Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> 28 Oct 2017, Sat 09:30 AM - 08:00 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore.

Taking the works in the current show as points of departure, the symposium brings together the artists of the exhibition, as well as curators and scholars researching on the subject matter, to generate a discussion on muted histories and legacies, as they cast light upon past events that still impact society today, particularly in terms of power structures and restriction of social freedom. The role of the moving image—the medium used by the four exhibiting artists—will be analysed to demonstrate how it reveals, as much as it conceals, past traumas that evade representation.

Divided into two sessions, the symposium explores the artists’ working processes and methodological approaches through structured conversations consisting of lectures, presentations, and moderated discussions. The focus will lie on the sources of inspiration as well as on the motivations of the artists’ practices, and on the construction and contestation of official narratives. Ho Tzu NyenNguyen Trinh Thi, and Park Chan-kyong will expand on the historical events and socio-political contexts that feed into their work, and on the different strategies employed to revive collective memory. Scholar Dr Clare Veal will highlight the medium specificity in the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul to address conflicted histories, whereas the lectures by curators Dr June Yap and Hyunjin Kim, as well as the keynote lectures by Dr May Adadol Ingawanij and Professor Kenneth Dean, aim to articulate the complicated geopolitical relations in contemporary Asia.

11.00am – 1.10pm
Session I: Shadows of History

Chaired by Dr Roger Nelson, curator and art historian, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Art Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and NTU CCA Singapore

Dedicated to the uncovering of neglected histories, this session will look at the construction of historical narratives and their role in reflecting social, political, and cultural conditions. Occluded by the propagation of progress and nation building, what has been left out and rendered unspeakable in the region’s bid to establish national identities and political autonomy? Referencing the works of Ho Tzu Nyen and Nguyen Trinh Thi, this session traces post-war and Cold War legacies in Asia and investigates their lingering spectres.

2.30 – 5.30pm
Session II: Ghosts and Spectres

Chaired by Dr David Teh, researcher and curator, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore (NUS)

Referencing the works of Park Chan-kyong and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, this session deals with notions of ghosts and spectres as allegories of historical moments and dreamlike realities. Embedded in myths and folklore, what roles do they play in constructing an understanding of the past and in reflecting socio-political circumstances? How do cinematic works engage their medium-specificity in a play of historical phantoms and repressed collective memories, to create a language for portraying trauma, loss, dreams, and nightmares?

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Ute Meta Bauer]]> May Adadol Ingawanij]]> June Yap]]> Nguyen Trinh Thi]]> Ho Tzu Nyen]]> Khim Ong]]> Hyunjin Kim]]> Park Chan-kyong]]> Clare Veal]]> Roger Nelson]]> David Teh]]> Kenneth Dean]]> Southeast Asia]]> Asia]]>
Performance]]> Labour]]> Mythology]]> 14 Jul 2017, Fri 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
14 Jul 2017, Fri 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
28 Jul 2017, Fri 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
28 Jul 2017, Fri 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road

This performance responds to Ulrike Ottinger’s penchant to making films/documentaries based on everyday life and in diverse settings, from urban to rural environments. The title Shaman/Peasants alludes to the two factors related to the rise of communism in early 20th century China. The Chinese Communists built their revolutionary momentum with the support of the “Peasants” and later sealed their faith with the Land Reform Movement that changed the destiny of old China forever. “Shaman” is the intermediary between the deep-seated connection of human and land, who breed myths and beliefs among the people. The contemporary dance will encompass incongruous movement motifs that aim to build tension by pitching bizarre individual characters against a repressive, conforming performing ensemble.

30-min performance with post-show dialogue with Arts Fission Artistic Director Angela Liong.

Commissioned by NTU CCA Singapore and co-produced with Arts Fission.

Shaman/Peasants
is endorsed and supported by the National Arts Council Arts Education Programme (NAC-AEP) under the Public Arts Programme. Schools may use the Tote Board Arts Grant to subsidise 50% of the programme ticket cost. 


This is a public programme of Ulrike Ottinger: China. The Arts – The People, Photographs and Films from the 1980s and 1990s.

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Angela Liong]]> Arts Fission]]> Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> History]]> Identity]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
Chaired by researcher and curator Dr David Teh
Presentation: “The Spectre of Photography in the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul” Dr Clare Veal, art historian, Lecturer, MA Asian Art Histories, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

The histories of photography and film in Thailand intersect in multiple ways. Yet the revelatory, iconic nature of photography in this context has meant that it has often been considered separate from filmic practice in which the "real" lacks weight. The trans-disciplinary nature of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's practice, described by Dr May Adadol Ingawanij and Dr David Teh's as "permeable," complicates these distinctions. Despite Apichatpong's preference for cinema and video, the photographic is implied through the slow, rhythmic pace of his time-based works, as well as their reconstitution as stills. By aligning these references with the implications of different media forms in the Thai context, this presentation considers the role of the photographic and the filmic to reveal and conceal, and how medium specificity is implicated in the visualisation of traumatic pasts that resist representation.]]>
Clare Veal]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> History]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm Presentation: “Colonial Unheimlich” Artist Park Chan-kyong


"...if a critique of Orientalism avoids the object of its criticism it is also unsound. Criticising Orientalism is fine, but a more flexible approach within the structure of Orientalism itself should be entailed in the criticism. Criticism of Orientalism should be better than Orientalism itself or contain certain surpassing elements within it. The criticism and the exceeder may conflict with each other. Even the critical reflection of 'what is not Orientalism' my be derived from the outer, especially Western perspectives. This is imperative: what we can do in between escaping the Orientalist structure and demystifying it may even include intentional use of Orientalism..." (From The Phantom of "Minjok Art"  by Park Chan-kyong)]]>
Park Chan-kyong]]> Video]]> Asia]]>
History]]> Modernity]]> Mythology]]> Supernatural]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
Chaired by researcher and curator Dr David Teh
Lecture: “Contested Modernity and the Image of History in East Asia” Hyunjin Kim, curator, writer, and researcher

