singapore, König Books, London, and Bildmuseet, Umeå, 2016.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu.
SouthEastAsia – Spaces of the Curatorial. Jahresring 63.
Sternberg Press, 2016. Edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Brigitte Oetker.
Artists’ Limited Edition Everyday Items
NTU CCA Singapore’s line of commissioned Artists’ Limited Editions Everyday
Items—ranging from scarves, umbrellas, and raincoats, to notebooks, tote bags,
and beach towels—is created in collaboration with the Centre’s local and
international Artists-in-Residence. Participating artists include: Hamra Abbas
(Kuwait), Julian ‘Togar’ Abraham (Indonesia), Yason Banal (Philippines),
Heman Chong (Singapore), Duto Hardono (Indonesia), Alex Mawimbi
(Kenya/Netherlands), Alex Murray-Leslie (Australia/Spain), Arjuna Neuman
(United States/United Kingdom), UuDam Nguyen (Vietnam), Ana Pravcki
(Serbia/United States), anGie seah (Singapore), SHIMURAbros (Japan),
Tamara Weber (United States), and Jason Wee (Singapore).
With Singapore being a cosmopolitan nation with Asian sensibilities,
the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) seeks to play a weighty
role in transforming the island state into a global media city. The interdisciplinary courses are designed to mould creative individuals into
outstanding artists, designers, animators, new media performers, and
business leaders. The school is equipped with exceptional hands-on studios,
digital creation laboratories, media studios, and open spaces. ADM’s longterm plan is to focus on nurturing local talents and providing opportunities
for international study and education at a world-class standard.
About Nanyang Technological University
For enquiries, please contact ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
A research-intensive public university, NTU has 33,000 undergraduate and
postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science,
and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and its Graduate College.
NTU’s campus, near Jurong West, is frequently listed among the top 15
most beautiful university campuses in the world and has 57 Green Markcertified (equivalent to LEED-certified) buildings. Besides its 200-ha lush
green, residential campus in western Singapore, NTU has a second campus
in the heart of Novena, Singapore’s medical district.
32
33
�NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
A leading international art institution, NTU CCA Singapore is a platform,
host, and partner creating and driven by dynamic thinking in its threefold constellation: Exhibitions; Residencies Programme; Research and
Academic Education. A national research centre for contemporary art of
Nanyang Technological University, the Centre focuses on Spaces of
the Curatorial. It brings forth innovative and experimental forms
of emergent artistic and curatorial practices that intersect the present
and histories of contemporary art embedded in social-political spheres
with other fields of knowledge.
CLIMATES.
Spaces of the Curatorial
HABITATS.
CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS. is NTU CCA
Singapore’s overarching research
topic which informs and connects
the Centre’s various activities over
a period of several years. Changes in
the environment influence weather
patterns and these climatic shifts
impact habitats, and vice
versa. Precarious conditions
of habitats are forcing the
migration of humans and other
species at a critical level. The consequences of human intervention
are felt on a global scale, affecting
geopolitical, social, and cultural
systems. The Centre intends to discuss
and understand these realities through
art and culture in dialogue with
other fields of knowledge.
34
The Centre seeks to engage the potential of “curating,” and its expanded
field. What are the infrastructures and modes of presenting and discussing
artistic and cultural production in diverse cultural settings and in
particular throughout Southeast Asia’s vastly changing societies?
NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibition spaces, The Exhibition Hall, The Lab,
The Single Screen, and The Vitrine, designed by artist and curator
Fareed Armaly, respond to this curatorial framework to unfold different
juxtaposed formats.
Giving
ENVIRONMENTS.
NTU CCA Singapore is a non-profit institution that takes great pride
in presenting internationally-acclaimed, research-driven exhibitions,
residencies, and extensive educational programmes. Your contribution,
regardless of amount, goes a long way in enabling us to play an active role
within the local arts scene. Your generous support will also contribute to
the development of regional and international arts infrastructures.
If you are a taxpayer in Singapore, your contributions are eligible for
a 250% tax deduction in 2019!
For enquiries, please contact ntuccacomms@ntu.edu.sg
Birdwing butterfly
Habitat: South Pacific
Conservation Status:
Threatened
35
�Manifesto:
Public Sculpture
in the Context of
American Democracy
I embrace the common. I explore the familiar, the low…. Give me
insight into today, you may have the antique and the future.
—Emerson
1. Public sculpture is a logical continuation of the modern
movement and the enlightenment which was tempered
and conditioned by the American Revolution.
2. Public sculpture attempts to demystify art.
3. Public sculpture is less about self-expression and the myth
of its maker and more about its civicness. Public sculpture is not
based upon a philosophy which seeks to separate itself from
the everydayness of everyday life.
9. Public sculpture has some kind of social function. It has moved
from large scale, outdoor, site specific sculpture into sculpture with
social content. In the process it has annexed a new territory for
sculpture that extends the field for social experience.
19. The use of the adjectives architectural in sculpture and
sculptural in architecture, for the purpose of establishing analogy,
simile, metaphor, contrast or similarity between public sculpture
and architecture is no longer descriptive or valid.
10. Public sculpture believes that culture should be detectable
geographically. The idea of region must be understood as a term
of value. It is in politics. Why not in culture?
20. Public sculpture puts aside the allusion, the illusion and the
metaphysical supposition that the human being is only a spiritual
being who was misplaced here on earth. We are here because
home is here and no other place.
11. Public sculpture is not artistic creation alone but rather social
and cultural productions based upon concrete needs.
12. Public sculpture is a cooperative production. There are others
besides the artist who are responsible for the work. To give all
the credit to the individual artist is misleading and untrue.
21. The public environment is a notion of reference to the field in
which activity takes place. The public environment is a necessary
implication of being in the community.
22. Public sculpture depends upon some interplay with the public
based upon some shared assumptions.
13. The art in public art is not a genteel art but a missionary art.
4. In public sculpture the artist offers his/her expertise, therefore
the artist as a maker has a place in the society. The social and
cultural need support the artistic practice.
14. The ethical dimensions of the arts are mostly gone and only in
a newly formed relationship with a non-art audience may the ethical
dimensions come back to the arts.
5. Public sculpture is a search for a cultural history which calls for
structural unity between the object and its social and spatial setting.
It should be open, available, useful and common.
15. We enter public sculpture not as a thing between four walls
in a spatial sense but as a tool for activity.
6. Public sculpture opens up a perspective through which we may
comprehend the social construction of art.
16. There is a value in site in itself but we should keep our
preoccupation with site to a minimum.
7. Public sculpture attempts to fill the gap that comes about between
art and public to make art public and artists citizens again.
23. There is a limit to public sculpture. There are also limits
in science and in philosophy.
24. Public sculpture should not intimidate, assault or control
the public. It should enhance a given place.
17. Public sculpture is not here to enhance architecture in or out,
nor is architecture here to house public sculpture in or out.
They are to be neighborly.
25. By emphasizing usefulness public sculpture becomes a tool
for activity. Therefore we reject Kantian metaphysics and the idea
that art is useless.
26. Public sculpture rejects the idea of the universality of art.
8. Generally speaking, public sculpture is not of a particular style
or ideology. It is through action in concrete situations that public
sculpture will become of a certain character.
36
—Written and compiled by Siah Armajani (1968–78; revised 1993)
18. Art and architecture have different histories, different
methodologies and two different languages.
�Visitor Information
Exhibition Hours
Wed – Sun: 12.00 – 7.00pm
Tue: 12.00 – 8.00pm
Open Reading Groups:
Tuesdays, 6.00 – 8.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on Public Holidays
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road,
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38 Malan Road,
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Free admission
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
ntu.ccasingapore.org
facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Instagram: @ntu_ccasingapore
Twitter: @ntuccasingapore
Enquiries:
ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
Located at
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© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed in July 2019 by First Printers.
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy Exhibition Guide
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Place.Labour.Capital.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<i>Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy</i> Exhibition Guide
Description
An account of the resource
<i>Siah Armajani. Spaces for the Public Spaces for Democracy</i> Exhibition Guide
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-07-20
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Siah Armajani
Susanne Pfeffer
Mario Kramer
Fabio Rossi
Josie Browne
Barbara Armajani
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Guide
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Asia
North America
-
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Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina
The Ring of Fire
2014 - ongoing
13 April
11 June 2019
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
�My city is sinking, my country is burning,
I don’t want to spend my time in a white cube.
Irwan Ahmett
Singapore, 28 March 2018
�The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
THE RING OF FIRE (2014 – ongoing)
IRWAN AHMETT & TITA SALINA
Invisible to the human eye, geological kinships flow
under the oceans and lay deep into the earth’s crust.
When they manifest themselves, it is often in
apocalyptic forms that disrupt existing ecosystems and
the course of human life. In geography, The Ring of
Fire denotes the volcanic belt and the collision zone of
tectonic plates running around the edges of the Pacific
Ocean, a deadly area where the majority of the world's
earthquakes and eruptions occur. For Irwan Ahmett
and Tita Salina, this geologically unstable territory
demarcates a field of artist inquiry.
An artist duo based in Jakarta, Indonesia, Irwan Ahmett
(b. 1975) and Tita Salina (b. 1977) have been working
together since 2010. Their ephemeral interventions
articulate sharp social commentaries on urgent
issues concerning urban development, ecological
catastrophes, political repression, colonial legacies,
and the exploitation of human and ecological resources.
Since 2014, the Indonesian duo have embarked upon a
journey that engages issues of social injustice, political
struggles, colonial histories, and environmental crises
encountered along erratic routes that stretch from
Indonesia to New Zealand, from Taiwan and South
Korea to Japan. The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
brings together for the first time the most significant
works realised by the artists, either together or
individually, since the inception of the project.
Fueled by an activist attitude and a zest for playfulness,
Ahmett and Salina continuously share the imaginative
resources to transpose political, environmental, and
affective fractures in performative actions that are
poetic and poignant at the same time.
This presentation conveys the scope of their
investigation by showcasing video documentation
and material traces of their performances as well as a
visual statement on the artists’ working methodology.
Spanning from the prankish to the subversive, the duo
can mobilise playfulness in the public sphere, irony in
radioactive sites, and empathy in relation to conditions
of human and environmental vulnerability. Their work
has been exhibited at Yamaguchi Center for Arts
and Media, Japan (2018); Ujazdowski Castle Centre
for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (2017); ST PAUL
St Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (2016); Biennale
Jogja, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2015) amongst other
international venues.
Ahmett and Salina were Artists-in-Residence at
NTU CCA Singapore in March 2018.
�The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
1. GOTONG ROYONG, 2019
acrylic, marker, approx. 1.5 x 2.5 m
An Indonesian notion and a fixture of national
identity with no equivalents in other languages,
gotong royong denotes a common-cause principle:
more than mutual aid, it is rather a communal
attitude that generates actions aimed at a shared
goal; a collaborative praxis premised on mutual
trust that is geared towards the benefit of the
community. Visualised as a hand-drawn diagram,
the mural painting positions gotong royong at the
heart of the artists’ practice, while at the same time
it traces and deconstructs its ideological uses and its
recent exploitation for political branding purposes.
2. ZIARAH UTARA
(PILGRIMAGE TO THE NORTH)
2018 - ongoing
vinyl, 2.5 x 5.4 m
9 8 7 6 5
Since 2018, Ahmett and Salina conduct explorative
walks on the north coast of Jakarta, a densely
populated area with some of the world’s most
polluted canals and rivers. Due to land subsidence
and increased sea level, the area has sunk four
meters over the past three decades and is now
increasingly exposed to floods that seriously
threaten local communities, fishing farms and
ports, boatyards, markets, and warehouses. The
map shows the route followed by the artists as they
observe and document appalling accumulations of
waste and extreme living conditions.
�The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
A
AIR BALL, 2014
video, 5 min 41 sec
1103 SUNSETS, 2014
video, 5 min
MISSING PAIR, 2014
video, 1 min 56 sec
The contaminated area
created by the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear disaster
of March 2011 is turned
into a field of artistic
intervention. Venturing
into the hazardous exclusion
zone around the power
plant, the artists perform
a series of paradoxical
and playful actions, such as
the futile search for a lost
shoe (Missing Pair), that
address the irreversible
consequences of the nuclear
accident. In Air Ball, a
sample of air collected
from the radiation zone is
snowballed all the way to
Tokyo. Growing larger and
larger along the way, the
volatile ball becomes the
engine for a participatory
performance in the
public space. 1103 Sunsets
is a collective clean-up
performed in a nursing
home in the city of Okuma,
Fukushima Prefecture,
hastily abandoned after the
radiation leaks. The artists
cleaned and restored one
room to its original state
before the accident. At the
time the project was made,
1,103 sunsets had elapsed
since the disaster.
