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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
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36
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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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#12
WANG RUOBING
My name is Nadia Amalina. I am the Programmes Manager at NTU CCA, and I coedit this podcast alongside Dr Anna Lovecchio, curator and Assistant Director of
Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore.
In this episode, we hand over the microphone to curator Tamares Goh to
interview our Artist-in-Residence Wang Ruobing. Ruobing and Tamares share a
long history of working together throughout their careers, one that goes back to
2004 and will continue on in the years to come. This conversation between peers
shines a spotlight on Ruobing’s practice rooted in materiality, the importance of
found objects in her art-making process, as well as her ongoing research into the
symbiotic relationship between environmental sciences and visual arts. They also
touch upon the collaborations Ruobing has activated with deep-sea divers and
marine scientists, and how these collaborations continue to shape the trajectory
of her artistic practice.
Tamares Goh and Wang Ruobing recording AiRCAST, 31 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Nadia Amalina: Welcome to the second season of AiRCAST. On this podcast,
we visit the Residencies Studios of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
nestled on the fringe of a vibrant rainforest in Gillman Barracks. In this series
of open-ended conversations, we invite different guests to probe the mind of
our Artists-in-Residence and unfold some of the ideas, materials, processes,
influences, and research methodologies behind their practice.
Now, a few words to introduce them. Committed to exploring new ways of
seeing and methods of knowledge production, the artistic practice of Dr Wang
Ruobing stretches from drawing to photography, sculpture, kinetic art, and
installation. With a diverse range of methodological approaches to present
her ideas, her body of work addresses environmental issues and transcultural
discourses on identity and hybridity.
Tamares Goh is the deputy director of Audience Engagement at National Gallery
Singapore, overseeing festivals like Light To Night, Painting With Light and the
Gallery’s Childrens Biennale. She was the former head of Visual Arts at Esplanade
– Theatres on the Bay, and co-headed the Programming department overseeing
festivals and programmes. She was also the Producer for the Singapore Pavilion at
the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.
�[Audio excerpt from Three Planks (Sampan), 2021. Courtesy the artist.]
Tamares Goh: Hi Ruobing, thank you for meeting on this really strange, you
know, rainy, afternoon. It’s really great to see you here. Just a moment ago, we
heard the folklore song Dayung Sampan that was hummed by Fran Ho Fei Fan,
which you have used in your work Three Planks (Sampan) (2021), which was a
kinetic work. If I recall the work, it exists in isolation on its own, quite haunting
because the song is haunting as well as the rowing of the boat without any
human being there. You told me that is made up of planks, pallets actually. I’m
really interested to hear from you, as we are discussing your practice here, how
this work came about?
Wang Ruobing: This work titled Three Planks is very much influenced by where
my studio is. So, my studio is in an industrial building. My neighbours, they do
various business, some are importers, some are exporters, and some are hardware
shops or wholesale sellers. Pallet wood is one of the common things that come
with goods that are imported. Very often, those wooden pallets are used just
once and then discarded at a dustbin. I think artists are always influenced by the
environment where they spend most of their time, so it was inspiring to see the
future of those pallets. And some pallets would look really nice! As artists we are
always being resourceful, we salvage materials from our environment and make
it into something. So I got two to three pallet wood from our neighbour who is
a game importer. I told him: could you save a few good-quality pallets for me,
because pallet wood has various qualities. Some pallets from Europe are made
from pine tree and they receive a heat treatment, so I asked him: if you got a
few such pallets, can you save them for me? That’s how I got them. And when I
got them from my neighbour, I wanted to make it into a boat. The reason is: the
pallets came by boat, and it’s one-way. Often, they come to us and then they end
up here because they end up in the landfill. So I thought I want to make them
into a boat, maybe they can go home, with the boat. But, you know, during the
process, I realised that the fabricators when they make pallet wood, they use
fastener nails. The fastener nails are basically made in a way that does not allow
those pallets to be reused. When I plucked out all the nails, I loved the holes very
much, so I thought I wanted to leave the holes as is. Not really to put [the boat]
Wang Ruobing, Three Planks (Sampan), 2021, installation view, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Jendela Visual Arts
Space. Courtesy the artist.
on the water, but to expose the traces of how those pallets
come to us. Then I did some research about the boat. Of
course, everybody is familiar with the Dayung Sampan song.
I discovered that the song is actually a folk song written by
an Indonesian songwriter but the word sampan, translated to
three-piece plank [boat], in fact, in Hanyu Pinyin, came from
China. Dayung Sampan became very famous in China because
Tian Mi Mi made the song. I really enjoy how the words, in
the migration of culture, have been transformed and landed
in some place very different. They have a different fate, a
different future. So I invited my old neighbour; she is a singer.
She came from Taiwan and she built her home and raised
her children in Singapore. I thought it would be really nice
to have her hum the song without any language and this is
what you heard in the beginning. The artwork is really dealing
with the material that the shipping industry uses in one-way
way and very often the material has been used once but not
being recycled. I want to bring this to attention. Then another
point I wanted to talk about with this song is about the culture
�of migration. That is how the work came to being and yeah, it was shown at
Esplanade’s Jendela [Visual Arts Space] for a few months.
Tamares Goh: That’s such a rich history! I can really see that, in a literal sense,
[you are] unpacking the pallets, but also, unpacking the history. We take it for
granted that it is a Malay folk song, but the trajectory could be quite animate, you
know, it is not what we imagined it to be. But also, I think, interestingly, it is really
discussing also how porous the ocean is, and how the tides and the lands and the
demarcation of borders are also drawn. I find that very rich. I know that there is
something that you always look for, that’s quite particular in your artwork, as you
shared with me, something that is owned once by people, used by people. What
makes you so seduced by these kinds of materials in the very first place?
Wang Ruobing: I am very much attracted by the materials that have been used
by somebody before. You may not necessarily want to know who the owner
was, but, the products or the materials, are being produced for a purpose. People
purchase [things] for a purpose, and people throw it away for a purpose, right?
Or people pass it to another for a purpose. There are always multiple reasons
and objectives that come with the objects that you may have found in the shop,
or you may pick up on the street. For me, that is fascinating. The artwork where I
used thousands of library books is really about… When I was a student, what you
have the most is books, library books. I was wondering how and why writers and
publishers think that a particular kind of a topic or content should have a greenish
cover. So I did a few installations in different countries. We used books borrowed
from the libraries. I was looking into how those books were being produced for
a certain purpose, and how those books have been purchased by librarians for
reasons that they think they should be read by the public. And then amongst
those books in the library, there is another selection process: when the users
come to the bookshelf, what book do they choose? From the borrowed books,
I shifted my interest to man-made objects. In many of my works, I would either
buy from second-hand shops or I pick them up from a dust bin, or I pick up from
the seaside. I like to study those objects. They always come with my imagination
about who had them before. I collected thousands and thousands of marine
debris; they are a large part of my recent practice. Some of the objects that are
found on the beach may not necessarily belong to Singaporeans. They may come
from Thailand, from Indonesia, from Malaysia. There was also a lot of toys and
water bottles, and this makes me think: how did they end up there? Right? I found
a lot of milk formula spoons. So I wondered, is it because people went to the
beach for a picnic with their children, and when they finished the milk formula
container, they just threw it away. What happened? Why did they end up on this
beach, you know, and it could be from any part of the world?
Tamares Goh: So, Ruobing, about collaboration. This wonderful space that I
visited before, where I witnessed so many small but I would say very important
exhibitions, by artists of a great range in the past two years. Tell me more about
how this space got started. It’s really fascinating and I understand that it is also
your studio space.
Wang Ruobing: Comma Space was established in 2020 just before the
pandemic. I don’t know if this is a right time or a bad time. What happened is that
Sai [Chen Sai Hua Kuan], my husband, and I, we are both artists and we moved
into our new studio at 51 Jalan Pemimpin, in an industrial building. It happened
that there was a small space in our studio. So Sai and I were thinking, shall we
reserve the space for experimental ideas? Then, if we can afford it, let’s try it for
a year. And now, we are in our third year! This is how we started. Coming out
from being artists, we want to support other artists and we all know, as artists, we
always have pockets of ideas in our bags. And we are looking for opportunities
to explore and to display and exhibit. But sometimes, the opportunity from the
gallery or from the museum, may not come as easily and you don’t know when,
so having a space as such would be really great. That’s how we started. And
we also think artists don’t practice alone. The community is important, and it’s
important that we support each other and move forward together. The reason we
call it “comma” is because we think the space can function as a collecting point,
collecting ideas, collecting thoughts, collecting people. So we want Comma
Space to be a platform for this purpose.
Tamares Goh: Wonderful! I’ll go and visit again these days to see Sai’s exhibition.
When I went to Comma Space, there was this really, I would say, very engulfing
kind of experience with your work. With collecting marine debris, you said
specifically that they’re not small bottles anymore, they are large, big, vessels. And
when I went into the space, I felt I was swimming in the sea. And, you know, just
the sheer sound when I operated the mechanics, the sheer sound of the bottles,
the vessels hitting on one another. I felt I was in another space altogether. Would
you like to share a bit about the project?
�Wang Ruobing: The project is called Off Shore On Tide (2021). That project
draws a linkage to the development during my NTU CCA Singapore residency; my
NTU CCA residency intends to create this immersive space that allow the lungs
to function in filtered mud. In Off Shore On Tide, I am actually drawing from a
similar approach. I created a room that is kinetically pulling all the debris. You
see what is there, the shoes, the pails, the fishnet. I make them move like waves
so that when you enter the room at Comma Space, you enter my work. You are
not looking at it, you’ll just be part of the wave. Then, with large objects that are
swimming, shaking, making loud pumping sounds, that feeling of danger is what
I am intending to create. Also, in order to stimulate the feeling of what [would
happen] if you had to swim around with all those large objects that don’t belong
to the sea, but belonged to us. How would you feel about it? Yes, so I could
actually draw the linkage between what I’m developing now and the approach
that has been adopted for Off Shore On Tide.
[Audio excerpt from the installation, Off Shore On Tide, 2021. Courtesy the artist.]
Tamares Goh: An adaptation of this work will be at the National Gallery of
Singapore’s Children’s Biennale opening this year, in 2023, in time for the June
holidays… so an adaptation of this work will be shown for children. What are
some of the challenges you think you have to work with alongside the process of
showing for children or is there no difference whatsoever?
Wang Ruobing: Children are generally very interested in those objects. At
Comma Space, we received many children audiences and they love to play
with it. But then again, it is a worry for us because at the National Gallery, it is a
larger space and they are many more audiences who also come from various
backgrounds. One thing I am concerned the most are the safety issues at the
Children’s Biennale, but I am sure that children looking at such a work will be very,
very curious.
Tamares Goh: I am sure it’s going to shed a new light as well when they see the
readymade objects…
Wang Ruobing: …covered with barnacles growing on it, and oysters!
Wang Ruobing, Off Shore On Tide, 2021, installation view, Comma Space. Courtesy the artist.
Tamares Goh: I find it really fascinating. What has also impacted me when I
saw your work is how you, as an artist, make the choice of not over processing
the materials that you found but show them as they are by sheer cleaning or
arrangement, and very subtle ways to bring them to the surface. This is what has
also interested me, to see the found objects as they are. Yesterday, when I was
in your studio, I had the same thought as well, I saw big tires filled with barnacles
and objects filled with barnacles. But I also saw a bicycle that was pulled out from
the water, so amazing. I also wonder how these objects end up in the deep sea.
You worked with a group of marine divers for this project, could you share a little
bit about what happened, because this is so interesting?
Wang Ruobing: About the use of objects as they are, this is very much because
I want to have this confrontational feeling for the audience. Children see the
bicycle and they know it’s bicycle, they see a scooter and they know it’s a
scooter. But they are not normal scooters, they have been sleeping in the sea for
a number of days, so you can see the traces of the sea. I want them to be able
to relate immediately. I have been very fortunate that through my project, I met
wonderful people who love our nature, who have such a deep passion about how
�to protect our nature. In particular, recently, I worked with this group called Our
Singapore Reefs. They are a group of scientists who formed this group when they
were students. They are researchers and they are divers. They are committed to
deep sea cleaning, but they do beach cleaning as well.
Whenever that they go out, or they have some events, recently they had one in
Sentosa and they will let me know [that they] found a huge tire [and asked] do
you want it. Or they will message me: I’ve got a drone for you. And it’s so, so,
wonderful to receive all those objects, which is beyond my own capability. Also,
for them, they run education workshops. Sometimes they would receive the
question: what do you do with the rubbish that you collect and claim from the
sea? So besides dumping it into the dustbin, they will show that they give it to
Ruobing, an artist, and she could give a second life to this rubbish and pass on a
positive message. So I thought this is really a two-way collaboration. Beyond Our
Singapore Reefs, I also work with other institutions and groups such as Nature
Society (Singapore), and coastline cleaning groups as well.
