They Come to Us Without a Word]]> Supernatural]]> Ecology]]> Ecosystems]]> Biodiversity]]> Coexistence]]> Environmental Crisis]]> They Come to Us without a Word, video and performance pioneer Joan Jonas’ first large-scale exhibition in Singapore and Southeast Asia. They Come to Us without a Word was organised for the U.S. Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale by the MIT List Visual Arts Center and co-curated by Paul C. Ha, Director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center and Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. With this exhibition Jonas evokes the fragility of nature, using her own poetic language to address the irreversible impact of human interference on the environmental equilibrium of our planet.

Acknowledgements They Come to Us without a Word was organised for the U.S. Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale by the MIT List Visual Arts Center and co-curated by Paul C. Ha, Director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center and Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. The exhibition was generously supported by U.S. Department of State, Cynthia and John Reed, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additional major support was provided by the Council for the Arts at MIT, Toby Devan Lewis, VIA Art Fund, Agnes Gund, Lambent Foundation.

The exhibition in Singapore is organised by the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Nanyang Technological University with support by the Economic Development Board, Singapore. Additional support has also been provided by the U.S. Embassy Singapore.]]>
Paul C. Ha]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Joan Jonas]]> Film]]> Video]]> Multimedia Installation]]> Drawing]]> Mixed Media]]> Object]]> Southeast Asia]]> Europe]]> North America]]>
Ghosts and Spectres – Shadows of History]]> Archival Practice]]> Fiction]]> Supernatural]]> Mythology]]> Politics]]> Ghosts and Spectres — Shadows of History features video installations and films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), Nguyen Trinh Thi (Vietnam), and Park Chan-kyong (South Korea). The artists’ research into their own cultural and historical backgrounds gain shape through allegories that re-evaluate the social and political reforms in Post-War and Cold-War Asia. The cinematic works in the exhibition combine fact and fiction. They not only allude to rarely discussed subject-matters but also raise crucial questions about power and authority, construction of narratives, repression of identities, and collective trauma.

Embedded in the vernacular, ghosts, myths, and rituals present systems of knowledge that enable the expression of unknown worlds. Ghosts and Spectres — Shadows of History brings to light clouded histories at times not officially recounted but those that remain a lingering presence in collective memories through local mythologies, ghostly figures, and traditions. The works create their own language and systems of reference, reflecting current efforts of exposing written historical accounts and contemporary situations that subvert mainstream narratives.

In parallel, The Lab, NTU CCA Singapore’s platform for research in-progress, will be featuring projects by siren eun young jung (South Korea) and Choy Ka Fai (Singapore/Germany), both recent NTU CCA Singapore artists-in-residence. While jung focuses on Yeoseong Gukgeuk, a vanishing form of traditional Korean theatre featuring only female performers, Choy brings up his long-time research into Butoh dance, also called “dance of darkness,” and looks at its evolution and influence through one of the Butoh founders, Tatsumi Hijikata.

Ghosts and Spectres—Shadows of History is curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU, and Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes.]]>
Apichatpong Weerasethakul]]> Ho Tzu Nyen]]> Nguyen Trinh Thi]]> Park Chan-kyong]]> siren eun young jung]]> Choy Ka Fai]]> Ute Meta Bauer]]> Khim Ong ]]> Video]]> Multimedia Installation]]> Film]]> Southeast Asia]]> Asia]]>
History]]> Mythology]]> Regionalism]]> Supernatural]]> Kenneth Dean]]> Asia]]> Southeast Asia]]> Supernatural]]> 20 Feb 2014, Thu 6:30pm - 9:00pm

The workshop evolves around notions of the boundary event, the between realm, the impasses and the passages, form and formless. During the workshop, the artist will screen a few excerpts of the film Night Passage (2004).

A public programme of Paradise Lost.]]>
Trinh T. Minh-ha]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Supernatural]]>
In the second episode of Bring it to LIFE, Kray Chen looks at the everyday & transactional activities of chasing the bus, grocery shopping, waiting in line, through an aptly-titled game installation, Exercise Now and Fit a Standard Size Coffin Later.

Kray Chen will be in conversation with artist, Michael Lee about lottery, superstitions and art at 6pm tomorrow, followed by the exhibition opening reception.

Part of the PLACE.LABOUR.CAPITAL. programme – Bring it to LIFE.]]>
Kray Chen]]> Michael Lee]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Curatorial Practice]]> Supernatural]]> 10 Feb 2016, Wed 7:30pm - 9:00pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Joan Jonas’ work is inhabited by a multitude of human and non-human creatures, which traverse her drawings, videos, and performances in a plurality of gestures and configurations. Assembled in idiosyncratic, non-narrative manners, these animal selves propose new temporal conventions and ways of being in the world. Filipa Ramos’ (de)Tour will be a journey across the creatures Joan Jonas summons and collaborates with through her work.

This Exhibition (de)Tour is part of the Education and Public Programme of Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word.]]>
Filipa Ramos]]> North America]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Supernatural]]> Ritual]]> 12 Feb 2016, Fri 7:30pm - 10:00pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Night Fishing, 2011, 33 min, Korean with English subtitles
In Night Fishing a man casually sets up for a fishing trip at the water’s edge. Evening comes and a tug on his line presents him with the body of a woman. While he tries to disentangle himself from the fishing lines, she comes alive. The scene changes and the woman is now a shaman priestess in a funeral ritual for a man who drowned in a river. He speaks through her to his relatives, asking for forgiveness.

Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits, 2013, 104 min, Korean with English subtitles
Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits is a documentary telling the story of a woman who — shunned for being possessed by spirits as a girl and oppressed for following superstitions as an adult — grew up to be Korea’s greatest shaman, and is now honoured as a national treasure.

This screening is part of the Education and Public Programme of Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word.]]>
Park Chan-kyong]]> Park Chan-wook]]> Asia]]>
Nature]]> Supernatural]]> 13 Feb 2016, Sat 1:00pm - 4:00pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Selected works are chosen and discussed by artist and filmmaker Park Chan-kyong which engage with topics of the spiritual aspects of nature.

This workshop and screening is part of the Education and Public Programme of Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word.]]>
Park Chan-Kyong]]> Asia]]>
Supernatural]]> 17 Feb 2016, Wed 7:30pm - 10:00pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road and Labrador Nature Reserve

Take a journey through Singapore’s paranormal activity with an interactive seminar illustrating the scientific logic and methodology that paranormal investigators use in their research. The night concludes with a spooky tour followed by a live paranormal investigation.

The evening starts at NTU CCA Singapore, Block 43 Malan Road. Please wear comfortable walking shoes and bring insect repellent.

This Exhibition (de)Tour is part of the Education and Public Programme of Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word.]]>
Yasser Mattar]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Ritual]]> Tradition]]> Supernatural]]> 30 Mar 2016, Wed 7:30pm - 9:00pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

Kenneth Dean will confront questions like “What happens in the afterlife?” “Do ghosts get bored and lonely?” and “Can we plan what happens to our spirits when we die?” In the course of the (de)Tour, Dean will elaborate on how Chinese religion deals with ghosts through rituals and traditions.

This Exhibition (de)Tour is part of the Education and Public Programme of Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word.]]>
Kenneth Dean ]]> Asia]]>