B
SALTING THE SEA, 2015
video, 9 min 17 sec
LONGEVITY, 2015
video, 6 min 50 sec
Forced away from their
country by faltering
economy and crumbled
infrastructures, 237,670
Indonesian migrants were
reported as working in
Taiwan as of 2015. Yet, the
dream to change one’s
fortune can be frustrated by
unfair treatment and brutal
working conditions the
result of which can prove to
be fatal. Salting the Sea and
Longevity revolve around
two different cases of
murder committed by
Indonesian migrant workers
in Taiwan as a reaction to
cruel mistreatment suffered
at the workplace. The
complex and excruciating
consequences of economic
migrations sorely emerge in
these two performances
where the artists collect
prayers and tears from the
families of the convicted
workers.
D
E
INSEPARABLE FLAKES
2016
video, 4 min
MENGUSAP NURANI
(STROKING THE
CONSCIENCE) 2017
video, 3 min 28 sec
C
A LAND OF MILK AND
HONEY, 2016
video, 6 min 13 sec
RESTITUTION OF 1755
2018
slideshow, sound
180°, 2016
video, 2 min
Ratified in 1755 against a
backdrop of political
intrigues, The Treaty of
Giyanti (1755) is the birth
certificate of the kingdom
of Yogyakarta. It resulted
from the Dutch East
India Company’s shrewd
involvement in local feudal
disputes and it became
source of long-lasting
agrarian conflicts.
This version of a previous
work titled Restitution of
1755 (2015), features the
reproduction of the treaty
accompanied by a sound
piece. The agreement
is turned into a pangkur
(poem), sung by a nine-year
-old blind boy with the
addition of two final verses
warning the ruler not to
oppress the peaceful life
of his subjects.
Part of the artists’
continuous investigation of
the living conditions and
broken bonds suffered by
undocumented Indonesian
migrant workers, Inseparable
Flakes unfolds from the case
of six migrant fishermen in
Taiwan, sentenced to jail for
murder, that was previously
addressed in Salting the Sea
(2015). Here, the artists
make a fragile sheet of paper
out of discarded skin flakes
shed by the children of one
fisherman and furtively
deliver the letter in prison
to their father. Both realised
in New Zealand, A Land of
Milk and Honey and 180 °
address the predicament of
Pacifika people displaced by
the rise of sea level and the
discrimination they suffer
when forced to resettle in
urban contexts.
Traces of war histories are
hidden in the caves of
Okinawa, Japan, which were
used as bunkers, hospitals,
and shelters towards the end
of WWII, at the same time
of the Japanese occupation
in Indonesia. A small stone
taken from the caves is
subject to the act of rubbing,
an intimate ritual gesture
that will extend over the
years slowly altering its
colour and shape. The stone
will be exhibited in sacred
caves across the Pacific
region and, eventually, it
will be returned to its
original place.
F
TONG HWA – THE
FLOWER CURRENCY
2017
video 6 min 48 sec
ARUS BALIK, 2017
video, 3 min 55 sec
On occasion of Kim II-sung’s
state visit to Indonesia in
1965, Sukarno named a
violet orchid after the North
Korean leader, a symbolic
gesture meant to consolidate
the political alliance between
the two countries. In Tong
Hwa - The Flower Currency,
Ahmett and Salina overwrite
this historical episode of
floral diplomacy with the
current predicament of
Indonesian workers in South
Korea injured from lack of
safety on the workplace. Arus
Balik is part of the artist’s
ongoing investigation of
the major development
project for the north
coast of Jakarta. Due to
unregulated urbanisation
and underground water
extraction, the low-lying
capital of Indonesia is slowly
sinking and has become
increasing vulnerable to
floods. The development
plan entails the eviction of
coastal residents and
threatens the livelihood
of a large population
of fishermen.
G
FAITH IN PAIN, 2018
video, 1 min 58 sec
A Vietnamese refugee in
Japan ended his life by
setting himself on fire. Torn
by conflicting emotions, the
�The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
man’s death notes reveal
a deep sense of frustration
after failed attempts to
improve his living
conditions in a foreign
country. In the performance,
Ahmett burns his own
hands by pointing at the
words of a poem composed
out of the man’s last words.
H
BERIBU BUDAK
(A HOMOGRAPH WORD
WITH TWO MEANINGS:
SLAVE MOTHER AND
THOUSANDS OF
SLAVES), 2018
booklet, sound
A fan-shaped artificial island
in southern Japan, Dejima
was the only post open to
foreign traders during the
country’s isolationist period
(1603-1868) and it was used
as a trading post by the
Dutch from 1641 until 1853.
Looking at the paintings of
Kawahara Keiga (17861860) and the diaries of the
Opperhoofden (Chiefs of the
Dutch East India Company),
Ahmett and Salina unearth
the existence of slaves
deported to the island from
the Indonesian archipelago
and the role they played in
the enclave’s everyday life.
I
NAME LAUNDERING
2018-19
video, 1 hr 21 min
Taking issue with border
enforcement measures
produced under colonial,
nationalistic, and capitalistic
regimes, Name Laundering
illustrates alternative
strategies to enter
Singapore. Performed for
the first time during the
artists’ residency at the
Centre in 2018, the lecture
ended with Ahmett’s sumpah
(solemn pledge) not to
return to Singapore as a
consequence of troubling
situations he personally
experienced at the
immigration checkpoint.
The version shown here was
performed at the Yamaguchi
Center for Arts and Media,
Japan, in January 2019.
J
HARVEST FROM
ATLANTIS
2019
video, 17 min 25 sec
Endemic to the Jakarta Bay,
green mussels are a cheap
source of protein available
to the lower class.
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
Today, their ecosystem is
jeopardised by uncontrolled
house waste pollution as well
as by the privatisation and
development of the coastal
line. In collaboration with
local farmers who still
practice communal life and
traditional cultivation
techniques, Ahmett and
Salina “planted” underwater
a makeshift wooden tree to
grow mussels. Overlapping
two environmental threats
—deforestation and marine
pollution—, Harvest from
Atlantis expresses both hope
and concern for the future.
K
The last plinth is left empty
to announce A Tumbling
Inch , a performative action
that will take place on 11
June 2019 in Batam, the
Indonesian island closest to
the Singaporean border.
The performance will be
broadcast live at the Centre.
3. THE RING OF FIRE: A TIMELINE
mixed media, 2.8 x 6.3 m
The timeline visualises the first five years
of Ahmett and Salina’s decade- long project,
The Ring of Fire. Reminiscing a premodern
consciousness when the passing of time was
punctuated by natural events—eruptions,
floods, earthquakes, draughts—rather than
by abstract and standardised reckoning
systems, the timeline is crowned with the
indication of environmental and political
events that spurred, or otherwise framed,
the artists’ work. Below, it aggregates a
selection of material traces of the artists’
impermanent set of performances and
interventions along the Pacific Rim.
4. TITA SALINA
1001ST ISLAND – THE MOST
SUSTAINABLE ISLAND IN THE
ARCHIPELAGO, 2015
video, 14 min 11 sec
Since 2014, Jakarta Bay has become the
theatre of a colossal development project
which includes the construction of
The Giant Sea Wall and several artificial
islands. The title of the work references
Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands), a
string of hundreds of islands stretching
offshore from Jakarta. Together with
fishermen from Muara Angke, a coastal
settlement endangered by the development,
Salina creates an artificial island made with
marine debris plaguing the Bay.
IRWAN AHMETT
HISTORY SERIES, 2014 – 18
Pitting official narrative against lived
experience and collective memory, History
Series is an ongoing series of performances
conducted by Irwan Ahmett since 2014.
Each act is staged on pivotal dates and
engages with unresolved episodes of
Indonesian post-colonial history. Objects
and traces from the performances are
displayed on the shelves alongside the video
documentation.
5. GRAFFITI ON HISTORY, 2014
Typewritten manuscript on washi paper,
29.7 x 21 cm
The 1960s was a period of deep uncertainty,
ghastly ideological battles, and momentous
political shifts across Southeast Asia. Ahmett
addresses the foundational act of the darkest
moment in Indonesian contemporary
history by certifying the existence of
Supersemar (Order of Eleventh March),
Sukarno’s order that invested Suharto with
unrestrained power after the killings of
1965-66. On the basis of that document, the
original of which can no longer be found,
Suharto overthrew Sukarno and established
his three-decade regime.
�The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
6. SPATIAL HISTORY, 2015
video, 26 min 33 sec
8. PERMANENT SHADOW, 2017
video, 42 min 6 sec
The dematerialisation of art and the shift
to textual practices emerged in the EuroAmerican scene in the 1960s. At the
same time, a fateful transition of power
occurred in Indonesia with Supersemar
(1966), a decree that has since disappeared.
Employing ephemerality as a strategy to
counteract official narratives and the
distortion of historical truths, at the end of
the lecture, Ahmett unveils The Non-Existent
Monument of Supersemar, an artistic
statement typewritten on thermal paper.
Treachery of G30S/PKI is a 1984 featurelength film about the events leading to the 30
September Movement coup, commissioned
by the New Order government. Aired on
television on 30 September every year, the
propaganda film was also a mandatory
viewing for students. In this performance,
Ahmett “materialises” the long shadow of a
propagandistic tool that forcibly impressed a
distorted version of history onto the minds
of the population.
7. AUTOPSY OF HISTORY, 2016
video, 44 min 18 sec
Challenging the propagandistic account of
the purges of 1965-66, which resulted with
the establishment of Suharto’s New Order,
the performance Autopsy of History took
place for an invited audience and without
publicity. The artist performs a postmortem examination of vegetables, fruits,
and flowers picked from mass grave sites
and serves them to the audience without
revealing their provenance.
9. CONSTELLATION OF
VIOLENCE, 2018
video, 1 hr 21 min
The assassination of six Indonesia Army
generals on the night between 30 September
and 1 October 1965 unleashed mass purges
and political persecutions leading to the rise
of Suharto. As of today, the official account
of the event is challenged by the historians.
In Constellation of Violence, Ahmett injects
blood in the star alignments that were
glowing over Jakarta that night to signal the
urgency to illuminate its political
circumstances.
NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor,
School of Art, Design and Professor, School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU
EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCIES
Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Seet Yun Teng, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Ilya Katrinnada Binte Zubaidi, Curatorial Assistant, Outreach & Education
Frankie Fang, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Senior Executive, Production
Amelia Loh, Young Professional Trainee, Outreach & Education
Lee Hon Choo, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Jonathan Liu, Young Professional Trainee, Production
Rani Shah Lawson, Intern, Exhibitions
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes,
and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Dr Pallavi Narayan, Manager, Research Publications & Public Resource Platform
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Peter Lin, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director, Operations & HR
Joyce Lee, Manager, Finance
Perla Espiel, Special Project Assistant
Iris Tan, Senior Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Fok Jing Yi, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
Nur Sabreena Binte Haron, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
�NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, SINGAPORE
EXHIBITION COLOPHON
CO-CHAIRS
Professor Joseph Liow, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council (NAC)
A research-intensive public university, NTU has 33,000 undergraduate and
postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and its Graduate College. NTU’s campus is
frequently listed among the top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world
and has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) buildings. Besides
its 200-ha lush green, residential campus in western Singapore, NTU has a second
campus in the heart of Novena, Singapore’s medical district.
Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)
The Lab, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
13 April – 11 June 2019
MEMBERS
Linda de Mello, Director, Sector Development, NAC
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life), President’s Office, NTU
Cindy Koh, Director, Consumer, Economic Development Board
Mike Samson, Managing Director and Regional Head ASEAN Leveraged
and Structured Solutions, Standard Chartered Bank
Professor Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen, Chair, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Dr June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Programmes and Publications, Singapore Art Museum
NTU CCA SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
CHAIR
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures, and Professor,
School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne, Australia
MEMBERS
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, Deputy Director in charge of Research and Globalisation,
MNAM/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The late Okwui Enwezor, curator and writer, Munich, Germany
Professor Patrick Flores, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines
and Curator Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ranjit Hoskote, cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai, India
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art,
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
Located in Gillman Barracks, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
(NTU CCA Singapore) is a national research centre of Nanyang Technological
University and is supported by a grant from the Economic Development Board,
Singapore. The Centre is unique in its threefold constellation of RESEARCH
AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION, EXHIBITIONS, and RESIDENCIES, engaging
in knowledge production and dissemination. NTU CCA Singapore positions itself
as a space for critical discourse and encourages new ways of thinking about Spaces
of the Curatorial in Southeast Asia and beyond. The Centre’s dynamic public
programmes serve to engage with various audiences through lectures, workshops,
open studios, film screenings, Exhibition (de)Tours, and Stagings. As a research
centre, it aims to provide visiting researchers and curators a comprehensive study
on the contemporary art ecosystem in Singapore and the region
Curated by:
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Curatorial Assistance:
Seet Yun Teng, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Lee Hon Choo, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Exhibition Production:
Frankie Fang, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Senior Executive, Production
Jonathan Liu, Young Professional Trainee, Production
IMAGE CAPTIONS
Cover—Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Harvest from
Atlantis, photograph of performance, Jakarta, 2019.