Wang Ruobing, work-in-progress, detail of coral on watercolours mixed with mud sediments, 2022.
Courtesy the artist.
Tamares Goh: I feel that you are also wearing the hat of yourself being an
educator as well. Really wanting to find out what’s there as a kind of research,
and of course, interwoven it into your practice as an artist as well. To be able to
work with multiple people, there’s a very keen sense of forms of collaboration
with people out there. And you acknowledge it very much in your work, that there
are people who have contributed to the work that you do. For example, first and
foremost, the things that are already owned by people, used by people, cobbled
up by people, pointed out by experts, to the various things that you discover
along the way. This component of collaboration is such an important feature
in your work. Even stemming from the library pieces as well. You know, just to
really, pick up the green books and to question what actually green means in a
very literal sense and in a very embedded psychological sense, as well. I feel that
is so heartening. And you keep wanting to look for on collaborators intrinsically in
your work. What have you discovered during this NTU CCA Singapore residency
program?
Wang Ruobing: I joined this program with a mission that I want to do something
new. I wanted to do something that is beyond my knowledge, so I proposed
this idea of living with trouble. What is the trouble? And how much do we
know about our trouble? And this is a trouble created by us. I approached the
Earth Observatory of Singapore (NTU), and they opened the door for me. They
understood what is my interest and linked me up with coral specialist Asst Prof.
Kyle Morgan. I had the opportunity to understand what he is researching about.
I visited his laboratory, and we had a good chat. [As] part of his research, he
collects this sediment from the water, it’s like suspended mud. He would extract
the muds to understand what they are, and to understand how this affect the
corals growth as well as the water condition. Over the years, he has done a lot of
data collecting in different locations around Singapore. So I thought, wow, how
come I’ve never paid attention to that? I humbly asked him to give me some mud
sediments, just for me to have a sense of what it is and of what I can do with it.
I brought the mud back to my studio at NTU CCA and, like all artists do, we start
playing with mud like pigment. I mixed the mud with water and paint, living plants,
and flowers. Then I mixed it with the blue pea flower’s pigment that I extracted
from a garden where I collected [blue pea] as well as water and ink to see what
will come out. I also received a lot of research done by Kyle and he also showed
me a number of diving videos of how he collected those suspended mud. Again,
interestingly, he is also a diver. So I think that somehow he reaches the layer of
�sea, because I don’t really able to dive yet, he opened the door for me. I still vividly
remember the videos where he is swimming in a muddy water. During playing
with the mud I was thinking that what happens if the coral, the fish and, you know
whatever is living in the sea have to filter the sediment every day, every moment,
every second? How do they feel about it? So I thought, okay, what about I create
a bubble? I’ll create a bubble and I’ll grind the mud into very fine particles, and use
a blower to blow the particles, and make people breathe it. But of course, it’s a
health hazard! I did an experimentation during this residency programme just to
give a view of it. What happened if we have to live in this condition that is created
by us. As we all know, the sediment in the Singapore Sea is quite intense because
it’s a big city, and because of land reclamation. Also because we are a major
ship harbour, we receive a lot of ships, and our waters cannot be as calm as our
neighbours. Many divers don’t really dive around Singapore sea, but they will go
to other places like Thailand or Indonesia.
Tamares Goh: I’m thinking that you are looking for these great opportunities
to work with people from different professions. I think there is an immediate
correlation with the way you think about your work, your practice, in all of that.
There is a symbiotic relation with... whether it’s science or whether it’s art, but I’m
just thinking, Our Singapore Reefs’ divers, what do they think? And how does Kyle
Morgan think of this experiment? I mean, they’re not wearing the immediately the
artist’s hat. They’re thinking of themselves very much as scientists. Do they think
of you as being quite eccentric? Or, you know, how does it come about? I am
quite interested to hear their views. What do they think?
Wang Ruobing: Let me think about it. [In] my conversation with Kyle, one of
the things he mentioned is—and I think probably many scientists would agree
with that— most of the research is not able to reach out to the general public.
Very often, they end up in peer-reviewed journals with limited readers. And
if the research would be more “communicatable”, that’s exactly in his words,
“communicatable”, for him [it would make it] even more worthwhile to do his
research. He was telling me about the sediment muds, right? Over the years,
he collected a lot of them. But, in fact, he told me that he only uses just small
samples for his research and that’s enough. And to throw it away, that feels not
right. If I can use it for a different purpose and make it into something else that
brings a positive meaning to it, for him, I think, he will feel his efforts become
more worthwhile.
Tamares Goh: That’s wonderful. I also feel that scientists and artists are urgently
looking at the subject of environmental change and the effects that it would have
on us, you know. So I feel that this is also something that is quite refreshing, in a
way that both professions are putting together their concerns on a plate, to share
their views on the same platform. I feel that it also goes back to your initial intent
on finding what is already owned and processed by people. And, as an artist,
your function really is to cobble them up in the most sensitive way, I would say.
You do not interrupt too much, but really draw out the main elements of what
you want to find within the objects. I find that you are also inspired by Donna J.
Haraway’s theories of sympoiesis, that is the idea of “making with”, it’s really to
live with. To make with, to live with and, also, your title “living with trouble” is not
to escape from trouble but really to acknowledge what’s already out there. And it
really surfaces simply by calling in and to say that, hey, I’m aware of this, and what
do I do with it? This is really inspirational for me. You have been in this NTU CCA
Singapore Residency for five months now. How do you feel about the need for
artists to be involved in residency programmes?
Wang Ruobing recording AiRCAST, 31 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
�Wang Ruobing: What I can say is that is just a wonderful programme. One of
the subjects I teach at my college is called ‘professional practice’. I always embed
residency elements in there and introduce [my students] that one way to improve
yourself, to open up yourself and explore more things is to take up a residency
programme. As a mother of two, this NTU CCA residency is really, very, very
needed today for artists like me who have a family to take care of. I don’t live
too far out from town and I am given a space where I can think, I can lay out my
materials, I can rediscover from my materials, and I could build up collaboration
with Earth Observatory of Singapore. I think this is a wonderful program, I really
hope that it will continue.
Tamares Goh: I really agree with you. I feel that residencies are often able to
give artists time for them, to create space and time as well. And a bit of dwell
time to really look and to spend time with even their own work. I feel that is a
very important component. Your work has always been…I would say the recent
work, I would say it travelled from land to sea with, you know, the work that’s
being derived from the sea. Like, of course, the plastics that you collected. And,
you know, I’m going back to the work that you did at Esplanade Concourse, the
installation where you had the bottles, and there’s a flowing using mechanics. It
felt like waves going up and down the sea. And the way I’m reminded of the first
work that you talk about, in this interview about this kind of rowing in the ocean,
and even the plastics being swept up on the shore. So there’s this relationship
with the tides, with what has landed on our shores. What has landed on our
shores has also, I mean, in the same way that you mentioned earlier that there are
immigrants coming, migrants, the migratory kind of relationship. The migration
is an important component that is not about terrains and borders, but it’s about
a situation, it is about working in tandem with nature. In relating back to the mud
that you are talking about, there’s also an interest in foreign bodies, for foreign
materials being in the objects that you collected. Would I say that that’s also an
investigation you are interested in?
Wang Ruobing: Yes, certainly. Of the thousands of marine debris, I have
collected, what percentage is actually from local sources? Perhaps the majority
of them actually comes from foreign seas, right? Same for mud. And we all know
that Singapore purchases sand from neighbouring countries... how much foreign
materials have entered our sea? That’s the reason I am really fascinated with the
materials. The materials have their own ‘career’, their own history, and their own
social and political contents.
Tamares Goh: The materials alone, they are not in isolation. Materials are made
up of many, many foreign beings as well, as humans are, I suppose.
Wang Ruobing: I think one of the things about art, like you mentioned just now,
is that living with the trouble doesn’t mean to encounter trouble passively. It could
be a way to think about how to cope with trouble, how to deal with trouble, how
to change trouble. I think art actually has this powerful, inspirational ways that
can change one’s mindset. Just like you mentioned, [the kinetic installation] Over
the Horizon (2016) at the Esplanade Concourse, if you look closely, it is basically
a plastic wave. Because it’s on a timer, it only moves twice per hour. You can see
people queuing there to see plastic waves. That will make them think, why do we
queue to see waves that made from our own rubbish? I think that is what art can
do and it makes artists continue to produce work.
Tamares Goh: You made me look at the sediments in a very different way,
yesterday when the objects that you collected where in your sphere you created,
the plastic ball sphere that you created, with the different materials being inside
expelling what you call debris and mud. You were saying, imagine if the human
lungs are expelling these kind of lumps. So we do have to deal with foreign bodies
and it’s how we process them on a day-to-day basis within ourselves, we are
composite of many entities. I think that relates back to the symbiotic relationship
that we are having to live within. And to be really aware that, you know, our
existence is not in isolation, in itself. I’m very much looking forward to your next
project. Maybe you can let us know a little bit on the path that you’ll be probably
looking at in the next few months or so.
Wang Ruobing: Well, I hope that the NTU CCA’s residency project can eventually
develop into a more complete work. During the open studio, I was showing an
experimentation. Eventually, I hope it can be enlarged in a room-size bubble that
allows people to enter, so as to offer the participants an immersive experience. I
am also currently working on the Children’s Biennale, where I am using hundreds
of marine debris, some collected during my residency period, some collected
before. So I am creating a kinetic installation for Singapore Children’s Biennale at
National Gallery Singapore in May.
Tamares Goh: I really look forward to that. It will be fascinating to see how
children will interact with your work as well.
�Wang Ruobing: Thank you Tamares.
Tamares Goh: You are welcome.
Nadia Amalina: You listened to AiRCAST, a podcast of NTU Centre for
Contemporary Art Singapore, a national research centre for contemporary art of
Nanyang Technological University. To find out more about our programmes, visit
our website at www.ntu.ccasingapore.org, you can sign up to our newsletter, or
follow us on your favourite social media platforms. And of course, if you’d like to
hear the voices and thoughts of our other Artists-in-Residence, do subscribe to
this podcast.
AiRCAST is produced by NTU CCA Singapore with the support of National Arts
Council Singapore.
This episode featured artist Wang Ruobing in conversation with Tamares Goh.
I am Nadia Amalina, the programme manager and co-editor of this podcast.
AiRCAST is conceptualised and co-edited by Dr Anna Lovecchio.
The Audio Engineer is Ashwin Menon.
The intro and the outro were composed by our previous Artist-in-Residence Yuen
Chee Wai with field recordings of our non-human neighbours in the beautiful
forest around us.
Tamares Goh and Wang Ruobing recording AiRCAST, 31 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
This episode was recorded on 31 January 2023. Thank you for listening.
�
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Residencies AiRCAST
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Transcript of Residencies AiRCAST #12: Wang Ruobing
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<span>In this episode, we hand over the microphone to curator Tamares Goh to interview our Artist-in-Residence Wang Ruobing. Ruobing and Tamares share a long history of working together throughout their careers, one that goes back to 2004 and will continue on in the years to come. This conversation between peers shines a spotlight on Ruobing’s practice rooted in materiality, the importance of found objects in her art-making process, as well as her ongoing research into the symbiotic relationship between environmental sciences and visual arts. They also touch upon the collaborations Ruobing has activated with deep-sea divers and marine scientists, and how these collaborations continue to shape the trajectory of her artistic practice.</span>
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2023-01-31
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Wang Ruobing
Tamares Goh
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Southeast Asia
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#11
ZACHARY CHAN
Nadia Amalina: Welcome to the second season of AiRCAST. On this podcast,
we visit the Residencies Studios of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
nestled on the fringe of a vibrant rainforest in Gillman Barracks. In this series
of open-ended conversations, we invite different guests to probe the mind of
our Artists-in-Residence and unfold some of the ideas, materials, processes,
influences, and research methodologies behind their practice.
My name is Nadia Amalina. I am the Programmes Manager at NTU CCA, and I coedit this podcast alongside Dr Anna Lovecchio, curator and Assistant Director of
Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore.
This episode features a conversation between two multidisciplinary creatives
who are also previous collaborators: Artist-in-Residence Zachary Chan and
Singaporean playwright Joel Tan. The two come together for a fascinating
exchange revolving around Zachary’s research into the religion he grew up
with, Pentecostal Christianity, as well as the practice of spiritual mapping and
strategic-level spiritual warfare. This research thread unraveled out of Restless
Topographies, a project they developed together during a residency at the
Goethe Institute Singapore last year. Throughout the conversation, they weave
together personal experiences, insights, and revelations, with discussions of
the historical anecdotes and religious texts that Zachary has been poring over
during his time in residence at NTU CCA Singapore. They also contemplate upon
Zachary’s proclivity for collaborations and how the residency has afforded him
time to focus on his solo artistic practice.