The lecture addresses Asia as a region in-between becoming and unravelling. Referencing images of resistance and spirituality, Hyunjin Kim will discuss works that observe and excavate unarticulated modern and contemporary realities that pervade the (East) Asian region today. Part of the lecture proposes ways to rethink the radicality of tradition as an "ungovernable" apparatus, in contrast to the brutal adaptation of Western modernisation and to the rise of nationalism. The following examination looks at the discourse of "Asianism," engaging with Sun Ge's idea of "homecoming" and Takeuchi Yoshimi's notion of zengzha. Understanding the region as a space of anomalous events, the speaker will demonstrate how the complicated historical relations and hegemonic struggles endemic to the region can accelerate the production of the discourse.]]>
David Teh]]> Hyunjin Kim]]> Magdelena Magiera]]> Video]]> Asia]]>
Supernatural]]> Mythology]]> History]]> Identity]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 2.30 – 4.30pm
In Conversation: Dr David Teh with Hyunjin Kim, Park Chan-kyong, and Dr Clare Veal

Alluding to the works of Park Chan-kyong and Apichatpong Weerasethaku, this session deals with notiios of ghosts and spectres as allegories of historicalmoments and dreamlike realities. Embedded in myths and folklore, what roles do they play in constructing and understanding of the past and in reflecting socio-political circumstances? How do cinematic works engage their medium specificity in a play of historical phantoms and repressed collective memories, to create a language for portraying trauma, loss, dreams, and nightmares?]]>
Hyunjin Kim]]> Park Chan-kyong]]> Clare Veal]]> Video]]> Asia]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Mythology]]> Supernatural]]> Ritual]]> History]]>
On the occasion of the exhibition Ghost and Spectres – Shadows of History curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, and the 4th anniversary of NTU CCA Singapore

SESSION II: GHOSTS AND SPECTRES 4.30 – 5.30pm Closing Keynote Lecture by Professor Kenneth Dean, Head, Department of Chinese Studies, NUS

Professor Dean will reflect on the day's discussions from the perspective of local historical research, and expand on them through referencing folkloric and vernancular practices.]]>
Kenneth Dean]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Vampir-Cuadecuc, Pere Portabella, Spain, 1970, 66 min]]> Ways of Seeing]]> Mythology]]> Politics]]> 29 Oct 2017, Sun 05:00 PM - 07:00 PM
The Projector, Golden Mile Tower, #05-00, 6001 Beach Road

Tickets: S$13.50 standard; S$11.50 concession. Purchase at theprojector.sg

Introduction by Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU

Vampir-Cuadecuc is arguably one of the key films for understanding the transition in the Spanish film world from the period of the “new cinemas” (permitted by the Franco government) towards the illegal, clandestine, or openly antagonistic practices against the Franco regime. The film consists of shooting the filming of a commercial film El Conde Drácula by Jesús Franco. Portabella practices two types of violence on the standard narrative: he totally eliminates colour and substitutes the soundtrack with a landscape of image-sound collisions by Carles Santos. Filmed provocatively in 16mm with sound negative, Vampire-Cuadecuc stages the tensions between the black and white of the film stock, and reveals the “fantasmatic materialism” that dominant narrative cinema is reliant upon.

This Screening is part of the public programme of Ghosts and Spectres – Shadows of History.

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Pere Portabella]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Europe]]>
Orpheus, Jean Cocteau, France, 1950, 110 min]]> Mythology]]> Fiction]]> 29 Sep 2017, Fri 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Considered one of Cocteau’s masterpieces, Orpheus updates the myth of Orpheus and depicts a famous poet, scorned by the Left Bank youth, and his love for both his wife, Eurydice, and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet follows the princess to the land of the dead, through Cocteau’s famous mirrored portal. Translating this Greek myth by adapting the story about love, death, and the underworld into a modern scenario allows Cocteau to resonate political questions concerning some younger historical events like war, oppression, and Nazism. This film is the central part of Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy, the other two being The Blood of a Poet (1930) and Testament of Orpheus (1960).

This Screening is part of the public programme of Ghosts and Spectres – Shadows of History.

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Jean Cocteau]]> Europe]]>
Anyang, Paradise City, Park Chan-kyong, South Korea, 2010, 101 min]]> Mythology]]> History]]> Fiction]]> 8 Sep 2017, Fri 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Park’s first full-length feature film, Anyang, Paradise City is a mix between documentary and fiction, inspired by a seldom-remembered incident during the Olympic Games in 1988, where 22 female workers were killed in a fire in Anyang. The glorious past of Anyang (a Buddhist term for “paradise”) allegedly includes the existence of a huge temple surrounded by the beautiful mountains and streams around 1000 years ago. Researching into Buddhism and the history of Anyang, Park follows the temple excavations and searches for the 500-year-old “grandma tree”. The film traces this
 past through the natural landscape
and alludes to the future through the city’s mayoral election. As if travelling between paradise and hell, the camera hunts, rests, and plays as if dancing with the cityscape, while layering narrative, history, contemporary life, landscape/ architecture, and politics.

This Screening is part of the public programme of Ghosts and Spectres – Shadows of History.

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Park Chan-kyong]]> Asia]]>