Inside cover—Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Autopsy of
History, photograph of performance, Berlin, 2017.
Flap—Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Arus Balik,
photograph of performance, Jakarta, 2017.
All images courtesy the artists.
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Dublin Core
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Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing) by Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina Exhibition Guide
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
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Title
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<i>The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)</i> by Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina Exhibition Guide
Description
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<i>The Ring of Fire (2014 – ongoing)</i> by Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina Exhibition Guide
Date
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2019-04-13
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Irwan Ahmett
Tita Salina
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Guide
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Asia
Oceania
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/57163/archive/files/fdb5ac36138d172bea96d96429017005.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=atVKIaIoJV1k7rXV2a6tt5mEfeQs4D1Ip2c70AXiNCendb2HlN0LBU-9XJ6kShdqtSZhdtEG6tjLOr1EWKUc337KdoRsUUUXHLxuGaZ5myArQIRL1FSdR7OiTmQNSALAdNnLDE8M1cCQyGHWwlFCDyfHcSrsI8Xk4-EU3jqlapCl5bmTIG4vioAoZ7qCpLP1CyfW1eFfRJvQFxI6qA%7EPQb5Y769B6pjaZ8XO7YBOKOGuBmqS6PW8KNn3q%7Ettop-iKWhtKkLCuSl-QZMUSVLYXSMe1QDJ5raW7-caS1zZBTBah%7E%7EV2BXPFra6I6FKC6Fm8J4jSxi-bhNXfgdm4l4Cfw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
4d68c23413c43b145bebca596eec0b63
PDF Text
Text
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Hier falten
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JEF GEYS
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QUADRA
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Doblar aqui
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MEDICINALE
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SPECIAL EDITION SINGAPORE - 01/12/2018 TO 03/03/2019
Pliez ici
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Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38 Malan Road,
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director,
Operations & HR
Joyce Lee, Manager, Finance
Sylvia Tsai, Manager, Communications
Perla Espiel, Special Project Assistant
Iris Tan, Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Fok Jing Yi, Young Professional Trainee,
Communications
Debbi Tan, Young Professional Trainee,
Communications
•
The exhibition is made possible by
generous loans from:
Jef Geys Estate
Air de Paris
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC
DEVELOPMENT
•
7
Collaterals:
mono.studio
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research &
Academic Programmes, and Assistant Professor,
School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Soh Kay Min, Executive, Conference,
Workshops & Archive
Ho See Wah, Young Professional Trainee,
Research
•
Exhibition Production:
Isrudy Shaik
Jonathan Liu
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road,
Singapore 109443
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Curators:
Dirk Snauwaert
Professor Ute Meta Bauer
Khim Ong
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Hier vouwen
Jef Geys
Quadra Medicinale Singapore
1 December 2018 – 3 March 2019
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Cut here
Located at
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Special thanks to Nina Geys and family,
and the Belgian Embassy.
Dobra por aqui
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12
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© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed November 2018 by First Printers.
Doblar aqui
is NTU CCA Singapore’s overarching
research topic which informs and
connects the Centre’s various activities
for the next three years. Changes in
the environment influence weather
patterns and these climatic shifts
impact habitats, and vice versa.
Precarious conditions of habitats are
forcing the migration of humans and
other species at a critical level. The
consequences of human intervention
are felt on a global scale, affecting
geopolitical, social, and cultural
systems. The Centre intends to discuss
and understand these realities through
art and culture in dialogue with other
fields of knowledge.
•
CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS.
Located in Gillman Barracks, the NTU
CCA Singapore is a national research
centre of Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, supported
by a grant from the Singapore
Economic Development Board. Since
its inauguration in October 2013, the
Centre links the complexities of the
contemporary art field to other forms
of knowledge production. NTU CCA
Singapore is unique in its threefold
constellation of research & academic
programmes, international exhibitions
and research-based residencies,
positioning itself as a space for critical
discourse. The Centre focuses on
Spaces of the Curatorial in Singapore,
Southeast Asia, and beyond, and
engages in multi-layered research
topics, such as CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS. (2017– ) and PLACE.
LABOUR.CAPITAL. (2014–2017).
Gumba awa
ABOUT NTU CCA SINGAPORE
�Jef Geys
Quadra Medicinale Singapore
Notes from the Curators
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is privileged to present the first institutional exhibition in Asia of
the late Belgian artist Jef Geys. With a practice that started in the late 1950s, Geys’s work radically and consistently
intertwines art with everyday life, challenging academic as well as avant-garde aesthetics. The origin of many
of Geys’s works derive from the artist’s lived experience and daily observations around his home in Balen in the
Kempen region of Belgium, with activities such as gardening or from his position as an art teacher at a state school
(1960–89). This preference for a peripheral location translates into a similarly conscious position in the art world.
Even though well known and respected in Belgium and by a dedicated group of artists, curators, and collectors,
Geys remains under-acknowledged by the wider art system. His focus on the construction of cultural, social, and
political engagement interrogates mainstream and organised dissemination of information, casts doubts on the
fundaments of language and visual representation, and examines art’s relation to meaning-making as well as its
methods of knowledge production and transmission.
Geys’s rigorous proto-conceptual practice adopts interdisciplinary and collaborative processes of research
and knowledge-formation as manifested in one of his later projects Quadra Medicinale (2009). Here, a geometrical
quadrant marks out a section of a planned urban territory, a specific geographic “place,” hence introducing the notion
of “terroir,” which he defines as “a place where everything is able to take place or, perhaps better, has taken place”
as differing from current notions of “site” or “eco-system.” Through “something broader than ‘biotope:’ bio, nature,
greenery and everything thereabout, everything that floats in the air [. . .],” Geys questions conventional urban
planning methods or ecosystematics. For him, the idea of territory is devoid of ethics or culture, carrying an inherent
anarchistic drive. His practice is therefore aligned with sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s call for “grass-roots oppositions,
in the form of counter-plans and counter-projects” (The Production of Space, 1974). From within this “terroir,” Quadra
Medicinale throws attention on the wild, accidental, neglected street plants, or “weeds.”
“For a few years now, I have been busy asking a number of people in the city to draw a square of approximately
1 to 2 kilometres on the map, with their home or workplace at the centre. They have to search for 12 plants within
that square that definitely grow on the street (so-called ‘weeds’): Photograph the plant, harvest it, dry it, attach it,
supply the necessary information, ‘family,’ etc. And importantly: What can a homeless person who has a toothache,
for example, chew on to ease the pain, and to eventually cure the problem?”
—Jef Geys, in Kempens Informatieblad – Venetië, 2009
The instructed uncovering of the productive properties of these seemingly useless and parasitical plants confronts
objective, scientific systems of classification with everyday forms of knowledge, as well as its sharing and archiving.
The production of such simple forms to documenting the weeds was among Geys’s favoured methods early in his
practice, and it helped to project the organic, instinctive growth of spontaneous vegetation as opposed to mechanical
and standardised industrial processes. By implementing a procedure, one was still able to foster a determined
consciousness as opposed to a spontaneous subjectivity as in automatic writing or lyrical abstractions.
Quadra Medicinale was Geys’s project for the Flemish representation in the National Pavilion of Belgium at the
53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. In the central gallery of the Pavilion, diagrams presented materials
from the four locations that the project was implemented — Villeurbanne, New York, Moscow, and Brussels. However,
the project was envisioned to be replicated all over the world, from Tokyo to Bamako, from Gaza to Kinshasa. This
is also apparent in different banners containing the artist’s text that situates the work, translated in 10 languages:
English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Swahili, Hebrew, Swedish, Spanish, and Russian.
While the quadras were presented in the Pavilion in strict “scientifical” diagrammatic grids mirroring
modern, plan-like city structures, the rigidity is mitigated by materials in the adjacent galleries, with heterogeneous,
cryptic content in a casual hanging. Among such content was a series of large drawings on ordinary brown wrapping
paper, works that functioned as associative artistic responses to Geys’s preoccupations and the news-reels of
that moment. Images in the drawings include a mix of botanical drawings, anatomical studies of human organs,
illustrations of military equipment of the Iraq War, nude studies, and names and nouns related to the project,
including the sponsors of the Pavilion. The method Geys developed and presented at the La Biennale di Venezia,
the oldest global artist platform of such scale, serves as a universal manual that can be replicated in any “urbanised”
part of the world and prompts one to find simple solutions to illnesses, instead of submitting to the logic of
global pharmaceuticals.
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�10 years after its first presentation, Quadra Medicinale Singapore extends the project by adding a Singapore chapter
for which local collaborators Louise Neo, a botanical researcher, and Teo Siyang, a data analyst, were invited to
identify and archive street plants from within a quadrant of their neighbourhood. The exhibition will also include two
paintings from the Seed-bags series, which Geys began in 1962/63. Each year Geys sowed a plant, and while doing so,
noticed the discrepancy between seed bag illustrations and the plants that grew in his garden from those seeds. As a
result of his observations, the artist created two paintings, realistically copying the flowers or vegetables of the same
seed bag in two different formats, small and enlarged. This project exposes the disconnection between the promise of
advertisement and the actual product, the variance between representation and reality.
Geys is known for meticulously archiving his works, which in turn generated ideas for new projects.
Spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, text, photography, and film, and being part of the Mail Art Movement, Geys’s
artistic oeuvre grew into a vast collection of materials that he used to blend art and everyday life, following his own
proper logic and classification system. This is evident in Geys’s film Day and Night and Day… (2002), presented in
The Single Screen of NTU CCA Singapore, a mesmeric 36-hour-long sequence that he made of all the black-and-white
photographs he took from the mid 1950s to 1998. Deliberately lacking a selection nor title and legend, he strictly
evaded any differentiation between public and private, art and documentation.
Education is an essential element of Geys’s practice, as he developed experimental methodologies with the
pupils in his art class over a period of three decades. One long-term project developed in this context is, for example,
!Women’s Questions?, a questionnaire that he generated in the mid 1960s that engaged his students in debates around
women’s positions in society, and nurtured ideas around feminism. Another educational endeavour to reach out to
his community was his local newspaper Kempens Informatieblad, which he started in the late 1960s and published to
complement his exhibitions. Quadra Medicinale Singapore is therefore accompanied by a reprint of the Venice edition
(2009) of Kempens Informatieblad. Together with his weblog (jefgeysweblog.wordpress.com), these platforms collated
literature about his practice, his archive, information he himself found useful, such as reports on medicinal plants,
or poems he enjoyed. In this respect, Geys embodies the “organic intellectual” as outlined by philosopher
Antonio Gramsci.
In Geys’s art-life terroir, there are no rules.
Dirk Snauwaert, Ute Meta Bauer, Khim Ong
6
Munich from 1996 to 2001 where he curated solo shows by Rita
McBride (1999), William Kentridge (1998), David Lamelas (1997),
and Fareed Armaly (1997). He was also the curator of Jef Geys at
the Pavilion of Belgium, 53rd Venice Biennale International Art
Exhibition (2009). Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore
Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
Jef Geys (1934–2018, Belgium) is among Europe’s most respected yet
under-acknowledged artists. Producing artwork since the 1950s, Geys’
practice probes the construction of social and political engagement,
with his work radically embracing art as being intertwined with
everyday life. Geys graduated from the Antwerp Arts Academy
before settling in Balen in the Kempen region of Belgium, where from
1960 to 1989, he taught art at a state school, focusing on educational
experimentation in the arts. Since the 1960s, Geys has been the editor
and publisher of his local newspaper, the Kempens Informatieblad,
and subsequently produced them in line with his exhibitions. He is
known for his meticulous archive of his work, which in turn became
generative of other works.
Geys represented Belgium in the 53rd Venice Biennale
International Art Exhibition in 2009. His work was included
in Documenta11 (2002, Kassel), Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997,
Münster), and the 21st Bienal de São Paulo (1991, São Paulo). He
has exhibited worldwide including at M HKA, Antwerp (2017, 2011,
2009); IAC Villeurbanne/Rhone-Alpes (2017, 2007); S.M.A.K., Ghent
(2015); Cubitt, London (2013); CNEAI, Chatou (2016, 2014, 2012);
WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2013, 2009); Museum of
Contemporary Art Detroit (2010); Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2009);
Pori Art Museum (2005); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004);
Kunsthalle Lophem (2003); Kunstverein Munchen, Munich (2001),
amongst others.
Singapore Chapter
Collaborators
Louise Neo (Singapore) is a botanical researcher and the co-author of
Wayside Flowers of Singapore, a full-colour guidebook that showcases
the diversity of wildflowers in Singapore and interesting facts about
each species. Neo is a contributor to Urban Forest (uforest.org),
a non-profit online platform that aims to provide an accessible and
convenient identification guide to the diversity of plants in Singapore
and the region.
Teo Siyang (Singapore) is a full-time data analyst with a biology
degree, and the founder of Urban Forest (uforest.org), which aims
to provide information about the diversity of plants in Singapore.