Before they take it away, a quick introduction.
Zachary Chan recording AiRCAST, 20 December 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
�Spanning several mediums, the work of Zachary Chan reflects his composite
background in visual communications, graphic design, and sonic arts. His practice
often unfolds through collaborations with other artists, and he has written
music and designed sound for experimental films, theatre plays, video games,
storytelling, and art installations.
Joel Tan is a writer and performer based between London and Singapore. His
interdisciplinary practice examines the ways in which politics distort the personal
and spiritual, exploring subjects ranging from colonial history, nature, queer
experience, and contemporary Singapore life.
Joel Tan: Hi Zach, how are you today?
Zachary Chan: Hi. How am I today? I guess today is fine. I woke up quite sleepy
and anxious about this.
Joel Tan: Why are you anxious?
Zachary Chan: I don’t know. I guess because right now, it’s really the start of the
research. It’s not like I have been with this material for years and years and I can
just recite it. I might make factual errors!
Joel Tan: So there’s a sort of anxiety about presenting the material? But we
have had chats about it, and I feel like you have been steeped in it. If not actively
researching, you’ve been steeped in a kind of ‘lived research’ of this for quite
a while. I feel it’s at your fingertips, whether or not you think it is. So Zach, I’ve
known you for quite a while. We’ve worked together on a bunch of projects in the
past year and a half, two years. And one thing that has always struck me about
you is how unpredictable your practice is, you do many different things. You are
a graphic designer, a musician, and now you are moving into research-based
contemporary art making as well, which I think is super exciting. Could we talk a
little about your practice and how you see all these things overlap? What holds
these disparate aspects of your practice together?
Zachary Chan: I started off in sound. I always knew I wanted to be a graphic
designer, but I didn’t score well enough to get into a graphic design course, so
the next available thing was sound. I thought, okay, let’s just try it out. After that,
I did well in school, and I got good enough grades to study graphic design at
NTU. So that’s the background. And during the course of my study, I came across
gamelan. One of the projects when I was doing my diploma was to create a
sound library of all the gamelan instruments. Through that, I became acquainted
with the music of gamelan, which really opened this whole trajectory, that I would
have never otherwise thought I would pursue in my life, leading all the way to
here. I came to realise that [the reason] why I am interested in all these things
stems from a similar kind of trauma which really came from childhood.
Joel Tan: Can I ask you to elaborate about how immersing yourself in the
world of gamelan unlocked the trajectory for you? Can you talk about what that
trajectory is? And then, maybe, you also want to elaborate about the kind of
trauma that you find yourself circling around in all the work that you do.
Zachary Chan: I am from a middle/upper class, social, economic background. I
am Chinese. Gamelan music would not typically be a feature that comes out in
any aspect of my life, if I were to remain in this bubble. That is why I described
it as surprising. But at the same time, I feel it was necessary for me as a person,
because my identity, it’s really been such an important thing in my life. That is,
how I see myself in relation to the material and aesthetic world that we live in.
So why I talk about this trauma is because I was born in a conservative Christian
family and I grew up with the belief that anything non-Christian and non-Chinese,
by extension, was something demonic. To participate in gamelan was already a
very subversive act if you look at it through this Chinese/Christian lens.
Joel Tan: I am familiar with that because I also grew up in a similar background.
I remember very distinctly being told as a young Christian that, you know, certain
practices like yoga, which are very steeped in spiritual beliefs from, non-Christian
sources, can open the gateway to certain negative spiritual influences. So is that
what you mean that when you started dabbling in gamelan that pulled you in a
very different direction from the bubble that you were born into?
Zachary Chan: I mean, all this is in hindsight, and I don’t know if it really is what
it is or I am just making up reasons for why things happened. But I think I was
always trying to find a way to challenge the assumptions I grew up with, that my
parents imparted to me. You could really say it was an act of rebellion. Yeah, but
I mean, this is me intellectualizing it years after, but at that point I just wanted to
pursue the feeling of the music.
�Joel Tan: What was that feeling like for you?
Zachary Chan: Oh, I mean, when you encounter gamelan, one of my friends
always says this, which is maybe now not so nice but, basically, when white
people first encountered gamelan, one of them described it is as: oh, it sounds
like heaven, the Christian heaven where everyone is singing their own praise to
God, but everything harmonises even though everyone… they’re doing their own
thing. And that’s really the kind of experience I got from gamelan when I first
encountered it in its proper form.
Joel Tan: Right, a kind of harmony that emerges out of difference.
Zachary Chan: Yes, because this music is heterophonic, right? But not in the
sense that everyone is playing the same melody. Everyone is following this
melodic contour but in their own way according to what the instrument or their
part in the music is. It’s not completely heterophonic, yet is not harmony-based
music as well. It creates a kind of effect where it seems like everyone is just
singing their own thing, or playing their own thing, but it somehow matches.
Joel Tan: And of course, so much of it is steeped in ritual practice. And so much
of it is steeped also in stories and religious beliefs of the region as well. It’s not just
a musical form. It’s also a deeply social ritual.
rhythms that blend into one. But then of course, the dogma that you and I were
raised in is very much quite a unifying and uniform kind of practice already. These
interesting tensions emerge, right? I find that fascinating. But maybe, before we
get into that, let’s talk about how you got into this work that you are doing while
you are in residence at NTU CCA Singapore. Tell us broadly what the research you
are doing is about, and then maybe we could talk about how you got into it.
Zachary Chan: Yes. When you and I were doing research about the southern
coastline...
Joel Tan: This was for an artwork that we eventually made at the Singapore Art
Museum called Dioramas for Tanjong Rimau, which we worked on in the better
part of 2021 together with Zarina Muhammad.
Zachary Chan: Yes, very important person! One of the readings that came up
was this thing about… because the southern coastline is this stretch that has been
contested by many people, many different organisations and beliefs. One of the
contestants, if you might, was this group of churches called LoveSingapore. The
example that I read [about] happened in 1998. On Labour Day in 1998, there
was this massive walkathon where 40,000 people attended and I was also in the
audience as a child.
Joel Tan: You were there? I forgot about this.
Zachary Chan: Yes, but I must say that it is also very secular life as much as it is
ritual and social. And you see this music as a part of the culture. Yes, of course,
it’s specific to indigenous Javanese culture but we also see it being played in
churches, in Buddhist temples, or monasteries. In Java, it’s really… it’s a kind of
medium for a wide variety of expressions. But of course, my parents thought I was
doing something Quranic and Islamic. And they were very unhappy with that.
Zachary Chan: I mean, of course I had no idea what I was doing. But even then,
as a child, I knew that even though to the public it looked like a walkathon that
raised money for charity, we were briefed in the church that it’s actually a kind of
magical ritual, if I want to put it in terms where everyone can understand, for the
cleansing of the land and for committing this land to the Christian God. The title
of all the walks is “Take the City Walk”, so there’s a kind of conquering, vibe to it.
[Audio excerpt from the sound design for the theatre production, Move ____, As
We Move, 2017. Courtesy Zachary Chan.]
The kind of logic behind it is very interesting to me. Basically, this Christian group,
LoveSingapore, was actually formed from a global network called the Spiritual
Warfare Network and they changed the name to LoveSingapore because it
sounded too militant. And what this worldview is, they believe that the world
is governed by demons and ritual action has to be taken in order to defeat the
demons so that the church can conduct ministry and its evangelical efforts. If
Joel Tan: I think this is a theme we can explore in this chat, and I find it just quite
poetic how gamelan as a musical form is, as you say, heterophonic and embraces
within itself all these different possibilities, different kinds of sonorities, different
�they don’t defeat the demons, they will be blocked in some way or another. So if
they try to evangelise or they try to do stuff, then they would be overcome with a
lot of hardship and…
Joel Tan: Demonic obstacles!
Zachary Chan: …obstacles, yes, everyday obstacles, which somehow get imbued
with this extraordinary meaning, that a literal demon is blocking the path! I am
talking about these demons as literal demons and not abstract evil. They have
names, they have wills, they are basically just like you and me.
Joel Tan: To give our listeners some context: what we were exploring during the
residency at the Goethe-Institut was broadly about the history of the southern
coastline of Singapore, roughly the area like around Sentosa leading up to
Harbourfront, and parts like Chinatown and Keppel Harbour as well. Because
the exhibition we were eventually going to participate in was housed in that
area, we wanted to investigate the histories of the area. And we learned so many
things about that area. Primarily, it is one of the most ancient routes into… not
just Singapore, but to wider Asia. If you’re coming from the west, there was
a major kind of maritime channel. And, you know, the contestation over that
stretch dates back at least to the 17th/16th centuries. And then, as we know,
today in Singapore, it’s a massive site of like land reclamation projects, major
redevelopment.
So basically, the interesting thing about the southern coast is that, like you said,
there’s many people contesting to make meaning of it. And the context in which
this prayer, what you mentioned, came up was that it was part of like a widened
island-wide series of walks where they will go and secure the Northern Gateway,
the Eastern Gateway, the Western Gateway and the Southern Gateway to create
this boundary of Christian protection over the island. And we found that very
exciting. And we couldn’t quite tease out this strand during what eventually
became Dioramas for Tanjong Rimau because the focus was quite different. It
seems like you’ve taken that strand of your interest into what you’re doing at NTU
CCA. Can you tell us a little bit about how you’re developing that strand? What are
you researching while you’re in residency?
Zachary Chan: Sure. I’m really trying to understand the spiritual reality
Joel Tan, Zachary Chan, Zarina Muhammad, Dioramas for Tanjong Rimau, installation view, 2022.
Courtesy Singapore Art Museum.
that Pentecostal Christians live through every day. If we talk about what
Pentecostalism is, it’s basically a version of Christianity that emphasises magical
and mystical aspects. Pentecost is the event that happens in Acts 2 where the
disciples of Jesus —this is after Jesus had already rose to heaven, disappeared
from Earth— they were all in one place. They were conducting prayers, regular
prayers, when they were suddenly visited by the Holy Spirit, which is described
as this thunderous wind that enveloped the room and sort of possessed and
filled everyone in it. And then all of them were given the gifts of tongues, which
is basically ecstatic utterances, which I mean, what it sounds like to the average
person would be just unintelligible noises that one would make when one has
a very religious or spiritual experience. I don’t want to say unintelligible noises
because some people can interpret these sounds. But they are a series of random
sounds, if you might, that one supposedly can’t control it, just like to start
shouting, or saying ‘enjoy’ because they are experiencing the experiential reality
of the Holy Spirit, which is something supernatural and cannot be understood
intellectually.
�Joel Tan: In a way, it was too close at the time to look at it.
Joel Tan: To clarify, Pentecostalism is a kind of branch of Christianity that…
Zachary Chan: Okay, Pentecostal Christianity is a literal denomination, but
we can describe all charismatic churches to have Pentecostal strains in them.
Because the Pentecostal strain is basically the emphasis on the spirit, so you have
like, the power dimension of faith, which means you believe that through prayer
and through faith you can create real, literal change in the world, the spirit of
demons, and also the charismata, which are the spiritual gifts given by the Holy
Spirit to aid Christians to fulfil their Christian destiny. Some of these gifts are not
limited to miraculous healing, speaking in tongues, power of prophecy, power
to exorcise demons, power to discern where demons are, ability to interpret
tongues, but also visions and dreams.
Joel Tan: Is your interest in Pentecostalism for A) because you grew up in that
tradition, but then also B) because it’s became one of the more prevalent forms of
Christianity that is practiced in Singapore today?
Zachary Chan: I would say that… Why this interests me is because it’s a reality
that I experienced first-hand, and to live most of your life in a world where
literal demons are inhabiting things, from objects to places, really kind of like
how do I say… it’s a very strange place to be, especially when there are so many
assumptions that you don’t challenge until much later on in your life. And it’s
a reality that my parents and my family members still live in. There’s that very
strong pull because I want to reach a point where… I guess it’s a way to detach
myself. Also, having this intellectual curiosity helps me to detach myself when
it gets too difficult to handle in real life. And so I’ve been always obsessed with
religions that are polytheistic. When I was young, after being taught Bible stories,
I borrowed literally every book from our Hougang library about ancient Egyptian
religion because it was the only thing that was referenced there. So I knew all the
names of the major pantheons of gods. And then I went on to other religions,
like ancient Mayans and Aztecs, and also Hinduism and Buddhism much later in
my life. I’ve always been drawn to ways that one can map out or make sense of
the spirit world. And this kind of Pentecostal Christian strand would be a natural
follow-up because it’s so close to me but now I can afford to have some distance
from it after all of that.
Zachary Chan: You can’t. How do you how do you look at something objectively
if you… I don’t even want to say ‘objectively’. How do you even begin to look at
something if it’s tied up with so many other difficult emotions, right? This is not
to say that having these emotions is a bad thing. They might add to the work or
whatever. But yes, I think now it’s easier.