The platform was built on the belief that the first step in conservation
is enabling people to identify the nature around them so they can
foster a deeper connection with it.
Dirk Snauwaert (b. 1963, Belgium) is Director of WIELS Contemporary
Art Centre, Brussels and was involved in its creation since July 2004.
At WIELS, Snauwaert has curated exhibitions of Tauba Auerbach
(2013) and Mike Kelley (2008). Prior, Snauwaert was Co-Director of
the Institut d’Art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps where he
was in charge of the exhibition programme and the development of
the FRAC Rhône-Alpes collection. He was Director of the Kunstverein
References for the Singapore Chapter:
Joseph Samy, M. Sugumaran & Kate L.W. Lee, ed. K.M. Wong, 100 Useful Herbs
of Malaysia and Singapore, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2014.
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (Prota4U), https://www.prota4u.org/database/
Plant Resources of Southeast Asia (PROSEA), https://www.prota4u.org/prosea/
11
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�Jef Geys
Een dag, een nacht, een dag…, (Day and Night and Day…), 2002, 36 hrs.
1 December 2018 – 3 March 2019
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Running daily on loop in The Single Screen
selection or interpretation, presented an inventory of the
artist’s life, and speaks to the importance of photography
to Geys as a means to record, collect, and document life.
In 2002, Geys extended this book project through the film
Een dag, een nacht, een dag…, (Day and Night and Day…),
which was presented at Documenta11 at Kassel in 2002.
It illustrates a similar approach to photography as the
ultimate medium to represent the vernacular, and offers
an archive that oscillates between the private and the
public, art and the everyday. Though the film will be
hardly seen in its entirety, its dramatic sequence of
pictures emphasises the flow of time.
3
Bottom Left: Jef Geys, Day and Night and Day and..., 2002, Installationsansicht Bawag Foundation, photo: Oliver Ottenschläger
All others: Jef Geys, Day and Night and Day and..., 2002, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, photo: J. Geleyns
Variously described as the “ultimate film” and an
“anti-film,” Een dag, een nacht, een dag…, (Day and Night
and Day…) is a 36-hour-long projection of a compilation
of thousands of photographs from Jef Geys’s archive.
Photography and the archive feature heavily in the
artist’s practice, which concentrates on the connection
between art and everyday life. In 1998, Geys published
Al de zwart-wit foto’s tot 1998 (All the Black-and-White
Photographs until 1998), a 5-centimetre thick volume
containing approximately 40,000 photographs produced
between the mid-1950s and 1998, in random order and
in the form of contact prints. The photographs, which
presented a wide range of subjects and abstained from
4
�Film Screening
Programme
Saturday, 2 March 2019 | 4.00 – 6.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
Part of the BRT television series “Openbaar Kunstbezit”
(“Public Art Heritage”). A second version was adapted for
the NOS, a Dutch radio and television broadcast network.
Margaret Tait, Garden Pieces, 1998, 11 min 30 sec
Jef Cornelis, De Kunst van het Verkopen (The Art of Sales),
1974, 24 min 45 sec
Filmmaker-poet Margaret Tait’s last film Garden Pieces is a
triptych of “film-poems” composed around the theme of the
garden. Garden Pieces is a vibrant, experimental film that utilises
live action shots and hand-painted elements to draw upon the
wanderings of daily life and the search for fleeting moments
of presence, dropping a myopic intensification of experience
in favour of an exuberant engagement with the world.
This television programme, developed for the BRT, investigates
the relationship and interaction between art and advertising
with slight ironic overtones. In advertising, art of past and
present is associated with the “higher,” more refined way of
life. Cornelis shows the artist Jef Geys working on a portrait
assignment, corresponding with some marketing experts who
are working on a bicycle campaign. Part of the BRT television
series “Hoe: techniek in de Kunst?” (“How: technique in Art?”).
Margaret Tait (Scotland, 1918–1999) was a Scottish filmmaker
and poet who is known for her body of work combining poetry,
portraiture, music, ethnography, and animation. Tait made more than
30 films in her life, which have been screened at international film
festivals and venues.
Jef Cornelis (Belgium) worked as executor, director, and scriptwriter
for the BRT, the Dutch-language Belgian public broadcasting
corporation (1963–98), producing an impressive body of work
comprising of over 200 titles. Cornelis, as a radical TV director, often
served as a provocateur, a cultural critic, and a negotiator of the arts,
whose work is generally considered ground breaking, artistically and
cultural-historically. His films have been featured in solo exhibitions
at many art institutions.
Uriel Orlow, The Crown Against Mafavuke,
2016, 18 min 45 sec
The Crown Against Mafavuke is based on a South African trial
from 1940. Mafavuke Ngcobo was a traditional herbalist who
was accused by the local white medical establishment of
“untraditional behaviour.” The film explores the ideological
and commercial confrontation between two different yet
intertwining medicinal traditions and their uses of plants, with
slippages across gender and race that further questions notions
of purity and origination. The re-imagined court case is filmed
at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, where the Rivonia trial was
held that sent Mandela and his fellow accused to the Robben
Island prison.
Inge Godelaine, 7 x Jef Geys, 2014, 27 min
7 x Jef Geys is a documentary film by independent filmmaker
Inge Godelaine, who worked for many years with Geys.
The film interviews seven people who each have a different
relationship with the artist—Yves Gevaert, Mia Checkers, Hugo
Criekemans, Greta Meert, curator Dirk Snauwaert, daughter
Nina Geys, and Joris Note—creating a unique portrait of the
artist through the people who knew him.
Uriel Orlow (Switzerland/United Kingdom) is a Swiss artist based
in London. Orlow’s practice is research-based, process-oriented, and
multi-disciplinary, including film, photography, drawing, and sound.
His work is concerned with spatial manifestations of memory, and
looks to the botanical world as a stage for politics at large.
Inge Godelaine, Villa Wintermans, 2009, 50 min
Inge Godelaine travelled to São Paulo 18 years after Jef Geys
created his architectural intervention Villa Wintermans for the
1991 São Paulo Biennale. Replicating a Flemish modernist villa
of the cigar manufacturer Wintermans from Balen that was later
used as a school, Villa Wintermans was one of the most complex
public projects Geys completed. In this film, Godelaine searches
for the remnants of the Villa which have vanished or rotted
away, and interviews some of the schoolchildren then about
their experience with the donated building. The documentary
is an echo of a forgotten artistic deed, and the eventual
disappearance of art and architecture.
Jef Cornelis, Kunst Als Kritiek. Wanneer is Kunst Wel
Kritiek? 4. Wanneer de Kunstenaar in alle Ernst Speelt.
(Art as Criticism. When is Art Criticism? 4. When the
artist is in all seriousness.), 1973, 4 min 47 sec
This film is part of a series of short sketches thematically
focusing on the question, “When is Art Criticism?” developed
for the BRT (Belgian Radio and Television) broadcast network.
For this fourth episode, it proposes an answer: “When the
artist is toying around in all seriousness.” It highlights the
Belgian artist Jef Geys, whose approach is best described by
the phrase “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” In Geys’s
statement, framed as a public announcement, the artist uses the
programme’s broadcasting time as a publicity stunt, revealing
the mechanisms of the medium of television. In a lengthy word
of thanks, the extensive media bureaucracy is stripped of its
front, mentioning the relative cost of the programme and the
broadcasting time.
Inge Godelaine (Belgium) is an independent filmmaker who worked
for many years with Jef Geys on his projects, and realised a number
of reports and documentaries on the artist. Apart from artist portraits
or narrative films about art, she also produces short animated films
in which she uses the moving image as if it were pencil and paper. In
her oeuvre, Godelaine works with various mediums and disciplines
in order to translate her stories through images, unfolding a visual
language that is sometimes cryptic, ironic or humorous.
5
�Jef Geys
Quadra Medicinale Singapore
1 December 2018 – 3 March 2019
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Unless otherwise stated, all programmes take
place at NTU CCA Singapore and are free.
For updates please visit ntu.ccasingapore.org.
Public and Education Programmes
Wednesday, 28 November 2018 | 7.00 – 8.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
a family-initiated farming movement uniting neighbourhoods
through community farming, cooking, educational activities, as well
as the practice of “sharing first” that involves sharing a portion of
what one grows and owns with the community.
Behind the Scenes with curator Dirk Snauwaert,
WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels and
Nina Geys, daughter of Jef Geys (both Belgium);
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore),
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor,
School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Courtesy of Carbon InQ
An introduction to the life and work of Jef Geys, an artist
and educator who had, for a large part of his life, produced
works and engaged with educational experimentation
in the arts that are intimately connected to his locality,
yet addresses universal modes of being and living.
Saturday, 1 December 2018 | 4.00 – 5.30pm
The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road
Tuesday, 8 January 2019 | 7.00 – 8.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
Exhibition Tour with Dirk Snauwaert, Ute Meta Bauer
and Quadra Medicinale Singapore collaborators Louise
Neo and Teo Siyang (both Singapore)
Talk: Toward a Practice of Institutional Critique
by artist Judy Freya Sibayan
Judy Freya Sibayan looks back on 45 years of artmaking,
with the first 20 years as the basis of her work of
Institutional Critique. Taking the subject position of
the “ex-centric” (the inside-outsider), she parodies the
institution of art. It is here she is able to gain agency
by enacting auto-critiques of the institution to which
she belongs. She has done parodic performances of the
gallery (Scapular Gallery Nomad, 1997–2002), the museum
(Museum of Mental Objects, 2002–07), the art archive
(The Community Archives, 2010), and the art consultancy
(Performance Art Consultancy: Life, Art, Criticality, 2018)
to name a few. The talk will be followed by a discussion
between Sibayan and curators Ute Meta Bauer and
Khim Ong .
Saturday, 15 December 2018 | 3.00 – 5.30pm
Various locations around Gillman Barracks
(Meeting point: Block 43 Malan Road)
Workshop fee: $15
Registration required via Peatix:
foragingatgillmanbarracks.peatix.com
Workshop: Foraging at Gillman Barracks
with urban farmer and nature educator Alexius Yeo
Join this interactive walk in search of edible plants
around NTU CCA Singapore and discover the rich
edible resources growing around us. Learn how to find
edible plants to add to your next home-made salad and
be surprised by the many grasses that are commonly
used in traditional medicine. Be astonished by the vast
amounts of food growing around you, silently and
unexpectedly.
Judy Freya Sibayan (Philippines) is a conceptual artist who lives
and works in Manila. She taught at De La Salle University for three
decades and has exhibited and performed in museums and galleries
worldwide. Former Director of the erstwhile Contemporary Art
Museum of the Philippines, she has been the Museum of Mental
Objects since 2002, a life-long parodic performance. She is also
co-founding editor and publisher of the online Ctrl+P Journal of
Contemporary Art and the author of The Hypertext HerMe(s).
Alexius Yeo (Singapore) is the Director of Carbon InQ, a local
company that teaches agriculture-based experiential learning
programmes at schools and firms. He is also Founder of Project 33,
6
�Saturday, 12 January 2019 | 3.00 – 5.30pm
The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road and NTU
Community Herb Garden. Programme will start at NTU
CCA Singapore, transportation provided.
Saturday, 23 February 2019 | 3.00 – 3.45pm
The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road
Exhibition Tour by Khim Ong
Registration required via Peatix: medicinalherbs.peatix.com
*This programme will be conducted in Mandarin
Tuesday, 26 February 2019 | 7.00 – 8.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
Exhibition (de)Tour: Medicinal Herbs by Ng Kim Chuan
(Singapore), gardener, NTU Community Herb Garden;
with introduction of Quadra Medicinale Singapore by
Khim Ong (Singapore), Deputy Director, Curatorial
Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore
Exhibition (de)Tour: The Wonders of Weeds
by Dr Shawn Kaihekulani Yamauchi Lum, botanist,
Senior Lecturer, Asian School of the Environment, NTU,
and President of Nature Society, Singapore
Shawn Kaihekulani Yamauchi Lum (United States/Singapore)
helped form the Nature Society (Singapore) Plant Group with the
intention of promoting an interest in plants and plant conservation
as part of a broader effort to promote Singapore’s natural heritage.
He is a strong advocate of public participation in nature discovery
and monitoring, and believes that our quality of life is made better
by becoming acquainted with the beautiful and diverse living world
around us.
Tuesday, 19 February 2019 | 7.00 – 8.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
Saturday, 2 March 2019 | 10.00am – 1.00pm
Meeting point: Block 43 Malan Road
Exhibition (de)Tour: SuperNature: Finding Magic and
Meaning in the Natural History Drawings from the
William Farquhar Collection by writer and curator
Marcus Ng
Registration required via Peatix: wondersofnature.peatix.com
Workshop: Weeds, Wildflowers, and the Wonders
of Nature by Nature Society (Singapore)
Nature reserves and parks are often thought of as
places to seek out beautiful and interesting plants.