Joel Tan: I have another question for you. I noticed earlier on, where you were
describing what you are doing, it was like you are talking about the research
you’re doing and NTU CCA as a way to understand the spiritual and I think you
use the word “magical reality” of Pentecostal Christianity. I think you also used the
term “magical practices” to describe these practices earlier, and that’s interesting
to me. I wonder if you could elaborate on that a little bit? As someone growing up
in the Christian church is so unusual to hear practices like spiritual warfare, which
I’m very familiar with growing up in that tradition as well, or speaking in tongues,
or these charismatic practices described as magical practices. And I think some
people might even bristle at that description, but I wonder if you could talk a little
bit about why you use that term. And what’s some of your thinking around that?
Zachary Chan: If we describe other indigenous practices as magic, what’s the
difference when you are operating in a spiritual realm? Once you are operating in
a dimension that cannot be comprehended, that you cannot understand based
on science, if you might, then I feel it’s fair to say it’s magical. The kind of basis
for spiritual warfare and strategic-level spiritual warfare which I am currently
researching on is that when Eve was tempted in the Garden of Eden, God lost
control of the world. I know this sounds controversial, but basically it is what
it is. I mean, this is what these Christians believe in. And now the world is in
control of demons and Satan. And so, Christians navigate this lived reality where
there is a demon everywhere waiting to plunder their homes and infiltrate their
bodies. I feel like it’s safe to say that these are magical practices because they are
essentially making rituals to try and protect and safeguard the way they want to
live in their own interest. If you look at it from a non-insider’s point of view, they
suddenly look no different than other kinds of fields. It might look like witchcraft,
you know? And if we are going to call witchcraft magic, why aren’t Christian
technologies to battle demons magical also?
�Yeah, so if I could explain some of these spiritual technologies. The idea is that
God didn’t reveal a lot about the spiritual dimension in the Bible. And so, these
men who founded this whole spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare, their deal is
that they have to be like scientists, and experiment, and use experiential evidence
as data to see whether their methods are working or not. And then, it can quickly
go south. I mean, the critics have argued how is this any different from animism?
And their claim is that they are guided by the Holy Spirit. And if they’re guided by
the Holy Spirit, then everything is permissible.
Holy Spirit, it really looks like it’s people doing it. And so they’ve sort of listed out
how demons can be present in our world. And there are four: one is that you can
contact demons through physical objects; you can contact demons through the
curses of others; you can contact demons through genealogical transmission. So
this is the sin like inherited seeds from your father. For example, like if you had an
ancestor who was trans, then maybe, and if you turn out like, non-binary then…
Joel Tan: And you can justify it doctrinally as well?
Zachary Chan: Exactly. And then the last one is like the vulnerability to demons
because of geographical locations. And that is really unique to this spiritual
mapping and strategic-level spiritual warfare.
Zachary Chan: That’s very debatable. And one characteristic of Pentecostalism
is that it’s amorphous. At the start of it, this loose movement was seen as too
indigenous, too wild, too heretical because it was so animated. And the idea that
humans, even though they say this power is not held by humans, but it really
looked like it is, it looks like someone has a magical ability to heal you. It looks
like a person can exorcise demons from you, even though it’s all like from the
Joel Tan: It is a generational curse.
Joel Tan: The idea that there are somehow concentrations of demonic energy in
certain locales, or like geographical locations, is that right?
Zachary Chan: Yes, and because I said earlier that they conducted experiments…
Joel Tan: Who is this “they” that you are talking about, by the way?
Zachary Chan and Joel Tan recording AiRCAST, 20 December 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Zachary Chan: They refers to Peter Wagner and his crew of people who started
out from do I do, I don’t have the exact names but basically, they are one of
the early and first proponents of spiritual mapping and strategic-level spiritual
warfare. And there’s like a direct lineage to Singapore, because the LoveSingapore
movement grew out from the Spiritual Warfare Network, which is headed by
Peter Wagner. And so early on, they had made experiments in various parts of the
world like Argentina where they found that they could not minister or evangelise
until they had broken a demonic bond in that area. And we see this happening
throughout the world and various pastors of mega churches, repeating their
origin stories, and always starts with breaking the demon from the area. And how
these demons are discerned, they usually look at the indigenous practices, or
historical events in the area. There’s almost a pseudoscientific or anthropological
method that they employ. If I can give one example, Pastor Cho Yong-gi, from
South Korea—who has the largest church in the world with at one point of time,
700,000 members—he claimed that his ministry only broke after he exorcised a
demon that was possessing a paralysed person’s body. And then, he said, the sky
broke. Basically something in the air broke and then all degrees of the Holy Spirit
�started to enter and he had a massive multiplication. And he also described using
spiritual technologies, having groups of people praying constantly at every hour.
My mom also does this, sometimes at 1am… she’ll just go to church and pray and
that’s because they have someone praying there constantly.
you die, then you go to heaven, and then later, you are revived and you bring
back the message.
Joel Tan: There is a roster of people praying 24/7?
Zachary Chan: Yeah, his tale was that he wanted God to show him the world
of demons and he saw them. He describes this in great detail. There are three
layers of heaven, demons, operate from the second level of heaven. And they
are large beings, incredibly large, like 2.4 meters tall. Literally, he gives the height.
And he describes how they look. They look like ancient Roman warriors who
are glistening and sparkling. And then from then there are cords that connect
to Earth. And the minor, or the lesser demons, travel along these cords like
messengers. And other demons he describes look like American businessmen,
for example, and those govern greed, wealth. And then there’s more indigenouslooking demons, which are half-animal and half-human. And then they are also
really strange demons that look like frogs and supposedly incite a lot of lust in
you.
Zachary Chan: Yes. Because if you believe in the power dimension of faith and
intercessory prayer, you believe that you are actually generating some kind of
forcefield, or shield, against demonic influence in the city. These are some of the
technologies they use.
Joel Tan: It’s very interesting listening you speak. I love the term spiritual
technology, or even like magical technology. It seems that you are studying
Pentecostal practices. And I think these are relatively recent Pentecostal practices,
right? Because from what I know of people like Wagner and the spiritual mapping
movement, you may correct me if I’m wrong, it dates back to the 1980s,
1970s/80s.
Zachary Chan: Late 1980s
Joel Tan: Yeah, and so it’s a relatively contemporary strand of Pentecostalism.
And it’s really interesting what you’re doing studying it like a sort of magical
community or studying it as a cosmology on its own rather than, as you know,
Christianity as a religion is like a specific branch of it and you’re exploring the very
specific, and some might say, idiosyncratic spiritual practices and technologies of
this magical community so to speak. Could you tell us a little bit more about what
else you’ve uncovered in your research about the cosmological makeup of this
group?
Zachary Chan: Throughout the history of Pentecostalism we see it as extremely
flexible and because Pentecostalism has always been a very flexible and adaptable
way to approach Christianity, there have been many varied and interesting
cosmologies that have developed from it. For example, we have writers like
Pittman who describes the world of demons in great detail. So I think if, and I may
be wrong, because I only read it once and then I shut it. But he basically died. And
he went to heaven. And then God ,I don’t know… it’s one of those stories where
Joel Tan: …the message?
Joel Tan: None of this is actually described biblically. Would you describe this
person as an influential figure?
Zachary Chan: In that period of time!
Joel Tan: Which was?
Zachary Chan: In the 1980s, he was quoted in many publications about spiritual
warfare and how to fight demons. Back then, it was a very real and lived reality for
a lot of Christian people. The whole idea of spiritual mapping itself is really worldbuilding. And in Singapore, it was also conducted here. So basically, spiritual
mapping is an exercise which almost employs a playful, psycho-geographic
aspect to it, because you are supposed to travel the land by car or by foot—
basically, you’ve got to be on the land—and then you discern where the demons
are with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Joel Tan: Or your special spiritual compass.
Zachary Chan: And so in Singapore, it was mapped like the north, south, east
�and west were gateways. And gateways are where through the collective sins of
the city demons can enter. So gateways are very important. The north was the
Causeway, East was the airport, south was Tanjong Pagar port, and to the west, it
was the factories in Tuas. In 1984, a group of pastors passed to these four points
to pray and clean the city. And in 1995, they started these walkathons. Which
the routes were planned because they discerned where demonic strongholds
were and where they needed to pray over in order to defeat these demonic
strongholds. And this sort of mapping exercise, it’s a global thing. Notably, we
have the 10/40 window, which is… basically, it’s a block. It’s a block in which
where there are the least saved people. Basically, there’s a lot of unsaved
behaviour there—and when I say unsaved, I mean they’re not Christians…
Joel Tan: Pre-converts!
Zachary Chan: …and, also, it’s where the world’s major religions come from.
They are supposedly the most impoverished nations, which, you know, now we
all know is because of colonialism. Back then, I mean not back then, even now
still, they think it is the work of demons, literal demons. It’s been mapped out
extensively. And there’s a book called The 10/40 Window, where every country
is listed down and they list down what is the main religion, who are the people
you should pray for, and specific power sites. And these power sites are gateways,
or demonic portals, which hold a lot of influence and authority. There’s an entry
for Malaysia, which lists the Shah Alam mosque in Kuala Lumpur as a demonic
stronghold, and also the Snake Temple in Penang because, you know, snakes
are very potent. Also, they said to pray over religious events like Thaipusam, or
Ramadan [because] they believe that when other religions are conducting their
rituals and festivals, that generates a lot of demonic energy.
Joel Tan: I think to put all this back to, I guess, the personal, it seems quite
illuminating that understanding this cosmology in a way helps you to understand
the personal and the political, right? Some impulses behind the way certain faith
groups operate. On a very simple level for my life, my parents were very devout
Christians, but my mom more. Whenever we used to visit relatives who were very
devout Buddhists… because we walked into the house, and there would be all
this religious iconography and then she will feel like: Oh, I feel something, there
are demonic forces at work here. This strand of thinking is very oppositional, very
territorial, very contesting, and I’m hearing a lot of that in what you’re describing.
Zachary Chan, Residencies OPEN, installation view, 14-15 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA
Singapore.
Because the cosmology is so fundamentally oppositional, it’s about geographical
space, it’s about unseating demonic forces. Many demonic forces actually often
tie to other religious practices. It’s about clearing the space. And, of course, that
kind of thinking informs how people behave as individuals. But more importantly,
and interestingly, and urgently, the way they behave as collectives as well. There’s
something quite illuminating about your research because I’ve lived with this in
my head for a very long time. As people who have grown up in the church, we
see this very clearly. But I don’t think I’ve seen very much research done about it,
or at least not in an art context, to digest these things and present them in a way,
and then dramatise them, I find that very fascinating. And, I guess, in the context
of Singapore, this is useful to understand one of the major political forces at work
in this country right now which is Evangelical fundamentalist Christianity. There’s
no point being shy about it. They are a major social and political force in this
country, and they have made themselves very well-known. And they intervene
very publicly in public life, and in policy. We need only turn to recent events like
the repeal of 377A and the debate that happened around it to see what a powerful
block this faith group is. And the thing I always find very interesting about them
�is that they speak in very specific terms like family, for example, to justify their
opposition to 377A [repeal]. But if you spend more time in those spaces and try
and get underneath the skin of their cosmology, as you are doing, you realise
that there’s a lot more to how they see the world than simply family values. So,
I think there’s something interesting there about how when you understand the
cosmology behind it, you understand them better as people. And that’s useful to
me.
revolutionary because it was the height of the racial segregation laws back then,
in America. And that’s just one example. And if we want to look at it from like a
polycentric perspective, which refers to this, spirit of Pentecostalism happening
simultaneously in various parts of the world, unrelated to the Azusa Street Revival,
we can see Pentecostal like revivals happening in China, in India, in Java, led by
various people.
Joel Tan: Around the same time?
Zachary Chan: Yeah, if you believe in a literal mapping of where demons are in
specific areas, in specific territories and geographical localities, then eventually,
inadvertently, large groups of people also become mapped as being with demons,
and [they will be] demonised. And so that is where, unfortunately, the exclusivity
sets in.
Joel Tan: In an early chat we had about this, Pentecostalism didn’t always
used to be this way. Right? And you have alluded to this earlier about how early
forms of Pentecostalism were a bit more, I can’t remember the term you used,
“indigenous” I think you said. It was seen as a sort of marginal practice; it was also
very amorphous. And I wonder if that has implications on the way it was maybe
more open than it is today.
Zachary Chan: Historically, if we want to look… the history of how Pentecostal
Christianity is conceived, there are two main ways to look at it. One is
monocentric, which kind of emerges from this revival it in Los Angeles, and it’s
called the Azusa Street Revival. It happened very much like the series of events in
Acts 2.
Joel Tan: What year was it?
Zachary Chan: This was 1906. It was an African American congregation led by
William J. Seymour. It was just a congregation of seven and one day, they were
struck off their chairs while they were praying, and they had experienced a Spirit
baptism. So they were ecstatic, speaking in tongues and shouting. This kind of like
small event became a pivotal movement because within two years, it had spread
to 50 countries. They were having prayer services three times a day, every single
day. And during these meetings you will see multiracial, multi-ethnic [gatherings]
between different social classes, all attending and joining. And it was seen as very
Zachary Chan: Before... in the 1800s. And they always had a kind of antiestablishment resistance to hegemonic powers going on. If I just can give very
briefly some examples. We have this pastor in northern China in Shanxi. His name
is Pastor Xi Shengmo and literally means “overcome”. Yeah, so if we want to talk
about pre-Azusa Street revival… a revival is a renewed interest in the religion but
also for charismatic Christians it’s also a very intense religious meeting, where it’s
very intense spiritually and where often there are Spirit baptisms. So, um, yeah,
pre-Azusa Street Revival, we can look at this example of Pastor Xi in China, and he
grew up in a literary class. And he was formally educated as a Confucian scholar,
but because there was this empty gap in his life that couldn’t be filled, he turned
to opium and became an opium addict. And it was only through Christianity and
through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that he was able to overcome his opium
addictions. And he described like the week he had in cold turkey as being visited
by all sorts of demonic forces. Whilst we don’t have like the ecstatic speaking of
tongues, there was definitely demonic exorcism. And also, miraculous healing,
because later on he set up over 40 drug rehabilitation centres and he was given a
secret recipe by the Holy Spirit to concoct this TCM pill that was a natural remedy
to counter opium addiction. In these two examples that I’ve just briefly described,
we can see that Pentecostal like traits or Pentecostal charismatic beliefs, or gifts
of the Spirit, were often used when people had no other kind of power. And they
had to rely on magic. I mean, that’s the whole thing about witchcraft, right? When
you feel powerless, you need to resort to otherworldly means. And this is just
another example in that long magical tradition, if you might. And I think there
have been scholars who have said that eventually when charismatic gifts became
accepted in the church, because they couldn’t remove its African-ness, in that it’s
animated…
Joel Tan: What you’re talking about when you say the African-ness of it, you’re
referring to?
�Zachary Chan: It doesn’t look white, it looks very indigenous, the way they
worship God. I mean, if you imagine like, this was a point of time where
secessionism was largely accepted. So when they couldn’t remove that from it,
they created their own version of it and excluded the black people from joining.
So that’s what eventually happened. And that is why there still is racial segregation
in churches today.
Joel Tan: In a way, Pentecostalism and charismatic practices became more
mainstream, or absorbed into the mainstream church, while their origins have
always existed outside, on the fringes, primarily amongst disenfranchised groups
of colour or indigenous communities.
Zachary Chan: Exactly
Joel Tan: And then, from my understanding of the Pentecostal church, it
becomes, especially in the context of Singapore, associated with more upwardly
mobile classes. There are strands of Pentecostalism, such as the prosperity
gospel, which are very intrinsically tied to upward mobility. I think, how we ended
up with the situation we have now where they’re massively prosperous, very big,
mega churches filled with relatively well-to-do people who have a lot of power
and influence. It’s an interesting trajectory, from a fringe group to something that
has become so hegemonic in its own way, right?
Zachary Chan: Throughout history, there’s been this push-pull with
Pentecostalism and scholars have traced it back to the time when Jesus was alive,
there was already this conception of otherness. Unfortunately, with something
that’s so free, it becomes very easy for people in power to morph it to suit their
own interests. The whole basis for the prosperity gospel is so funny, but it’s also
widely accepted, that if you are a good Christian, naturally, you will be blessed
with wealth. And if you’re not, it means you have some generational sin, or curse
or there’s some demon affecting you adversely. It’s very strange, because when I
was young, I also did prayer-walking things, and we would go to one-room flats...
Basically, it’s so easy to discern where demons are, I just go to a poor person’s
area. And so we went there. And then like, we prayed over them thinking that it
would really make them rich.
Joel Tan: Yeah, I guess what’s interesting too, based on my understanding of
the history of the Christian church in Singapore charismatic Pentecostalism
became more prevalent, I think, around the 1980s in Singapore. Prior to that the
Christian church in Singapore, was a bit more conservative. But at the same time,
it was also quite Marxist and socialists, in its impulses. Its outreach was to the
poor was conducted on anti-hegemonic terms. It was about uplifting the Asiatic
poor, so to speak, who were ravaged by decades of colonialism. And it was quite
an anti-colonial movement as well, and it was very critical of the state. And it’s
just so interesting to hear the inversion of that where, you know, poverty is not
understood in structural terms but in demonic terms, you know, and the way that
the lens has shifted so much, and that’s quite fascinating to me.
I guess we could talk about we could talk about this all day. But I think I’m very
interested to hear how all of this I guess is manifesting as art. What kind of forms
has the research been taking? Where has it led you?
Zachary Chan: Earlier I talked about how I was really into the ancient Egyptian
religion. So that sort of interests has continued in the way I’m trying to describe
the Pentecostal universe and cosmology by making tapestries that draw from
various religious traditions of describing cosmological diagrams through visuals, if
you might. What I’m doing now is basically making cloth tapestries that describe
some of the mappings of how demons operate in our world. And these works
look very childlike. And, how do you say... naive? Is that a term that we use? And
that’s intentional in two ways. Because much of my childhood, any kind of object
you bring home can become demonic, and most often these are toys.
Joel Tan: I think because of the preoccupation with the spiritual susceptibility
of children, remember that the Smurf dolls in the 90s were considered totally
demonic?
Zachary Chan: Yes, this is because like, I think there was a drug aspect to it. LSD,
shrooms, and stuff. And then they are blue. Then, Furbies are also evil!
Joel Tan: Yes, they were evil. They do look quite evil! And do you remember the
Troll dolls? Those little Troll dolls from the 90s with long hair? I remember in my
church, they were considered bad news as well.
Zachary Chan: Yes. I mean, so many things, right? Pokemon, Digimon, Magic: the
Gathering.
�Joel Tan: Harry Potter… Did you ever attend a Harry Potter book burning?
Zachary Chan: I did. But it wasn’t a Harry Potter book burning, it was just a
church camp!
Joel Tan: Where they burnt Harry Potter books?
Zachary Chan: On the last day, they said: please bring in all your items that
are possible. I mean, they didn’t say it in these terms exactly, but basically [the
message was] bring in any things that are possible portals for demons to enter
and infiltrate in your life. So things that turned up were Harry Potter, Goosebumps
and even like Animorphs, I don’t even know how Animorphs is like…
Joel Tan: That’s because, I think, being able to turn into animals is a kind of
witchy thing… So we were talking about this, because you were trying to explain
Zachary Chan, Residencies OPEN, installation view, 14-15 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
why it is all your work you’re making has childlike aspect to it, and why you’re
creating like soft toys.
Zachary Chan: Basically, I’m creating soft tapestries and soft toys. On one hand,
they’re supposed to be self-portraits, on the other hand, they are supposed to be
like cosmological diagrams describing the Pentecostal universe. But also, if you
were to interpret these works from another religious point of view, then it would
kind of like describe a power encounter. A lot of the work that I’m making have
this praying man with a hole in his chest. And this hole is supposed to describe
the body as fragile and porous and ready to be possessed by demons. And then
there’s like a little flower around a hole. But if you look at it, let’s say, from a
Buddhist perspective, you see a man like in a praying position that embodies
emptiness because there is a hole here.
Joel Tan: A kind of positive emptiness.
�Zachary Chan: Yes. And when two worldviews are clashing, that’s what
Pentecostal Christians call a ‘power encounter’. Ultimately, it’s supposed to
be that God’s worldview will prove that your worldview has no foundation,
something like that. So I’m trying to describe all these different interests and
different concepts in these soft toys that basically look cute and stupid.
Joel Tan: I find it very interesting. All that is a shifting of lens, isn’t it? It’s actually
Pentecostalism’s insistence on its territorial supremacy that puts it into conflict,
right? Because actually, many beliefs and spiritualities can sort of coexist, right?
Zachary Chan: Yeah
Joel Tan: Can we talk a little bit about some other kind of like expressions or
forms that your work is taking or like any activations that you’re hoping to create
in this space?
Zachary Chan: I am planning to describe or retell many Pentecostal stories from
many historical figures that have laid the path for where this kind of version of
Pentecostal Christianity is at now in a kind of performance.
Joel Tan: So you’re planning to create some performances around it as well?
Zachary Chan: I mean, yes, I am trying. But it seems a bit difficult…
Joel Tan: Okay. Well, I think we’re coming around to the end of our time. I will
end with one big question: if there’s one kind of major learning from the research
you’ve been doing, or any major revelation that you found particularly arresting
and fascinating and that you’re quite preoccupied by, or surprised by, what might
that be?
Zachary Chan: At the start, it was very negative. I really hated whatever I was
researching. When I read something, I’d just roll my eyes until it goes back to the
front, you know? But now I’m filled with empathy. I no longer bear any grudge
towards the faith that fucked me up in so many ways.
Joel Tan: What do you think it is about this steeping yourself in all this research
that’s opened this up for you?
Zachary Chan, Residencies OPEN, installation view, 14-15 January 2023. Courtesy NTU CCA
Singapore.
�Zachary Chan: Pentecostal Christians, like the rest of us, they’re struggling, right.
And something like the prosperity gospel really gives them so much hope. And I
can see the appeal of it, if you can point your troubles and worries to a demon,
then the demon becomes this space, or the demonic becomes the space where,
you know, all the bad things that have happened to you in your life is not really
just because it might be your fault, or your wrongdoings, or whatever. There’s
something greater than you at work. In Singapore, we might feel powerless
because… of how things are here, right? So being in a spirit religion, like
Pentecostal Christianity, really gives somebody or someone who might not have
much going for them a kind of extraordinary purpose in which they can navigate
their lives. And so, I accept that as this helps you, and I’m glad that is helping you.
shade of a banyan tree. I went there and I interviewed them. In exchange,
I would give them a Polaroid and say, take photos of your friends and then
keep all the photos. Because I don’t have a real anthropological training, I
feel like maybe I didn’t do research correctly? And that was a really big fear
of mine that I ended up being extractive and capitalist, ultimately, in the
production of art. This fear made me want to experience artmaking through
collaboration first, because then at least the burden is collective and not just
on me. My training is aesthetic, right? It’s not sociological, anthropological. If I
go with someone else who might have that sort of training, then I can lend my
strengths elsewhere. So that’s why collaborations have always been more fun
for me because I find artmaking to be quite a burden, honestly. Is that okay to
say? And I don’t really want to do things where I feel burdened. It’s not fun.
Joel Tan: Yeah, that is quite lovely. I’m happy for you insofar as it seems that
these traumas of growing up in that religious space are very deeply rooted. I
think it sounds like one way for you of overcoming them is to, in a very obsessive
way, get underneath the skin of it and the thinking behind it. It’s wonderful to
me that you’ve arrived at a place of empathy, and that is quite surprising indeed.
Another thing that’s interesting to me is that this residency is the first time you are
embarking on a very solo research-driven project because the bulk of your work
in the past, including what we’ve done obviously, has been quite collaborative
in nature. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that dynamic between your
previous collaborative processes and now this more individual one?
[Audio excerpt from Empunya, from the album Nunas Taksu by Gamelan
Singamurti, composed by Zachary Chan, 2018. Courtesy the artist.]
Zachary Chan: Why I like to collaborate is because when I did my schoolwork,
and I did quite a massive, ambitious, artistic project at the end of it, I realised that I
was doing a lot of things that were not right. Some of the things that I did later on,
I felt were extractive and wrong. What I did in my final year project was to map
Singapore in using banyan trees as notes to imagine the city. Our imagination
of the cities is always about MRT stations or malls, so I wanted to propose using
banyan trees as a different…
Joel Tan: So, has this work you’ve been doing been pleasurable?
Joel Tan: Topography?
Zachary Chan: Yes, and some of these things delved into, again, personal
histories and traumas. One of them was about a space where migrant workers
would congregate and enjoy the day having picnics. And it was always in the
Yeah, I’m chasing pleasure, but also being able to make work pleasurably.
Joel Tan: And ethically.
Zachary Chan: And ethically, exactly. So that’s the real reason for
collaboration, because it’s fun. And because I don’t have to bear the burden of
artistic production by myself.
Zachary Chan: Yes! Because I’m also collaborating. I would like to say that I’m
collaborating with one of my good friends called Nai Iyn Huii. She’s the one
who is helping me to sew all the tapestries together. I am really her assistant
because I’m just cutting and pinning things. I don’t have much expertise when
it comes to sewing but through new collaborations—she’s my first-time
collaborator—I get to experience working with many different mediums which
is always very stimulating for me.