It may surprise us that fascinating and useful plants
can actually be found all around us – many people call
them weeds. In this workshop, participants will look
for “weeds,” see where they grow, and identify them.
We will search for information on their ecology, their
broader distributions, and their various uses. Come
prepared to spend a day learning about amazing plants
that we see (and more often than not, overlook) every
day. We may discover that our neighbourhoods are
richer and more beautiful than they already are.
Ethnobotany—the study and use of plants in human
culture—has long been practised in Southeast Asia.
In the early 1800s, William Farquhar, the first British
Resident and Commandant of colonial Singapore
commissioned a collection of 477 watercolours—a
testament to the knowledge, application, and reverence
people had about plants in the 19th century. In this talk,
Marcus Ng delves into the natural and cultural histories
of some of these plants and look at their usages, which
range from the mundane to the magical.
Marcus Ng (Singapore) is an independent researcher, writer, and
curator, with a particular interest in natural history. His research
focuses on the way in which biodiversity has shaped the nature
of places and its inhabitants. He is the curator of two concurrent
exhibitions at the National Museum of Singapore featuring the
William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, Desire
and Danger (2016–18) and Magic and Menace (2018–ongoing).
The Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) has been an active member
of Singapore civil society for over 60 years. It functions as an activity,
advocacy, and outreach group, while delivering the scientific data
needed to monitor the state of local wildlife to manage, protect, and
promote it. NSS works with the conviction that a Singapore with
thriving nature is a better Singapore for people and for wildlife.
7
4
“Weeds” are not a group of related plants (like “orchids” or
“gingers” or “palms”), nor are they plants with shared
physical characteristics (like “trees” or “shrubs”). Although
weeds defy easy definition, their name suggests something
unwanted or out of place.Many, however, are quite beautiful
and merit closer examination and appreciation. This talk
will explore different aspects of weeds – what they are,
their place in the human psyche, their fascinating life
histories – and their inextricable link to human existence.
In conceptualising Quadra Medicinale (2009), Jef Geys
asked local collaborators to identify plants that grew
on the street, and to research their potential medicinal
or beneficial properties. The NTU Community Herb
Garden is dedicated to the cultivation of such plants
and is home to more than 300 species of tropical plants
and herbs with medicinal properties. Ng Kim Chuan
founded the Garden in 2009, together with a small
group of volunteers comprising of staff, students, and
members of the public, to serve as a charitable resource
of medicinal herbs for the poor and the needy. Ng will
give a tour of the Garden, with the assistance of Lee
Jin Long, NTU student, and share his knowledge and
work surrounding these medicinal herbs, especially as
alternative treatments for cancer and chronic illnesses.
�
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Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore Exhibition Guide (2019)
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
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<i>Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore</i> Exhibition Guide (2019)
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2018-12-01
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Louise Neo
Teo Siyang
Dirk Snauwaert
Ute Meta Bauer
Khim Ong
Jef Geys
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Guide
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Asia
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Jef Geys, Kempens Informatieblad – Venetië, 2009
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
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<span>Jef Geys, </span><i><span lang="nl-be">Kempens Informatieblad – Venetië</span></i><span lang="nl-be">, 2009</span>
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<span>Jef Geys, </span><i><span lang="nl-be">Kempens Informatieblad – Venetië</span></i><span lang="nl-be">, 2009</span>
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2018-12-01
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Jef Geys
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Guide
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Europe
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Botany
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1
Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material
This ongoing inquiry began with an interest in traditional social and cultural
practices closely tied to natural habitats, as well as how communities have lived in
close relationship to their environment, and over centuries perfected sustainable
cultivation systems, applying ingenuity in craft and technique. This ongoing
inquiry explores the knowledge of biological forms within their geopolitical and
historical contexts. The focus is on four plants deeply rooted in Asia: indigo
(Indigofera tinctoria), lacquer (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), rattan (Calamoideae),
and mulberry (Morus alba).
Featured in this presentation are works by Liang Shaoji, Manish Nai, Phi Phi
Oanh, Sopheap Pich, and Vivian Xu, each of whom has established an ongoing
practice around materials derived from these plants. The artists’ installations are
outcomes of long-term experimentations with the material properties of each plant
and their natural ecosystem. They serve as a starting point to discover more about
the materials, looking into their natural and cultural DNA, which allows further
exploration of biological processes intrinsic to these plants and the diverse usages
at their locale.
Alongside the artworks, selected documents introduce the complex histories and
circulation routes of these natural resources, expanding into the different cultural
representations of the chosen plants, underlining both their ecological and economical
significance. This undertaking is guided by questions such as: What are the various uses
and applications of these plants? What is their place in the current agro-ecosystem?
What traditional crafts are still practiced and can industrial and technological advancements support an economic future for the communities that depend on them? How
has globalisation changed the perception and reception of these natural produces,
and therefore impacted these traditions?
Topical seminars, dedicated to each of the four botanic materials, further unpack
the characteristics, cultural references, and their expanded ecology, including
techno-logical advancements and innovative applications. Lectures, panels, and
workshops featuring the participating artists, as well as craftsmen, designers, scientists,
ethnobotanists, and anthropologists, allow for a rich diversity of perspectives.
Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material contributes to the Centre’s long-term research
cluster CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS., highlighting precarious
conditions of habitats and the consequences of human intervention combined
with climate change for local conditions.
This project is led by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor,
NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM); Laura Miotto, Associate Professor, NTU ADM;
and Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore.
�Dragon’s blood, rattan or rotang, Daemonorops draco (Calamus draco).
Chromolithograph after a botanical illustration from Hermann Adolph
Koehler’s Medicinal Plants, edited by Gustav Pabst, Koehler,
Germany, 1887.
�3
RATTAN
This naturally renewable palm is a strong and robust
climber, liana-like vine, native to the tropical regions
of Africa, Asia, and Australasia. Growing in primary
and secondary forests and lowland swamps, rattans are
old world palms part of the Arecales or Palmea family,
belonging to the subfamily Calamoideae. There are 13
different genera of rattans that include in all some 600
species. Some of them do not climb, being shrubby palms
of the forest undergrowth, but most need structural support
and have spines to aid climbing. The long, thorny stems
may reach well over 100 m, maintaining the same diameter
throughout the length, varying from 2-3 mm to 10 cm.
Species of different diameters are used for different purposes.
The word rattan comes from the Malay word rotan, the
local name for climbing palms. It is also known as manila or
malacca, named after the ports of shipment in Southeast Asia
and as manau, the trade name for Calamus manan canes. In
Iban language, it is known as wi and nicknamed nganti
mimit or “wait a moment,” for its clawed thorns—once
they get hold of someone walking in the forest, are
extremely reluctant to let go.
Cultivation and Harvesting
Today the main areas for rattan production are in the
tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, where it is
generally collected in the wild, with only a very small portion
coming from cultivated sources. Rattan is mainly harvested in
Indonesia, in the area of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Sumatra.
It is a fast-growing tropical plant, typically taking around five
to seven years to restore its growth before it is ready to be
harvested again, which makes it a sustainable option. When
properly harvested, it can provide an alternative to logging
timber and it has been associated with the preservation of
the rainforest. Rattan continues to play a major part in
supporting the economies of rural communities and
has been an invaluable part of local livelihoods.
�Village communities in Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos,
Vietnam, and the Philippines rely heavily on the rattan
trade. Sales can account for up to 50% of the cash income in
some villages, making rattan a major contributor to poverty
alleviation in rural areas. Despite the importance of rattan,
it has not been sustainably harvested and its prevalence
is declining. The main threats are over-harvesting and
deforestation due to land conversion and frequent forest
fires, which affect both the livelihoods of forest dwellers
and biodiversity.
4
Rattan palms, Thailand.
The furniture and design industry, which regard rattan as
an ideal material, create a constant demand on the global
market, yet prices paid to harvesters in Indonesia are low.
As a result, many smallholders are turning away from rattan
production to less sustainable alternatives. The Katingan
district in central Kalimantan started producing rattan
certified by the Forest Stewardship Council in an area
denominated High Conservation Value Forest. The P2RKcooperative uses this certification to command higher
prices from the high-value markets. The project started in
2011, involved the WWF, the community, and the local
authorities to map land ownership and to determine the
volume of rattan that can be sustainably cut each year.
�5
Rattan as Material
Because of its strength, pliability, but also rigidity, resistance
to wear, durability, length, the possibility to be finely split, and
its lightness when dry, rattan has locally been used for centuries
for furniture, basketry, construction materials, as well as food and
traditional medicine. According to recent research in the medical
field, rattan is also suited as bone replacement.
The cane is collected in the forest, dragged from the trees where
it hangs. After getting rid of the outer spines, the cane is cut
into sections or coiled for transportation and left to dry in the
sun. From a strand of rattan, the skin is peeled off, to be used
as weaving material, with the “core” applied for various
purposes in furniture making. Canes with small
diameters are cured using sulfur fumes, while
large canes are boiled in oil to make them
dry and to protect them from insects.
Rattan can be further processed
into peel for weaving, cut into
radial or flat sections, or used
as material for binding and
craft products.
Selected Bibliography
Blehaut, Jean-François. Iban Baskets. Kuala Lumpur: Sarawak Literary Society, 1994.
Chey, Koulang, et al. “Sustainable cottage industries and the Rattan Association of Cambodia.”
ETFRN News 57 (September 2015).
Dransfield, John, et al. RATTAN. Current Research and Prospects for Conservation and
Sustainable Development. FAO, 2000.
Dransfield, John, et al. Genera Palmarum: The Evolution and Classification of Palms. University of
Chicago Press, 2014.
Durst, Patrick B., and Ann Bishop, eds. Beyond Timber: Social, Economic and Cultural Dimensions
of Non-Wood Forest Products in Asia and the Pacific. Bangkok: RAP Publication, 1995.
Khou Eang Hourt, A Field Guide of the Rattans of Cambodia. WWF Greater Mekong –
Cambodia Country Programme, 2008.
Peters, Charles M., et al. Systematics, Ecology and Management of Rattans in Cambodia,
Laos, and Vietnam. The Biological Bases of Sustainable Use. Hanoi: Agricultural Publishing
House, 2014.
Sellato, Bernard. Hornbill and Dragon: Arts and Culture of Borneo. Singapore: Sun Tree, 1992.
Whitmore, T. C. Palms of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977.
�“Everything is expressed in the lines. Lines in
space. Work is for me a way to focus. Work as
a way of moving forward in the midst of all the
complication. Work leads to acceptance.
Work leads to resistance.”
— Sopheap Pich
��Sopheap Pich started as a painter, working now
almost exclusively with sculpture. He uses natural and
inexpensive materials from Cambodia, such as rattan,
bamboo, and burlap, imbuing these objects with a
renewed value. Pich left the country as a refugee at
the end of the Khmer Rouge’s reign in the late 1970s.
His childhood memories of war, poverty, and hunger,
as well as his experience of several refugee camps
in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines before
finally settling in the United States in 1984, have left
a profound impression in the artist, who impulsively
made the decision of returning to Cambodia in 2002.
He then became interested in craft, technique, and
the creation of something from beginning to end.
Pich’s sculptures are inspired by his political and
social perspective on Cambodia, but also reflect his
desire to recover the joy of working with materials.
After Silence (2004), his first rattan sculpture, he
created structures resembling human organs such
as the liver, lungs, or stomach, in the attempt to
understand what else these forms could suggest.
Recurring threads are poverty, lightness and
strength, fragility versus monumentality, which are
reflected in his use of simple means and everyday
materials. His abstract and geometric works
are nevertheless playful even if dealing with
trauma and healing, and full of Cambodia’s
life and culture.
Sopheap Pich (b. 1971, Cambodia) holds a BFA from
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and an
MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, presented Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures
of Sopheap Pich. Group exhibitions include the 57th
Venice Biennale (2017); the Moscow Biennale (2013);
dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012); the Singapore
Biennale (2011); the Asian Art Biennial, Taichung
(2011); the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2009); and
the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art,
Brisbane (2009). His works are in major collections
such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New
York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art;
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; M+,
Hong Kong; and Singapore
Art Museum.
8
�9
Valley Drip (Maroon Top), 2012
160 x 120 x 8 cm.
Bamboo, rattan, burlap, and beeswax with natural pigment.
Red Grid, 2015
200 x 200 x 8 cm.
Bamboo, rattan, burlap, and beeswax with natural pigment.
Both courtesy Private Collection, Singapore.
Noticing that all his sculptures used the grid as a structure,
Pich decided to make these in different sizes, initially as a
base for something else. He began the relief series in 2010,
turning these grid structures into works in their own
right. The colours are made of grinded pebbles collected
by the artist during journeys, mixed with beeswax and tree
resin, applied onto the burlap used in farms or markets.
With an arbitrary rectangular shape, his “grids” had no particular
meaning, giving the artist a certain freedom from his own authority.