Joel Tan: And of course down the line during this residency, in the activations
you’re hoping to include, you’ll be bringing in lots of people in as well.
�Zachary Chan: Including you! And Rose, who is one of my really good friends
whom I’ve played gamelan with for about eight years. She’s someone that I would
be interested in making music with. Yep.
Joel Tan: I guess that brings us to the end of our chat Zach. Thank you so much
for sharing your research. I had a great time
Zachary Chan: Thank you, Joel.
I’d like to give a disclaimer that I’ve only really begun researching this in really
great detail at NTU CCA Singapore so the research is about four months in and
so I am bound to have some kind of blind spots or make factual errors and I
also would like to welcome anyone who listens to this, if they want to have a
conversation with me to like please reach out and I would be happy to listen to
what you have to say as well.
Nadia Amalina: You listened to AiRCAST, a podcast of NTU Centre for
Contemporary Art Singapore, a national research centre for contemporary art of
Nanyang Technological University. To find out more about our programmes, visit
our website at www.ntu.ccasingapore.org, you can sign up to our newsletter, or
follow us on your favourite social media platforms. And of course, if you’d like to
hear the voices and thoughts of our other Artists-in-Residence, do subscribe to
this podcast.
AiRCAST is produced by NTU CCA Singapore with the support of National Arts
Council Singapore.
This episode featured artist Zachary Chan in conversation with Joel Tan.
I am Nadia Amalina, the programme manager and co-editor of this podcast.
AiRCAST is conceptualised and co-edited by Dr Anna Lovecchio.
The Audio Engineer is Ashwin Menon.
The intro and the outro were composed by our previous Artist-in-Residence Yuen
Chee Wai with field recordings of our non-human neighbours in the beautiful
forest around us.
Zachary Chan and Joel Tan recording AiRCAST, 20 December 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
This episode was recorded on 20 December 2022. Thank you for listening.
�
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Transcript of Residencies AiRCAST #11: Zachary Chan
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<span>This episode features a fascinating conversation between Artist-in-Residence Zachary Chan and Singaporean playwright Joel Tan. The two multidisciplinary creatives, who are also previous collaborators, come together for an exchange revolving around Zachary’s research into the religion he grew up with, Pentecostal Christianity, as well as the practice of spiritual mapping and strategic-level spiritual warfare. Throughout the conversation, they weave together personal experiences and insights with discussions of the historical anecdotes and texts that Zachary has been poring over during his time in residence with us. They also contemplate upon Zachary’s proclivity for collaborations and how the residency has afforded him time to focus on his solo artistic practice.</span>
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Zachary Chan
Joel Tan
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Southeast Asia
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#10
MIN-WEI TING
influences, and research methodologies behind their practice. My name is Nadia
Amalina. I am the Programmes Manager at NTU CCA Singapore, and I co-edit this
podcast alongside Dr Anna Lovecchio, Assistant Director of Programmes at NTU
CCA Singapore.
In this episode, we invited Viknesh Kobinathan to traverse the trajectory of our
Artist-in-Residence Min-Wei Ting’s filmic practice. This conversation marks a
full-circle moment for the pair as they first collaborated at the beginning of their
careers at the 11th Singapore Short Cuts programme in 2014. In this conversation,
they exchange memories that reveal shared notions of space and architecture,
while contemplating upon the latent anxieties that stem from the everchanging
landscape of Singapore prevalent in Min-Wei’s films. They also touch upon MinWei’s ongoing reflections and speculations on the Singapore state’s reactions and
endeavours to address climate which he developed during his time in residence at
NTU CCA Singapore.
Before they take it away, a few words to introduce them. Working primarily with
the moving image, Min-Wei Ting explores the politics of space and the dynamic
of belonging in his native Singapore. Adopting a first-person perspective where
the tension between embodiment and disembodiment is often at play, his films
enact gestures of protracted observation and slow movement.
Min-Wei Ting recording AiRCAST, 14 December 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
NADIA AMALINA: Welcome to the second season of AiRCAST. On this podcast,
we visit the Residencies Studios of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
nestled on the fringe of a vibrant rainforest in Gillman Barracks. In this series
of open-ended conversations, we invite different guests to probe the mind of
our Artists-in-Residence and unfold some of the ideas, materials, processes,
Viknesh Kobinathan is a programmer at the Asian Film Archive (AFA), where he
curates film screenings and discursive events that examine issues affecting Asian
societies, explore the art of Asian cinema, and furthers the preservation mission of
the AFA. He oversees the execution of the commissioning project, Monographs,
a series that features critical text-based and audio-visual essays on the moving
image.
�VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Hi, Min-Wei
MIN-WEI TING: Hi.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: How are you?
MIN-WEI TING: Good, how are you?
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think that’s what they call a full circle moment, if I
shouldn’t be so gauche. Looking back at your previous works… I mean, I obviously
went to your website and looked at all the different works you’ve done since
then! I think my encounters with your works since You’re Dead To Me have
corresponded with different points in my life, and also in my career trajectory, and
the way I see film and moving image. I have sort of grown with your films in some
ways, and have also experienced your films in different spaces. Unfortunately for
You’re Dead To Me, I experienced it through a small laptop.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I’m fine.
MIN-WEI TING: You didn’t see it in person?
MIN-WEI TING: Thank you for being here.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: No, thank you. Preparing for this, I was looking back
at your previous works. Just like samples, reading the blurbs, stuff like that. And I
realized that actually, my beginning as a programmer coincides with I guess, me
seeing your work, specifically your first film work.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I saw it eventually in the cinema, but it’s a bit of a
programmer’s curse… a lot of us watch the films on smaller screens in the hopes
that we can finally see it in a bigger screen together with an audience! So after
[You’re Dead To Me], I only saw Coming Attractions just now, because I hadn’t
actually seen the work, and I’m Coming Up was at Singapore International Film
Festival (SGIFF)?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, absolutely. That was the first film I made! It was
programmed by you, and I was corresponding with you for Singapore Short Cuts
at the National Museum of Singapore.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes, and it was also at the National Museum of Singapore.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: That is You’re Dead To Me in 2014. Yeah, I was just an
assistant programmer at National Museum’s Cinémathèque programme. Actually,
I was co-programming together with [Low] Zu Boon and Warren [Sin], and I think,
for that year, they had decided to kind of split the films up into sort of, ‘themes’.
It so happened that quite a few of the works were by artist filmmakers and were
more experimental. We just felt that it would make a good programme together.
Then your film came through, and then… yeah!
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Right, it was also at the National Museum, and that was
a kind of, cinematic live score experience?
MIN-WEI TING: Right, right.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And then, yeah, Hampshire Road with me as a
programmer again. It just made me reflect on my own journey through your films.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah. I think pairing us for this conversation is quite apt.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I was very honored that I was included.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, that was really one of my first few programming
gigs, if not my first! And it so happened to be your first film! It’s interesting to see
that our career trajectories kind of had this starting point that is quite similar.
MIN-WEI TING: And it’s ended up back here in this space!
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think so too. Looking at your body of work, some
points come up. Some commonalities or linkages between these films come to
me and I think we’ve spoken about these things. Yeah, a lot of it is about space,
about architecture, state-sanctioned architecture, placemaking and placeunmaking, if that works.
�MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, exactly.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I’m wondering if you can talk a bit about your
relationship to those themes… these notions of space, the sort of statesanctioned ideas behind it and the almost like, violence that comes from it. Yeah,
could you maybe talk a bit about it?
MIN-WEI TING: Of course. Let’s start with You’re Dead To Me. I mean, that’s
where I started. That film came about from actually this desire to record sounds
of nature in Singapore because I had been living away for quite some time
and this was one of the things that I missed actually. It’s very strange. A lot of
Singaporeans who are overseas miss the food, but the sounds from nature is what
I missed. On my trips back to Singapore, I’d be stricken with jetlag and would
wake up in the middle of the night. I’d go out to Bukit Brown to record sounds
and I thought it was a very good place to do it. It was very quiet, especially in the
middle of night. Now that I think about it, it is quite crazy that I did this… going in
the middle of night to a cemetery! But I did it anyway.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: You are not easily spooked, are you?
MIN-WEI TING: No, I’m actually not. I’m not superstitious at all.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think that helps if you’re going into a cemetery in the
middle of the night.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, but then I’m scared of other things in nature, such as
snakes.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: That makes sense.
MIN-WEI TING: I don’t know why I disregarded those things when I went. But
I started making these recordings in Bukit Brown during the same time the
government had decided to basically tear it up and build an enormous road
through it. The recordings evolved into a film because I wanted to document
the space and I felt more of an urgency to do something about that space. And
so I started filming over, I think it was over a year or so. Every time I was back in
Singapore, I would keep going back and film… until it came together as a film,
You’re Dead To Me.
Min-Wei Ting, You’re Dead To Me, 2014, film still. Courtesy the artist.
[Audio excerpt from You’re Dead To Me, 2014. Courtesy the artist.]
Yeah. Making that film made me very acutely aware of these changes that we are
subjected to in Singapore and the changes that the landscape is subjected to.
I think that sort of started the trajectory of looking at places, spaces, and sites,
around Singapore that, for lack of a better phrase, are subject to state planning,
you know?
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Right. Actually, if I can just like jump timeline before we
carry on to talk about the later iterations of your work… I guess, your beginnings
in art were through photography?
MIN-WEI TING: That’s right.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I’m quite struck by the fact that in You’re Dead To
Me, you put yourself in front of the camera. You acted in your own film, which
was this durational, almost performance, piece that seemed inspired by still
�photography. And so I’m wondering if we can just take it back a bit, to talk about
your beginnings in artistic practice through still photography and how that led to
your interest in the moving image.
MIN-WEI TING: That’s right. It was the Canon 5D Mark II.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, I remember that.
MIN-WEI TING: Actually, this goes quite far back. So, you know, everyone makes
pictures. When I was in university, a classmate of mine tried to get me to enroll
in the black and white photography course, and I said: Yes, okay, let me try it.
And back in those days, it was a very… it was still an analog process. So shooting
with film, developing the film on my own, going into the darkroom, and printing…
I was very excited about this process of making something of my own from
scratch, and that kind of stuck with me. So I spent a lot of time in the darkroom
actually, much more time than I did on what I was majoring in university.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Which was what?
MIN-WEI TING: I was studying electrical and computer engineering. You know,
the practical Singaporean that I am.
MIN-WEI TING: Okay, I could do still images with [the camera], but I could
also make high-definition videos! And actually, at the International Center of
Photography, they started doing that… they started using this camera. They
started teaching students to make videos with this camera, in addition to making
stills. So that’s how I segued from still photography to the moving image.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And so, You’re Dead To Me still holds a lot of those
ideas of stillness. Skipping ahead, I mean, because Coming Attractions is, I guess,
it’s quite a different work than the other stuff you’ve done.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes. I mean, I was in grad school at that time and I wanted to try
something different. So I just went for it. There were no consequences. I just did
it.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, I feel like you’ve told me this before. Interesting.
MIN-WEI TING: But I finished it! I finished that course and I graduated. My time
with photography really stuck with me, but I did the sensible thing like any good
Singaporean would do and got a job. That took me to New York City for 10 years,
and that was a fabulous time because that was where I was exposed to a lot of
art. Then, there was that itch to get back into photography, and at some point,
I said: Okay, that’s enough, and I quit my job! I said, Let’s do it. I enrolled at the
International Center of Photography, which is also in New York, and I did a oneyear program there. I had a great time there as well, my teachers there were very
influential. They were artists in their own right, and very committed educators.
From there, I went on to graduate school at Goldsmiths to study fine arts and
that’s led me to where I am now. I haven’t looked back since. Photography from
when I was in university and then that kind of evolved into filmmaking actually,
when I started doing You’re Dead To Me. It’s strange how at that time, the still
camera that everyone was using at the same time could also do high-definition
video.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: This was the Canon 5D?
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It’s like a montage that you kind of worked on, out of
all these films that you… I actually want to come back to Coming Attractions later,
because just watching it, I literally just watched it before I left the house, and I
want to come back to it later because there’s this topic about violence that we
spoke about in your work, or this undercurrent of violence that I think we can
kind of sink our teeth into a bit later, and I want to link Coming Attractions to that.
But now that we’re on this trajectory of your practice, going from photography
to moving image, I’m also very interested to talk about your camera moving from
the stillness that was in You’re Dead To Me. Of course, there’s this whole idea of
wandering, which I’ve also noticed in your work… it’s this idea of the flaneur, this
psychogeography kind of idea.