For Pich, this represents a more passive, receptive position, similar to
an absorbing sponge. The grid, regarded as an expression of modernity,
creates a contrasting shape to his organic or figurative sculptures. However, their flexibility allows them to carry specific meanings, as is the
case with Valley Drip (Maroon Top):
“My first trip to Ratanakiri Province in northern Cambodia was the
inspiration for making this group of works […] Ratanakiri wasn’t what
I had expected to see from what people had described of it some five, six
years ago: a beautiful mountainous province with villagers living off the
land and speaking their own languages. What I saw was a region being
taken for its resources by greed and villagers living in desperation.
I made Fields of Ratanakiri and the Valley Drip to reflect the
emotions I felt from that trip.”
— Sopheap Pich
Delta, 2007
Rattan and wire, 341 x 478 x 70 cm.
Courtesy The MaGMA Collection.
Delta is one of the early sculptures using rattan, while the artist
was still becoming familiar with the material. The hanging
organ-shaped form is a grid made of hand-cut rattan, linked
with wire, with its title alluding to the importance of the rivers
in Phnom Penh.
�Men collecting varnish from the Chinese lacquer tree, Toxicodendron vernicifluum, using
bamboo pipes. Hand-coloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Freschi, after Antoine Cardon.
Henri-Leonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin and Jean Baptiste Joseph Breton, China, Its Costumes,
Arts, Manufactures, etc. London: Howlett and Brimmer, 1824.
�11
LACQUER
There are about 600 species of trees belonging to the Anacardiaceae (cashew or
sumac) family found all over the world. Among these, the lacquer producing species
include Toxicodendron vernicifluum (Rhus vernicifluum or vernicifera) in China,
Japan, and Korea; Toxicodendron succedaneum (Rhus succedanea) in Taiwan and
Vietnam, and Melanorrhoea usitata which grows in Cambodia, Myanmar, and
Thailand. Lacquer-producing Anacardiaceae trees are small, flowering, wooded trees
which can grow to a height of up to 20 metres with large leaves, each containing
7 to 19 leaflets. Its sap is a complex, water-in-oil emulsion of catechols, phenols,
carbohydrates, glycoproteins, and laccase enzymes. The high level of urushiol
content (in the East Asian species) makes it caustic and toxic.
Different countries have referred to the lacquer sap and trees with various terms:
China: Qi
Japan: Urushi
Korea: Hwangmichil for raw sap; jeongjechil for refined sap
Cambodia: Chor mreak or mreak for lacquer, extracted from the dam kroeul
(Melanorrhea luccifera) tree
Myanmar: Thitsi for lacquer; sitsepin for the tree
Thailand: Rak for lacquer; rak luang for the tree
Vietnam: Son song for raw lacquer and Son cánh gián for processed lacquer
(colloquially known as “cockroach wing”)
Cultivation and Harvesting
Lacquer tree sap is a high-quality natural preservative capable of
resisting acid and alkali, heat, and moisture. Harvesting is done
when the tree is five to eight years old by tapping incisions into
the trunk, collecting the sap that flows out (similar to rubber
tapping). It is then filtered, heat-treated, or coloured before
use. Curing the sap requires a “drying” process of between one
to two days in a warm, humid chamber.
Studies have argued that lacquer (or resin-producing)
agroforests deliver environmental benefits—they enrich
the soil and improve the biophysical conditions for
growing food crops. The Lemo, a branch of the
Bai ethnic group in Northeast Yunnan Province,
China, have developed such systems. Due to
the harsh biophysical conditions of their
habitat (high altitude, steep slopes, and
poor soil), the Lemo grow
lacquer
trees
�and alder together with food crops. A similar system is found in
West Lampung Pesisir area south of Sumatra, Indonesia, where
the introduction of damar trees (another resin-producing species)
into upland swidden rice fields helps to preserve the plant species
itself, maintaining a high level of biodiversity and benefiting a range
of forest-resourced economic products.
Lacquer/resin harvest represents the main source of cash income in these
regions, as well as in other communities in Southeast Asia. Today, they face
challenges in securing their livelihood due to changes in land-use policies
(abolished traditional tenurial land systems and increasing state and
corporatised land ownership), destruction of the forest, and decrease
in demand and prices of lacquer. Ironically, lacquer sap fetches
increasingly low prices, its use in various industries being
replaced by synthetic chemicals.
Lacquer as Material
For its high resistance to chemicals, heat, flame, water, wood
rot, salt, and electricity, lacquer is used especially as varnish and
polish for daily wares, walls, and buildings, and as adhesive. It has
even been applied as coat for paper and for silk in high-quality
kimonos. As lacquer sap includes a natural disinfectant, lacquercoats are also chosen for their insect repellent properties. Seeds
of the lacquer tree are oil-bearing and can be used for industrial
purposes, and its timber is used in constructing special
furniture. For its durability and water-resistance, the
wood is used as float. The roots, leaves, and bark of this
species are also used in medicine.
Treating and applying lacquer is laborious and timeconsuming, as the lacquer base alone requires up
to 30 coats before the actual lacquer for crafting
is applied. Some of the finest objects have more
than 100 layers, each needing to dry thoroughly
for two to four days before the next can be
applied. Its lustre and richness of colour
makes it one of the most valued materials
in the field of fine and decorative arts.
It is the painstaking process of
working with the material and
scarcity of lacquer that
makes its products
precious.
12
�13
Vietnamese Lacquer Painting
The use of lacquer for fine art paintings is unique
to Vietnam and was developed during the early 20th
century. There are two different methods: son khac in
Vietnamese (literally translated as “colour engraving”)
and, more commonly, son mài (which can be translated as
“rubbed/polished colour”). Many layers have to be applied
and subsequently sanded to reveal the composition beneath.
This complex layering gives these lacquer paintings incredible
depth and variety of colour, which are unsurpassed by any other
painting medium.
Selected Bibliography
Bourne, Jonathan, et al. Lacquer: An International History
and Collector’s Guide. London: Bracken Books, 1989.
Dang Quang Hung, et al. “Study on Propagation Techniques
of Vietnamese Lacquer Tree,” Oxidation Communications, 40,
No. 2 (2017): 1002–6.
Ebert, Bettina, and Michael R. Schilling. “A technical analysis of paint
media used in twentieth century Vietnamese lacquer paintings,” Studies in
Conservation, Vol 61 (2016): S3-52–67.
Isaacs, Ralph, and T. Richard Blurton. Visions from the Golden Land. Burma and
the Art of Lacquer. Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2000.
Kopplin, Monika, ed. Lacquer in Asia, Today and Yesterday. Paris: UNESCO, 2002.
Cairns, Malcolm, ed. Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into
Sustainable Upland Farming. London: Routledge, 2007.
Kusters, Koen, and Brian Belcher, eds. Forest Products, Livelihoods and
Conservation. Case Studies of Non-Timber Forest Produce Systems. Volume 1 – Asia.
Jakarta: CIFOR, 2004.
Than Htun (Dedaye). Lacquerware Journeys: The Untold Story of Burmese
Lacquer. Bangkok: River Books, 2013.
Webb, Marianne. Lacquer: Technology and Conservation.
A Comprehensive Guide to the Technology and Conservation of Asian
and European Lacquer. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000.
�“The material qualities of this medium, the deep
colours and ever-changing light on a lacquer image
demands a different kind of attention and offers
a heightened visual experience.”
— Phi Phi Oanh
��16
Phi Phi Oanh has been working with Vietnamese son ta lacquer for
over a decade. With a background in painting, she is interested in
exploring alternative strategies for working with son ta from the
perspective of contemporary art and cultural theory. Extracted
from the Rhus succedanea tree native to North Vietnam, this
lacquer has an ancient history, being used to cover utilitarian
wooden objects and the interior of temples for protection from
termites and humidity. In the 1930s, Vietnamese lacquer was
introduced as a painting medium at the École Supérieure des
Beaux Arts de l’Indochine established by the French colonial
government, through which a hybrid between ancient
craft techniques and Western art emerged: the modern
tranh son mài (Vietnamese lacquer painting).
Oanh is interested in expanding this process of acculturation
by combining son mài with new materials and display devices
in order to reflect not only on the medium itself, but also
on cross-cultural histories. The artist, herself brought up
in between cultures, constructs installations that reconfigure
the specificities of both the medium and its cultural context.
With little written material accessible on Vietnamese lacquer
painting, Oanh looked for metaphors in the medium itself,
starting with fossilisation and memory. In the same way
that lacquer painting requires multiple applications
of resin on wood, as well as a repeated cycle of sanding
and polishing, memory is formed through an accumulative process of adding and subtracting, or as the
artist puts it, “sanding away of time and perception.”
For Oanh, this focus on memory has served to see
son ta as a cultural medium, a witness and marker
of the changes in Vietnamese society, as it also
serves as a political tool for the creation
of national identity.
�17
Phi Phi Oanh (b. 1979, United States/Vietnam) graduated with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design, and a
Masters in Art and Research from the Complutense University of
Madrid. In 2004, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study
traditional tranh son mài (Vietnamese lacquer painting) in Hanoi,
which has since become a key medium in her practice and research.
Recent solo exhibitions include L’Espace, Alliance Française, Hanoi;
Artcore, Los Angeles; Art League, Houston; El Palacio Nacional de
la Cultura, Managua; and Fost Gallery, Singapore. She participated in
A Woman’s View (2014), a group show at the Goethe Institute, Hanoi,
and the Singapore Biennale (2013).
“In the era of globalisation and virtual reality, the use of son ta is my own way of negotiating
between the extremes of global homogenisation and territorial localism.”
— Phi Phi Oanh
Palimpsest, 2013–18
Installation, dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist.
This installation is an attempt at the total
dematerialisation of the medium of lacquer painting.
While presenting a shift from the traditional
application of lacquer as surface, the artist rescales
the medium, rendering small paintings in large
formats, seen through lenses, reminiscent of
a microscope or a telescope. The images are
projections of the multicoloured lacquer,
presented through “Lacquerscopes,”
machines adapted from old slide
projectors and retrofitted with LED
lights, that reveal details usually not
noticeable by the bare eye. According
to Oanh, the way in which these
apparatuses use principles of light
situate the Vietnamese son ta between
painting and photography. This play
between light and shadow, scale
and perspective, allows a new
take on how we view
Vietnamese
son mài.
�Silk moth and silkworm, Bombyx mori, on mulberry leaves, Morus alba.
Hand-coloured copperplate engraving drawn and etched by Jacob l’Admiral in
Naauwkeurige Waarneemingen omtrent de veranderingen van veele Insekten
(Accurate Descriptions of the Metamorphoses of Insects).
Amsterdam: J. Sluyter, 1774.
�19
MULBERRY
Mulberry refers to more than 100 species of the
Morus genus in the Moraceae family. This classification
however is disputed (and further complicated by widespread hybridisation) and there has been no consensus
among botanists regarding the exact number of species,
with only 10 to 16 of them being commonly accepted.
A flowering plant, mulberries grow in temperate regions
all around the world, both in the wild and cultivated.
A closely related genus is the Broussonetia commonly
known as paper mulberry, a fibre crop significant
in the history of paper.
Cultivation – Mulberry to Silk
Mulberry stands at the top of the production chain for
silk, its leaves being the only food source for silkworms.
While these feed on many species of mulberry, the
preferred stock is the Morus alba (white mulberry)
native to China, Korea, and Japan. It has been widely
cultivated and naturalised in other parts of the world,
including the Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Central
Asia, Southern Europe, Mexico, and United States.
In sericulture, the chain of agricultural activity
involving mulberry and silkworm farming, silkworms
are fed fresh leaves daily. The silkworm cocoons
yield silk fibres that are then made into threads and
used to weave textiles. Sericulture is traditionally
a cottage (and seasonal) industry with the tasks
organised within the domestic sphere, mainly the
work of women. With the increase in the demand
for silk since the 10th century, these small-scale
household productions shifted into workshops
and eventually developed into a major industry.
Also less dependent on seasons where in
the past sericulture represented additional
income, in some places and with certain
mulberry species that leaf all year round,
this activity is continuous.
�Winding silk from the cocoon, ca. 1914–18, Japan. A.Davey, CC BY 2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/4864375822/sizes/o/
20
The production of silk depends on the skill and resourcefulness of its producers
to not only maintain the ideal environment for mulberry and silkworms to grow,
but also in how well they nurture the plants and insects.
The nature of the insect-cultivator relationship has influenced the quantity
and quality of the filament that forms the cocoon. The filament is far from
raw material; rather it is fashioned and nurtured through the interactions
of cultivator and silkworm. It is both grown and made, such that
design and technology are integral to it.
�21
Mulberry and Silk as Materials
Silk stands as a unique fibre amidst all other natural fibres
used for textile due to its strength, lightness, smoothness,
and sheen. Silk is also the only filament that can stretch
continuously for up to more than 1,000 m. Evidence of the
use of silk has been discovered to date back to more than
5,000 years in China where it was a sign of nobility and
wealth. Silk was also not only used in clothing but also to make
paper—silk paper was then a luxury but also more practical
than bamboo slips, often used for important official documents
such as treatises. Silk was then also a form of currency used as
pay-outs, diplomatic gifts, tributes, or rewards.
Other than its importance for silk industry, mulberry leaves are
also prepared as tea in Korea; its fruits are edible, made into
wine, as well as used as food colourant. Various parts of the
plant (leaf extract, bark) have medicinal uses. Recent studies
have explored the cultivation of mulberry as cattle fodder for
its rich nutritional value, high leaf yield, and widespread
naturalisation all over the world, making it an ideal
alternative to traditional forage.
Selected Bibliography
Bereded, Arega. Culture Sericulture: Myths on the Origins of Silkworm
and Its Products. Addis Ababa: Ministry of Culture and Sports Affairs,
1995.
Hallam, Elizabeth, and Tim Ingold, eds. Making and Growing.
Anthropological Studies of Organisms and Artefacts. London:
Routledge, 2014.
Liu, Serein, ed. Liang Shaoji: Back to Origin. Shanghai: ShanghART
Gallery, 2015.
Pullein, Samuel. The Culture of Silk. London: Forgotten Books, 2018.
Puranananda, Jane, ed. Through the Thread of Time: Southeast Asian
Textiles. Bangkok: James H.W. Thompson Foundation, 2004.
Sánchez, M. D. “Mulberry: an exceptional forage available almost worldwide.”
World Animal Review, 93/1 (2000).
So, Alvin Y., The South China Silk District: Local Historical Transformation
and World-System Theory. New York: SUNY Press, 1986.
��“In China, the silkworm
represents generosity,
warmth, life, and endurance. And
because silk threads are so very long—a
single silkworm may give out from its mouth
a thread of up to a kilometre length—the thread of
the silkworm represents human life and history.”
— Liang Shaoji
�24
For three decades, Liang Shaoji has been breeding silkworms, integrating
their silk and lifecycle into his practice. Through this interaction, he explores
bioecology from an artistic perspective, especially the inherent relationship
between humans and nature. Liang, who lives in Tiantai, a small town in
Zhejiang Province, ideal for sericulture, works with sculpture, installation,
painting, photography, video, and performance. Meditation, the practice
of emptying one’s mind to experience peace, is an important element of
Liang’s life and art, connected to Zen and Buddhist philosophies.
Liang observes the silkworms closely in the way they live, breed, and
transform, investigating their response to a myriad of different materials
and surfaces. Silkworms try to cover everything with silk. The artist
describes the life cycle of silkworms as the infinitely fine line of life.
For Liang, silk, a soft but strong fibre, represents a celebration of life’s
vigour, through its inherent sense of stillness, emptiness, and blurriness.
The artist incorporates rusted iron and other industrial waste in his
sculptural work, often using metal as a symbol of industrialisation and
violence. His subjects are inspired by the socio-economic context of
today’s China and its collective psychological experiences. He also
draws from traditional Chinese architecture, especially temples and
spaces conducive to introspection and quietness. Other elements
are chosen for their metaphorical connotation in Chinese culture,
such as bamboo, candles, and clouds, that are symbols of integrity,
fleeting life, suffering, and generosity. Silkworms spew silk until
they die in the same way candles consume themselves while
providing light and warmth.
Liang Shaoji (b. 1945, China) graduated from the Zhejiang
Academy of Fine Arts (today China Academy of Art),
where he studied at the Varbanov Institute of Tapestry. Solo
exhibitions include Cloud Above Cloud, Museum of China
Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2016); Liang Shaoji: Back to
Origin, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (2014); Liang Shaoji:
An Infinitely Fine Line, Zendai MOMA, Shanghai (2009).
He participated in the 5th Biennale d’Art Contemporain
de Lyon (2005); the 6th International Istanbul Biennial
(1999); and the 48th Venice Biennale (1999). He was
awarded the Prince Claus Award in 2009 and the
Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA)
in 2002.
�25
Lonely Cloud, 2016
Installation: wood, silk, cocoons, and steel pipes, 245 x 428 x 114 cm.
Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.
In Tiantai, the home of Liang and of Tiantai Buddhism, camphorwood
is regarded as sacred. For Lonely Cloud, Liang used this wood, usually
employed for the carving of Buddha figures, as a ground for his silkworms, who covered it in silk. The large and heavy piece of wood is
hold up by a rusted scaffolding that the artist found at a construction
site. The trunk’s form, wrapped in the transparent white fabric, and
its raised position are reminiscent of a cloud. Also regarded as
sacred in Tiantai for their nobility and strength, clouds
symbolise the spiritual in nature.
Moon Garden, 2015
Single-channel video, 7 min 41 sec.
Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.
Liang Shaoji filmed the process of silkworms spinning on various
materials such as acrylic sheet, mirrors, and metal, while he himself lied
on the ground like a silkworm. As if looking through a microscope,
Moon Garden captures the silkworms’ motions, the sound they make
while eating mulberry leaves, and the raw silk they spin.
Broken Landscape, 2016
Installation: silk and cocoons, 520 x 145 cm.
Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.
The title refers to the destruction of the Chinese landscapes due to
human activities, natural disasters, as well as the loss of traditional
culture. A long and delicate piece of raw silk hangs from the ceiling
like a waterfall. The vestiges of the silkworms’ spinning and lifecycle
are imprinted on the fabric: cocoons, excrement, and urine
punctuate the scroll.
“Silkworm or silk, cocoon, moth or egg, they are all production of
nature. And caterpillar producing silk is the natural weaving in
the most primal form. The oval shape of cocoon suggests
the ultimate body of life and the essential configuration
of universe.”
— Liang Shaoji
�“The goal was not to create technology
that modified the organism, but to create
technology that was in tune with the
organism.”
—Vivian Xu
��28
Vivian Xu explores the intersection of organic and artificial
systems, her interest lying in the intrinsic relationship of
electricity and life, as well as the specificity of materialities.
Her research revolves around how to transfer information
from technological mediums to life organisms, and
how the reverse can be made possible. Xu sets up
experiments to observe how lower-level organisms,
such as bacteria, respond to electric stimulation
patterns, which in this way could be categorised as
bio art. Her aim is not to optimise these organisms,
but to find “points of negotiation […] and the
variations of this negotiation become the
artwork itself” (Vivian Xu).
Influenced by philosophy and bioethics,
Xu wants to find hybrid systems and create new
forms of machine logic. Philosopher Manuel
DeLanda’s theories of material fluctuation and
expressivity, post-human theories of fluidity,
complexity, and the cyborg, as well as physician
Luigi Galvani’s experiments in the late 18th
century where he animated frogs’ legs with
electric charge are part of Xu’s artistic lineage.
Through her work, she questions the
role of the artist, but also designer,
versus that of the scientist and
technologist within the advanced
sciences, technology, and life.
Vivian Xu (b. 1985, China), based in Shanghai, holds an
MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School
for Design, New York. She was a Research Fellow at the
Interactive Media Arts Program, New York University
Shanghai, and has taught at various universities including
Parsons the New School for Design and Chinese University
of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. She is the co-founder of Dogma
Labs. Exhibitions and lectures include the National Art
Museum of China, Beijing; Central Academy of China,
Beijing; Chronus Art Center, Shanghai; New York Hall
of Science; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Art
Laboratory Berlin; SymbioticA, the University
of Western Australia; and China Academy
of Art, Hangzhou.
�29
Silkworm Project, 2013–ongoing
Multimedia installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.
Vivian Xu was drawn to silkworms due to her familiarity with them and
because of the aesthetic qualities of works using silk by Chinese artists Xu
Bing and Liang Shaoji. She wanted to incorporate poetics into the concept of
the machine. Silkworm Project is a series of bio machines that generate selforganised silk structures. Electronic and digital systems house the silk-worms
creating a closed feedback loop as an autonomous ecosystem. The combination
of an ancient material with the new medium of data poses questions of
production and consumption.
Flat Spinning Machine, 2013–14
Teak wood, electronics, 42 x 27 x 22 cm.
This machine includes a grid where each position can be
activated via electrodes, with the worms being placed on
a silk screen over that matrix. Positioned on a flat plane,
silkworms are unable to create three-dimensional structures
and the outcome is a flat sheet of silk. In 2014, Xu began
to experiment with natural coloured silk to be able to
differentiate between the silk spun by two or more worms.
The first attempts, through changing the worms’ diet,
failed. She then discovered that genetically engineered
silkworms from Japan are able to spin coloured,
glow-in-the-dark silk.
Spatial Spinning Machine, 2017
Teak wood, glass, electronics, 30 x 43 x 11.5 cm.
Based on the silkworms’ behaviour within
a circular environment, this machine traces
how the worms spin spiral-like structures
and cell-like concaves of silk. The silkworms steer the machines via cameras
that capture their movements. Xu is
interested in how these interactions can be
scaled to larger networks through magnets
and Hall effect sensors, generating chaotic
and complex behaviour in the worms’
weaving patterns.
�Pink-flowered true indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria. Hand-coloured copperplate
engraving of a botanical illustration by J. Schaly from G. T. Wilhelm’s Unterhaltungen aus
der Naturgeschichte (Encyclopedia of Natural History), Vienna, 1817.
�31
INDIGO
The indigo colour can be obtained from around 150 varieties
of plants in different parts of the world. Most dyestuff however
comes from the genus Indigofera that is part of the Leguminosae
family. There are more than 650 species of Indigofera and among
them, “true indigo” Indigofera tinctoria (or Indigo sumatrana) of China
and subcontinent India and Indigofera suffruticosa in Central and
South America yield the most indican (blue colourant) and are widely
used commercially. In East Asia, the precursor to the Indigofera species
is Polygonum tinctorum. Species of Indigofera are mostly shrubs and are
usually found in tropical and subtropical regions and typically grow 60 to
90 cm tall (some up to 2 m). Flowers are short racemes of pink or violet
and its seed pods grow up to 5 cm long.
Another common species for indigo-blue dye is Indigofera arrecta. It is
widespread in Africa and believed to have been introduced to Java in the
mid-19th century where it was referred to as “Natal” indigo. I. arrecta
is cultivated in Indonesia (Sumatra, Sumba, and Flores), Laos, the
Philippines, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as
in India where it is known as “Java” indigo.
Cultivation and Harvesting
The process of producing indigo dye involves first steeping the
leaves and stems in warm water and allowing it to ferment for 10 to
12 hours (under certain conditions, for up to 24 hours). The plant
residue is removed and used as fertiliser and the remaining broth is
then stirred to mix it with air (oxidation process). The resultant blue
paste that settles at the bottom of the vat is then scooped up, dried,
compressed, and cut into small pieces for use as dye. Fermentation
and oxidisation require close supervision by experienced hands,
carefully controlling the temperature of the water during
fermentation and subsequently careful stirring (also called
“beating”) of the fermented liquid to control the amount
of air being mixed into the substance.
It is this mysterious, alchemic colour transformation
process during extraction and the secret, almost
intuitive skills of indigo masters (often passed
down following a strict lineage) that contribute
to a fascination with indigo dye production
and give rise to the colour’s numerous
associations with myths and magic.
�Indigo as Material
32
For more than four millennia, all dyestuff was made from
natural plant materials (with a few exceptions) before
synthetic dye was invented in the mid- to late-19th century
and subsequently widely available in the 20th century.
Countless plants yield yellow, brown, red, and black
dye, but indigo, in an organic chemical class of its own,
represents one of the world’s oldest and most valued dyes—
a deep blue that in many ancient cultures was associated with
royalty or the divine. For this, and the wide range of colours
that can be obtained by combining it with other natural dyes,
indigo has been considered “the king of dyes.”
For its deep blue colour, insolubility, light-fastness, and
suitability for dyeing any type of fibre, the rise in popularity of
indigo dye is closely connected to the textile industry and the
advance of maritime trade in the 16th and 17th centuries between
India and Europe. Prior to this, woad (Isatis tinctoria) was used in
Europe, which yields smaller amounts of blue dye.
Indigofera tinctoria and related species are also useful as manure, used
for example in coffee plantations in India and in traditional rainfed
rice cropping systems in Philippines. The plant (and its residue from dye
production) is a good nitrogen catch crop, reducing the amount of fertiliser
needed. Its leaf extract, seed, and even root, are known to have medicinal use.
Colour of Life
“In many cultures […] it is the powerful fertility of certain women that has been seen
as directly conflicting with the fertility of the dye vat, which is equated with a womb
[…] the delicate process of preparing the dye, considered akin to conceiving and
bearing a child, has often been reserved for women beyond the age of childbearing, as those able to bear children could cause the inexplicable ‘death’
of a dye vat.”
— Jenny Balfour-Paul, Indigo. Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans (1998).