MIN-WEI TING: I think that comes from my photography days, actually. Because,
for me, photography was a way of like, exploring the places and people around
me, of getting out and walking, in discovering and encountering.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I kept trying to think about how we don’t get to see
you in such a visceral way after You’re Dead To Me. You don’t put yourself in
�front of camera anymore after that, yet, right? But when we go into I’m Coming
Up and your works from there onwards, and this is my interpretation, I feel that
your presence is still felt, but now it’s from the movement of the camera, the
conscious movement of it. It’s still durational and it’s in the long process of
moving from one place to another, or of wandering through, that I feel your
presence is kind of evoked. You know?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, yes. That’s True. I’m sort of the… I’m the.. I’m the camera.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Maybe that’s a good point for us to talk about I’m
Coming Up with, because with that, it seems you have pushed the idea of
durational filmmaking and your idea of wandering also takes on a larger, more
extended timeframe, where the dilation of time is truly felt. Maybe you can talk a
bit about what led you into I’m Coming Up and the choices that led you to make
this sort of feature-length slow-motion track across this quite oppressive-looking
HDB block.
Min-Wei Ting, I’m Coming Up, 2016, film still. Courtesy the artist.
MIN-WEI TING: So a friend, actually a mutual friend of ours, Philippe [Aldrup]
introduced me to this building in Jurong. It’s a very unique building and it’s
from the 70s. It’s four blocks joined together and you can actually walk in a
circle through these four blocks. Just go up or down, whatever you wish to do.
I thought the building was very interesting architecturally and I wanted to do
something with it. I wanted to do something performative with it, actually. One
of the first iterations was of me being filmed by Philippe running the corridors, or
walking the corridors, I can’t remember. But that plan didn’t turn out so well. And
then I just had this sort of crazy idea. Why don’t I… Well, first of all, I just started
thinking: let me walk a few stories from a first-person perspective, and then it
became this crazy idea of why don’t I walk the entire building from bottom to
top, from a first-person perspective? So I just went about and I did that. I worked
with a Steadicam operator to do that. We chose to do it in the middle of the night,
because the corridors are very narrow and if there were people around, it would
be very hard to do the filming.
�VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, and could you also talk about the eventual
presentation of it? It premiered at SGIFF with this live score by BALBALAB.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes, they’re a group of sound artists and musicians.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Could you maybe talk a bit about how that came
about? Was it developed together with the Festival?
MIN-WEI TING: Sure. So I made the film, or rather, I shot the film. And I showed
it to [Low] Zu Boon who was a programmer at the festival. He liked it but there
was no sound to it because it was arduous enough to film it. As there wasn’t
any sound to it yet, he suggested that I work with BALBALAB to create the
soundtrack to the film. I specifically worked with Zai Tang, who’s an artist as
well. He suggested that I go back and walk through the building while recording
the sounds as I walked through the building from bottom to top. They took this
recording and turned it into a live performance with the film. So it was this hybrid
presentation, right? You had the film playing on the screen and a group of sound
artists and musicians playing in front of the screen.
[Audio excerpt from I’m Coming Up, 2016. Courtesy the artist.]
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think that while we talk about Zai Tang… I’m thinking
that he is also someone who is a sonic artist first, who also kind of works with the
moving image and visuals. A lot of his work is centered on his field recordings and
so I’m also drawing that link between what you talked about in You’re Dead To
Me, about how it started for you with the sound, whereas in I’m Coming Up, the
process has now been inverted.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, exactly.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: While we are talking about your works, a lot of things
are coming to me. I’m making a lot of connections. Because I was there an
audience watching…
MIN-WEI TING: I remember you said to me this was difficult to watch.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It was!
MIN-WEI TING: And I don’t blame you! It was difficult for everyone who saw it
in that cinema setting to watch. It wasn’t like a laptop which you could just close
and walk away from.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Also you’re in those seats, you know, those National
Museum [of Singapore] seats. You can’t just get up and there’s not much leg
room. You can’t just get up and leave.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, it was difficult to leave. Maybe much to my benefit.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: This brings me to this idea of oppression and
surveillance, which is also something that I think is prevalent in your works that
follow from I’m Coming Up. Surely the space that you have described is a unique
one, but I think the ways HDB’s are constructed are very much, perhaps even
inspired, by this idea of the panopticon. It’s just that this structure makes it even
more obvious.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I think, I mean, this structure really is… it really relates
to the panopticon because you can just look out across your flat and see your
neighbors.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Exactly. You know, for all the success of public housing
in Singapore, I think, what’s not talked about is this idea that they are built in a way
that you are keenly aware that you’re always being seen.
MIN-WEI TING: Or heard.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Or heard, yes. I think the duration of I’m Coming Up
paired with the sort of droning sound and the fact that you couldn’t actually
escape your seat as easy as you could… it just amplifies those feelings for you.
Especially for me, I mean, I grew up in HDB from the age of nine, or ten, and I
still live in one. I’ve gotten weirdly comfortable with the idea that I could be seen.
But I don’t discount the fact that it does form a base level sort of anxiety, which
is reflective of existence in Singapore, I think. This notion of being seen, always
seeing someone else, not being able to hide, or not being able to kind of exercise
anonymity in a very accessible way. This, of course, fluctuates very widely across
�Min-Wei Ting, Hampshire Road, 2019, film still. Courtesy the artist.
class and privilege. And if you’re on the side of class that doesn’t afford you a
lot of privileges or freedom of movement, then in this system, you are surveilled
more. The fact that you’re being surveilled seems to be a given.
MIN-WEI TING: That’s right, yeah.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Which brings me to Hampshire Road, right? [The work]
is you documenting this bus interchange structure that was built after the Little
India incident and which resembles another sort of oppressive architecture. Yeah,
maybe you can talk more about that?
MIN-WEI TING: I’m glad you brought up all these sensations and feelings about
public housing. Because I think I’m Coming Up is a documentation of space, but
it’s also an experience of space.
[Audio excerpt from Hampshire Road, 2019. Courtesy the artist.]
With Hampshire Road… that came about from my visits to Little India. I like going
to Little India, I think it’s a very lively part of Singapore that hasn’t changed very
much. Actually, I think owing to the presence of migrant workers. But after the
Little India incident, I noticed that the government had constructed this building
and I immediately felt that this was a very oppressive structure. So Hampshire
Road is a seven-minute long tracking shot of a building in Little India that’s used
as a bus station for migrant workers and it’s built in such a way that the migrant
workers are very contained and policed and surveilled.
When I went there while it was used – it’s only used on Sundays – when the
workers come and go from Little India, there was also a very heavy police
presence as well. So I wanted to capture this and decided to use the length of the
building… I decided to film the entire length of this building because it occupies
the length of Hampshire Road and that’s why [the work] is named Hampshire
Road as well.
�VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think going back to the notion of, you know,
oppression, again… this is another state-sanctioned architectural structure,
this time solely built for a particular group of people, specifically the migrant
workers. I grew up in Little India, as you know. I was at home when the Little
India incident happened. It affected me quite a lot. Actually, the incident itself
was a very condensed period of time. That was quite scary. But actually, it was
the months and years after that where my feelings about what was being done to
the neighborhood started to kind of settle in. I remember feeling this very deep
discomfort because the surveillance had gone to a different sort of level.
to see what was going on. I actually saw a police car being overturned and the
windows being smashed. I had never seen anything like it before. I just remember,
people were like running and I also just ran back home.
MIN-WEI TING: We’ve not seen anything like this for decades.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: The incident went on for several hours until it
quietened down. I think quite a few people were arrested. There were blockades
everywhere.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, police finally got it under control.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, following the incident, the entire neighborhood changed.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Just for people who might not know what we’re talking
about: the Little India incident, also known as a Little India riot, it was on a Sunday.
At that time, the buses that would take the workers to and from their places of
work didn’t have proper places to park and disembark and so on. So they would
all line up on this quite narrow road, which is Race Course Road, which is weird,
because the road itself was made new and was extended but there still wasn’t
enough provisions made for these buses every Sunday.
MIN-WEI TING: Exactly. It was very ad hoc.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Hampshire Road, before the bus terminal was built,
would be closed every Sunday to let the buses kind of gather there, and so on. So
the details of that evening are actually… Okay, um, I don’t think there’s any official
objective record of this. I think the reporting on this was also lacking in some
details. But what we know is that a worker was sort of denied entry on a bus if I’m
not wrong. And out of that, one person was hit by the bus and subsequently died.
This then escalated into a confrontation between a group of migrant workers, and
eventually the police and the special forces, and even an ambulance.
MIN-WEI TING: Vehicles were set on fire or overturned. It was very serious.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It was very, very serious. I lived on Buffalo Road. I mean,
I just go down and it’s like two minutes to Race Course Road. So in the early parts
of the incident, I actually went down to, probably not very wise, but I went down
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, they got it under control, I think quite late into
the night, maybe 2:00 or 3:00am in the night. This is the other kind of dissonant
thing that I remember feeling. My whole family was awake until the whole thing
quietened down because there were still people making loud noises. There was
still shouting and there were still police sirens way into the night. And the news,
I don’t know whether it’s because they couldn’t get people into the scene or
they couldn’t get reporters in there, but the news report, the live reporting, was
actually quite scant. There was some civilian phone camera footage but other
than that, there wasn’t a lot information coming through. Yeah, this was also preInstagram. Instagram might have been around but wasn’t very heavily used, so we
had to rely on some information from Twitter and so on. Anyway, the dissonant
thing was that when I woke up the next day at 9:00 or 10:00am, I went to get
breakfast and I went to the same location where most of the things happened,
where I saw the car burning… it was like normal! They had put tar over it and
cleaned it up. No traces of it!
MIN-WEI TING: It sounds like they were really trying to remove it from memory,
or the trauma of it from memory.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Perhaps. I was just very shocking to me. I mean, on one
hand, it’s about efficiency. But on the other hand, it’s sort of felt like: Okay, we’re
not discussing this.
MIN-WEI TING: I mean, it says a lot about Singapore, and it talks about the
efficiency of Singapore. It talks about how order needs to be maintained and the
�impression of order needs to be present.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah. I think following the incident was I guess where
we were going… it was this increased surveillance and increased police presence.
I think while there used to be some police patrolling on Sundays, I think the
numbers and the groups increased. I distinctly remember it went from, let’s
say, just two people patrolling, it became five and sometimes up to six people
patrolling at the same time.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah. I noticed that as well.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: The Special Forces, the red trucks, were parked near
Hampshire Road every Sunday for years, right? Alleyways had floodlights that
were on constantly. They were not like motion-activated, they were always on.
MIN-WEI TING: I remember those alleys being completely unlit, and dark, and
kind of mysterious. Yeah.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And the alcohol ban! That was a significant thing
because that actually transpired into a nationwide policy on alcohol at some
point. Because at first Little India was designated as a special zone along with
Geylang within which you couldn’t get alcohol. I might be wrong here, but
initially, it was after six [pm], I think. I might not be right, don’t quote me on this.
And then, at some point, although it may or may not be related to this, it became
a nationwide thing where you couldn’t get alcohol anywhere after 10:30pm
unless you’re in a bar which has a license. Yeah, this also made me think of how
discriminatory a law like that is, because not everyone…
MIN-WEI TING: …can afford to go into a bar.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, or have the social access to go into any bar they
please, right? Bars are, I mean, in most places, not accessible socially to many, not
least of which are the migrant workers who would primarily get the alcohol from
convenience stores, supermarkets, hawker centers. I think the whole thing about
the incident also was that it was then blamed on the alcohol, right?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, it was.
Viknesh Kobinathan recording AiRCAST, 14 December 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I was very angry about this framing for very long. I
still am actually, because it brings up quite a lot of race-related prejudice, and
also community-related prejudice, that a group of people are predisposed to
inebriety and, therefore, violence. And this was already something that growing
up Indian or brown would be told to me in various ways, whether it’s jokingly or
whether it’s as a sort of backhanded insult. After the incident, it felt that people
were emboldened to make such statements. I remember taking cabs to my
neighborhood and cab drivers would go: “Oh, better be careful. Very dangerous,
you know, this neighborhood.”
MIN-WEI TING: It suddenly became dangerous!
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah! Or the distinction between: “oh, you’re not that
kind of Indian,” right? These were conversations I remember happening in a more
protracted way after the incident.
�MIN-WEI TING: You are Singaporean Indian…
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: All these were just things that came up in wider society
because then you had this 10:30 ban, which we still have until today. I guess
linked to this idea of access and freedom, or the lack of movement, is explored in
If For Nothing Else Than For Sunday?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I think I think the film says of how the state deals with
trouble. It’s heavy handed. It’s severe. I think what it says is that the state doesn’t
leave anything to chance. They will make every effort to make sure that it never
happens again. So, the way the building is constructed and the heavy police
presence around it, like you said, those special forces police are there all the time
just to make sure that another incident like that is never going to happen again.