“Indigo was the ‘cross-over’ colour par excellence: from the Orient
to the European ruling classes, from a colour-filled world of the
wealthy and the churches in the West until the mid-Middle Ages
to a colour-less world of blacks and blues thereafter, from
the ruling classes to the working classes, from its deep blue
colour to all colours, thanks to aniline-based dyes replacing
natural dyes, from a commodity to something animate
and intimate that aged with its owner [. . .]”
— Michael Taussig, “Redeeming Indigo,” (2008).
�33
Indigo dyeing in Guizhou, Southwest China, 1993.
Copyright Jenny Balfour-Paul.
Selected Bibliography
Balfour-Paul, Jenny. Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans. London: British
Museum, 1998.
Legrand, Catherine. Indigo: The Colour that Changed the World. London:
Thames & Hudson, 2012.
McKinley, Catherine. Indigo: In Search of the Colour that Seduced the World.
New York: Bloomsbury, 2012.
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.
prota4u.org/database/protav8.asp?g=pe&p=Indigofera+tinctoria+L.
Sweet, David G. “Indigo in World History: Production, Distribution
& Consumption.” Accessed July 12, 2018. http://davidgsweet.com/
wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Indigo.pdf.
Taussig, Michael. “Redeeming Indigo,” Theory Culture
Society, Vol 25, No. 3 (2008): 1–15.
Urgench State University, “Cultivation of Indigo plant,
biotechnology of natural dyes and improving the soil’s
ecology,” part of the UNESCO/ GEF SGP UNDP/
EBRD BAS (Japan) project, 2009.
�“I believe that there is nothing new to
be made. I enjoy following a particular
process again and again until I fully
understand its potential. It leads to
other ideas and possibilities.”
— Manish Nai
��Manish Nai, trained as a painter, expanded his
practice into creating sculpture, photography,
and murals, drawing inspiration from the bustle
of the megacity Mumbai, where he lives. Since his
graduation in the early 2000s, he has been absorbed
with materials and materiality, particularly through the
use of jute. A hardy plant, jute is woven into burlap, an
inexpensive fabric used mostly for packaging familiar to
Nai, as his father used to be a jute trader. Using it first as
a base for paintings, he then developed techniques to work
with the fabric itself by painstakingly removing threads to
create the images he wanted. Having gathered all the waste
jute into a box, he later discovered these had taken the shape
of their container, thus stumbling upon the sculptural form,
reminiscent of minimalist abstraction, that he adopted into
his practice.
Working with compression, Nai also experimented with
discarded clothes and newspapers. The used clothes become
poles, the old newspapers, washed off beforehand to not
retain images or text, are crushed into circles and assembled
into large slabs. These works also draw from minimalism
in their use of geometry and modularity. Although allowing
chance to play a part, Nai cautiously controls the result.
The artist’s different series have in common an attention to
the material quality of objects and their possibilities of
transmutation.
The preoccupation with texture and surface is
ubiquitous in Nai’s practice. When crossing
the city, he looks for “moments of blankness
and flatness.” He photographs empty billboards and architectural details, almost
as abstract ready-mades. Nai’s precise and
conceptually rigorous expansion of the
surface into both the three-dimensional
and the completely flat photograph
contributes to the discussion
around painting and
the nature of the
medium itself.
36
�37
Manish Nai (b. 1980, India) received a Diploma in Drawing and Painting
from the L S Raheja School of Art, Mumbai. Nai has participated in the
Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014) and the Shanghai Biennale (2012), and has
newly completed a 60-foot-long sculpture as a permanent installation in
Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex. His works are on view at the Sculpture Park
at Madhavendra Palace, Rajasthan, India (2017–18), and at the Smart Museum
of Art, Chicago as part of their permanent collection. In 2017, the
Fondation Fernet Branca presented a comprehensive exhibition of
the artist’s paintings, murals, sculptures, and photographs in St.
Louis, France. Solo exhibitions include Galerie Mirchandani +
Steinruecke in Mumbai, Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, and
Galerie Karsten Greve in Paris. He was the recipient of the
2016 Prudential Eye Award for Best Emerging
Artist (painting).
Untitled, 2018
Compressed indigo jute cloths and wood, total
99 pieces, each 203 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm, installation
dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Kavi Gupta Gallery.
In 2010, Manish Nai started using indigodyed fabric for his works, a material that
became increasingly central to his practice.
He remembers being in high school and
working in a clothes workshop run by his
relatives. There he found himself in the midst
of bundles of indigo-dyed fabric, piles of soonto-be uniforms for schools and factories.
Indigo, extensively used in India, was
commercially exploited during the colonial
period, having led to the 1859 Indigo
peasant revolt in Bengal. However for
Nai, these connotations are less central
than the material itself. In this work
developed for NTU CCA Singapore,
indigo-dyed jute is compressed
into 99 poles, turning his
childhood memories
into an abstract
manifestation.
�Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material
21 July – 30 September 2018
NTU CCA Singapore
Project led by:
Ute Meta Bauer
Laura Miotto
Khim Ong
Topical Seminars:
Ana Sophie Salazar
Syaheedah Iskandar
Education Programmes:
Magdalena Magiera
Kelly Reedy
Exhibition Production:
Cui Yin Mok
Ng Soon Kiat
Isrudy Shaik
Qamarul Asyraf
Logistics:
Rhema Events & Arts Services
Conservation:
Global Specialised Services
Bettina Schleier (Sopheap Pich)
Exhibition Construction:
Design 18
Exhibition Photography:
Ung Ruey Loon
Exhibition Collaterals:
mono.studio
Acknowledgements:
For the loan of artworks we thank
ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (Liang Shaoji)
The MaGMA Collection (Sopheap Pich)
Private collection (Sopheap Pich)
For co-production
Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago (Manish Nai)
All exhibition documentation:
(covers, inner fold, and pages 6, 14, 22, 26, and 34)
Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material,
21 July – 30 September 2018,
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore,
installation views.
Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
38
�39
CLIMATES.
HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS.
White Cockatoo
Habitat: Southeast Asia
Conservation Status:
Endangered
NTU CCA Singapore’s overarching research topic, CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS., informs and connects the Centre’s various activities for the next three
years. Changes in the environment influence weather patterns and these climatic shifts impact
habitats, and vice versa. Precarious conditions of habitats are forcing the migration of humans
and other species at a critical level. The consequences of human intervention are felt on a global
scale, affecting geopolitical, social, and cultural systems. The Centre intends to discuss and
understand these realities through art and culture in dialogue with other fields of knowledge.
�NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
Located in Gillman Barracks, the NTU CCA Singapore is a national research centre
of Nanyang Technological University, supported by a grant from the Economic
Development Board. Since its inauguration in October 2013, the Centre links the
complexities of the contemporary art field to other forms of knowledge production.
NTU CCA Singapore is unique in its threefold constellation of research & academic
programmes, international exhibitions and research-based residencies, positioning
itself as a space for critical discourse. The Centre focuses on Spaces of the Curatorial in
Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond, and engages in multi-layered research topics,
such as PLACE.LABOUR.CAPITAL. (2014–17).
Spaces of the Curatorial
The Centre seeks to engage the potential of “curating,” and its expanded field. What
are the infrastructures and modes of presenting and discussing artistic and cultural
production in diverse cultural settings and in particular throughout Southeast Asia’s
vastly changing societies? NTU CCA Singapore’s exhibition spaces, designed by artist
and curator Fareed Armaly, respond to this curatorial framework to unfold different
juxtaposed formats.
Shared Academic Programmes WITH THE
School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices
Applications open: 1 September 2018
In August 2018, NTU welcomes the first intake of MA students for Museum Studies
and Curatorial Practices. The programme prepares graduates for professional positions
in the highly complex and diverse museum landscape in Southeast Asia and the
ever-expanding field of contemporary curating.
Master of Arts (Research) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Application period: 1 October – 15 November 2018
This research-oriented MA and PhD is designed for students who wish to pursue
cutting-edge research in specific areas of Art, Design and Media with a focus on
Spaces of the Curatorial and Curating the City, both key academic research areas of
NTU CCA Singapore.
Learn more: adm.ntu.edu.sg/programmes
40
�41
GIVING
NTU CCA Singapore is a non-profit institution that takes great pride in presenting
internationally-acclaimed, research-driven exhibitions, residencies, and extensive
educational programmes. Your contribution, regardless of amount, goes a long way in
enabling us to play an active role within the local arts scene. Your generous support will
also contribute to the development of regional and international arts infrastructures. If
you are a taxpayer in Singapore, your contributions are eligible for a 250% tax deduction
in 2018!
For enquiries, please contact ntuccacomms@ntu.edu.sg
NTU CCA SINGAPORE PUBLICATIONS
The publishing activity emphasises the holistic approach of the Centre by expanding
the connections across the various departments to capture and deepen the knowledge
on contemporary art linked to the Centre’s ongoing research projects. The mobility
and lasting nature of publications allow the Centre to disseminate its contributions
to discourse beyond its physical parameters.
PLACE.LABOUR.CAPITAL. Mousse Publishing, distributed by NUS Press, 2018.
SouthEastAsia: Spaces of the Curatorial. Jahresring 63. Sternberg Press, 2017.
Becoming Palm, Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig. Sternberg Press, 2017.
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions. 2017.
Theatrical Fields: Critical Strategies in Performance, Film, and Video,
in collaboration with Bildmuseet Umeå. König Books, 2016.
ARTISTS’ LIMITED EDITION EVERYDAY ITEMS
NTU CCA Singapore’s line of commissioned Artists’ Limited Editions Everyday
Items—ranging from scarves, umbrellas, and raincoats, to notebooks, tote bags, and
beach towels—is created in collaboration with the Centre’s local and international
Artists-in-Residence. Participating artists include: Hamra Abbas (Kuwait), Julian
‘Togar’ Abraham (Indonesia), Yason Banal (Philippines), Heman Chong (Singapore),
Duto Hardono (Indonesia), Alex Mawimbi (Kenya/Netherlands), Alex MurrayLeslie (Australia/Spain), Arjuna Neuman (United States/United Kingdom), UuDam
Nguyen (Vietnam), Ana Pravčki (Serbia/United States), anGie seah (Singapore),
SHIMURAbros (Japan), Tamara Weber (United States), and Jason Wee (Singapore).
For enquiries, please contact ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
�NTU CCA Singapore STAFF
Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCIES
Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Syaheedah Iskandar, Curatorial Assistant, Outreach & Education
Lynda Tay, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Isrudy Shaik, Executive, Production
Qamarul Asyraf Bin Hosri, Young Professional Trainee, Production
Sara Ng, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Olivia Wong, Young Professional Trainee, Exhibitions
Zhang Jing Chao, Young Professional Trainee, Outreach & Education
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes
and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Ho See Wah, Young Professional Trainee, Research
OPERATIONS & STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Philip Francis, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director, Operations & HR
Sunitha De Silva-Cant, Assistant Director, Development
Yao Jing Wei, Manager, Finance
Sylvia Tsai, Manager, Communications
Angie Ang, Special Projects Assistant
Iris Tan, Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Chua Yong Kee, Young Professional Trainee, Development
Priscilla Toh, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
Debbi Tan, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
42
�43
NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
Co-Chairs
Professor Joseph Liow Chin Yong, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts,
and Social Sciences, NTU
Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council
Linda de Mello, Director, Sector Development, National Arts Council
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life), President’s Office, NTU
Mike Samson, Managing Director/ Regional Head ASEAN, Leveraged and Structured
Solutions, Standard Chartered Bank
Professor Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen, Chair, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Ng Wen Xu, Director, Lifestyle, Singapore Economic Development Board
Dr June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Programmes and Publications,
Singapore Art Museum
NTU CCA SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
Chair
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures
and Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of
Melbourne, Australia
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, Deputy Director in charge of Research and Globalisation,
MNAM/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Okwui Enwezor, Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Professor Patrick Flores, Department of Arts Studies, University of the
Philippines and Curator Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ranjit Hoskote, cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai, India
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair, Southeast Asian Art
and Chair, South East Asian Studies, SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
�44
NTU CCA Singapore
Visitor Information
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
Exhibition Hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 12.00 – 7.00pm
Friday, 12.00 – 9.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on public holidays
Free admission to all programmes,
unless otherwise stated
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38, Malan Road
Singapore 109452 and 109441
ntu.ccasingapore.org
facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Instagram: @ntu_ccasingapore
Twitter: @ntuccasingapore
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
Email: ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
L ocated at
CAR PARK
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TEACHERS’
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ENTRANCE TO
GILLMANN BARRACKS
Printed in July 2018 by First Printers
© 2018 NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
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LABRADOR PARK MRT
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
Trees of Life — Knowledge in Material Exhibition Guide
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<i>Trees of Life — Knowledge in Material</i> Exhibition Guide
Description
An account of the resource
<i>Trees of Life — Knowledge in Material</i> Exhibition Guide
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-07-21
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Manish Nai
Phi Phi Oanh
Sopheap Pich
Liang Shaoji
Vivian Xu
Laura Miotto
Ute Meta Bauer
Khim Ong
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Guide
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Asia