Hampshire Road was a kind of vignette into the way the State operates in relation
to trouble, in relation to migrant workers.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And I think also, just to tie a thread, something that
exists through your work and which we talked about quite often, is your struggle
with belonging here in Singapore. I spoke about the discomfort of what Little
India became and I feel that we share this idea of discomfort, or not feeling like
you quite belong. And this, this notion exists as a phantom. Not just a phantom,
but it pervades your work.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, because I’ve spent so much time abroad, I’ve sort of
developed different ways of relating to space and place, you know. I’ve developed
different values, and when I come back to Singapore, I feel this dissonance. I
feel like, this is not a kind of place that I can really relate to, or it doesn’t relate
to my own values, my own beliefs of what a place should be, or what my home
should really be. I mean, I lived in the US, and the UK, and Europe, and these are
comparatively freer places to be, and I think Singapore is not that. There’s really
nothing left to chance in this country. Everything is very planned and ordered to
very specific goals. There’s really no room to sort of roam and be a little different.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Which is maybe where the crux of your work comes
from? Your anger, dissatisfaction, and discontent with this?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, maybe I see things that many people don’t, or have
come to accept about the country? And I picked this up. I mean, amongst my
friends, obviously, we feel the same way. But I think for the vast majority of
people, they’ve come to accept that this is the way things are in Singapore. That,
you know, we’re expected to accept a certain kind of order, a certain kind of
arrangement. I think my work has been a reaction to that, a pushback to that, I
suppose, you know. With Bukit Brown, with You Are Dead To Me, there was an
anger that they would take away this very special place. I thought it was a very
special place, and I think a lot of other people thought it was a very special place,
to build a road through.
With I’m Coming Up, I think it’s to do with an ordering. I think public housing is
a metaphor for ordering society, reconfiguring, restructuring society. And I think
Hampshire Road does that as well. There was an anomaly that needed to be dealt
with, and the state came in and did so in this way. Which I don’t think is necessary.
They can just build a very regular bus terminal, which I think was needed.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yes, something that resembles all the bus terminals in
Singapore.
MIN-WEI TING: Exactly! Instead of building this cage-like structure surrounded
by cameras and police.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I mean, there’s like a metal fence that that runs
throughout, and there’s only a few entrances.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes, so you can only enter from one location. It’s very clear that
it’s built to contain crowds.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: If you needed to, you can actually just lock it.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes, you could just close everyone in, you know, and stop
anything from happening.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It doesn’t escape me that the structures that you
deal with in You Are Dead To Me and I’m Coming Up are also possibly built by
migrant labor. These oppressive structures that we are talking about that are for
Singaporeans, primarily, are built by a migrant workforce.
�MIN-WEI TING: Yes, we’re very dependent on the migrant workforce. But it’s a
workforce that also needs to be very tightly controlled as well.
durational long takes your previous work is based on. It’s almost like a companion
piece, but also, a jump off point to a different approach to moving image making.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And I think the effects of which was also profoundly felt
during COVID lockdowns?
MIN-WEI TING: I think that film, yeah, it’s a companion to Hampshire Road, and
I think they’re very different explorations of space. I think one is about how space
is controlled and restricted. With If For Nothing Else Than For Sunday, it’s more
to do with how public space is used by migrant workers and how it’s actually
enjoyed by migrant workers. I was interested in exploring how their social life
plays out in public space, so I set about doing that. I took footage from when the
streets are empty in Little India to when the streets were brimming with migrant
workers on a Sunday evening, to explore and demonstrate how space is used and
how it changes with the presence of the workers.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, during COVID, workers were not allowed to leave the
dormitories for a very long time, much longer than Singaporeans and other
residents. Again, I think that reflects a kind of anxiety of the state not wanting to
take any chances.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Where does this thought process or this trajectory then
lead? How does it lead to If For Nothing Else Than For Sunday? Because to me
in that piece, you are also playing with form, you’re playing with different types
of editing and pace. It’s more deliberate in its editing, as opposed to the more
Min-Wei Ting, Hampshire Road, 2019, film still. Courtesy the artist.
[Audio excerpt from If For Nothing Else Than For Sunday, 2019. Courtesy the
artist.]
�MIN-WEITING: In a way, for me, it was kind of like a celebration of the
liveliness that they bring to the neighborhood, which is what attracted me to
the neighborhood in the first place. It’s how freely the space is used, you know,
because they would…
in how it’s transformed from deadness to life. And then COVID came along and
took it away, took the life away from these streets.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: They would sit on the grass, on the pathways, in the
alleys.
MIN-WEI TING: Yes, the deadness came back.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, places that as Singaporeans we just don’t do, right? We
don’t… they would hang out on the grass patch, any grass patch!
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It’s actually a very active engagement with public space
that the average citizen doesn’t do.
MIN-WEI TING: Exactly. They would sit in alleyways, just really take over the
space, almost every inch of space. But of course, there’s still this sort of specter
of the police and policing, right? Because this was made after the Little India
incident. So yeah, for me, this film was about looking at space in a completely
different way where it’s not very controlled, and ordered, and structured.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And it somehow became quite prescient about the time
that was to come, right? I mean, when COVID, when the lockdowns happened,
and the area started to resemble…
MIN-WEI TING: A desert, right?
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah, because I watched it during lockdown. I think
we were still in various forms of lockdown. Little India was really not as active
as… because the workers couldn’t come out. So when I saw it, I had a different
engagement with the piece. It was the empty parts of the film that resonated with
me more. The stark difference between a place of activity and a place of nonactivity became too real to me because I need only look out my window, or just
go downstairs, to know that this place is not what it was. It’s interesting to me,
because the joy that you speak about, it was flipped for me when I actually started
noticing the emptiness in that film.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I mean, with that film, I was like, you know, I was interested
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: The deadness became the norm for a long time.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I think we should also talk about why we are here
because you are currently Artist-in-Residence at NTU CCA Singapore, and you are
about to complete your residency in a few months. We spoke briefly about these
different kinds of trajectories, points of interest, and research topics that you’ve
been sort of delving into, in quite a free, associative sort of way. I’m wondering if
you could elucidate us a bit more about these threads.
MIN-WEI TING: Okay. So, you know, my films have engaged with these pretty
discreet scenarios, they are kind of these vignettes that are put together quite
neatly. With the residency, I wanted to step back a little bit and look at, I suppose,
the bigger picture. Maybe try to unearth these ideas and themes that have sort of
flown through my work. And so I’ve been looking at the landscape of Singapore,
at how it’s constantly changing, how it’s constantly reconfigured and restructured,
thinking and looking at the manifestations of these processes and really thinking
about what drives these changes.
I’ve taken a more historical perspective of Singapore and what I’ve realized, is
that this country has been changed since the British arrived, you know. When
the British came, they started dredging the coasts. They started reclaiming land
from the sea. They cleared the interior of the island for plantations. It’s a process
that’s not new, even if we think that it’s something post-independence. It’s a
process that comes from the colonial era. And it went on, right into postcolonial
times when Singapore started to urbanise and industrialise and there, we see new
changes in the landscape. We well know that Singapore has expanded terrestrially
by something like 25%.
We are no strangers to this remaking of the environment. Buildings are torn down,
rebuilt, land is cleared for new developments. I’ve been thinking about why we
do this, because it’s a kind of violence, you know, you’ve used the word violence,
and I think a lot of Singaporeans lament these changes, and they wish that we
�didn’t have to go through these changes all the time. So I’ve been thinking about
why we do this. I think there’s an anxiety about Singapore, an anxiety about being
a very small country. An anxiety about being small and wanting to be larger, and
an anxiety about staying relevant. An anxiety about staying relevant to global
trade and capitalism. We’ve become a hub for these things. And I think the state
wants to maintain that, so it’s constantly trying to do whatever it takes to avoid, I
suppose, failure or becoming irrelevant. One of the ways is to constantly remake
the country.
past work. You’ve talked a bit about the sort of deep research that you’ve been
involved with in the past few months, that is also tethered to your previous
work, but you now have the space, which is what residencies do, right? You
have the space to kind of slow it down and look deeper into it.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Which is quite ironic, right? The, I think a lot of these
anxieties are also about wanting to pursue this idea of comfort, or success, or
aspiration. But the more you escalate these efforts, the greater the anxieties
become.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: And so I think that naturally brings me to ask: if you
could speculate either for your own artistic trajectory, or for the nation, what
do you think is next? And what does all this lead to for you? Or what could it
lead to?
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, it comes from this notion that we need to keep growing.
I used to think, oh, yeah, we kind of internalise this notion of perpetual growth.
Our politicians talk about, oh, the economy only grew by 2%. Next year, we’ll aim
for 5% or whatever. And I sense that we can’t keep going on like this, you know,
because this need drives this anxiety. Which in turn drives the need to come up
with something new all the time in this country. Something new comes up… I
don’t know, Bitcoin or something, so therefore, we need to be like, a Bitcoin hub,
you know?
MIN-WEI TING: Well, I mean, I think the residency has made me think about
what this place is going to look like, what are the infrastructures that we are
going to see here? The buildings and flood protection systems or whatnot,
you know? Yeah, I’ve been just trying to envision, or trying to speculate what
Singapore might look like, in, I don’t know, 10-20 years time.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, to step back and understand what it is that I’ve been
doing … all these films that I’ve made, you know, what have I been really
responding to? Yeah, and thinking about that.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: How does that make you feel?
MIN-WEI TING: One of the new anxieties that I think has arisen in the last few
years is an anxiety about climate change. So in order to stay relevant, Singapore
needs to stave off climate change. I’m interested in the changes that are taking
place in relation to that, the kind of infrastructures that are being built, the policies
that are being implemented, the pronouncements from the government. I’ll give
you an example. Like Changi Airport, the new terminal is being built five meters
above sea level. I think they’re mooting, or building some kind of barrier system
off East Coast Parkway.
MIN-WEI TING: I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I haven’t reached the point
where I can concretely say, oh, it’s going to look like this. I mean, right now,
I’m sort of just thinking about what drives these changes. As far as climate
change is concerned, I think that Singapore believes that it can build itself out
of it. And I think it believes that climate change is predictable. I don’t take such
an optimistic view of things. I think it’s very unpredictable and I don’t think
we can build ourselves out of it. I mean, we’ve built ourselves out of many
situations over a century. I just don’t think that we can keep doing that and I
don’t think we can keep doing that without relinquishing some parts of the
economy that are responsible for climate change, and that we are very much
a part of, like oil refining and petrochemicals.
[Audio excerpt from untitled work-in-progress, 2023. Courtesy the artist.]
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Yeah. We are quite deeply invested in these things.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: So to wrap it up… I guess we’ve kind of surveyed your
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, it’s kind of… it’s very schizophrenic. The economy
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: It’s a sort of vicious anxiety cycle, perhaps.
�depends on these things, but at the same time, these things are going to destroy
us. But we also believe that we can just build walls and whatever, underground
cities, over-ground cities, that will get us out of it. Or maybe they’ll just build
like a dome over the whole country, just like they’ve done in the Gardens by the
Bay where they’ve built these enormous domes. And we will live in some airconditioned biosphere, but I don’t think any country is an island.
I am Nadia Amalina, the programme manager and co-editor of this podcast.
AiRCAST is conceptualised and co-edited by Dr Anna Lovecchio.
The Audio Engineer is Ashwin Menon.
The intro and the outro were composed by our previous Artist-in-Residence Yuen
Chee Wai with field recordings of our non-human neighbours in the beautiful
forest around us.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: Is that too grim an ending?
This episode was recorded on 14 December 2022. Thank you for listening.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I think, yeah.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I mean, we don’t need to make things pretty. But you
know, it’s… I guess it’s a sobering ending.
MIN-WEI TING: Yeah, I think it’s worth thinking about. I think it’s worth thinking
about what’s the trajectory of this country. Can we go on doing the things that we
do, you know?
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: I’m excited to see how your work will evolve, with these
new anxieties that might evolve, from what we’ve talked about.
MIN-WEI TING: I’m excited too. It’s gonna take some time.
VIKNESH KOBINATHAN: At least there’s that to be excited about! Okay, thank
you!
NADIA AMALINA: You listened to AiRCAST, a podcast of NTU Centre for
Contemporary Art Singapore, a national research centre for contemporary art of
Nanyang Technological University. To find out more about our programmes, visit
our website at www.ntu.ccasingapore.org, you can sign up to our newsletter, or
follow us on your favourite social media platforms. And of course, if you’d like to
hear the voices and thoughts of our other Artists-in-Residence, do subscribe to
this podcast. AiRCAST is produced by NTU CCA Singapore with the support of
National Arts Council Singapore.
This episode featured artist Min-Wei Ting in conversation with Viknesh
Kobinathan.
Viknesh Kobinathan and Min-Wei Ting recording AiRCAST, 14 December 2022.
Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
�
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Programme Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to residency programmes. Examples include residency brochures, postcards, etc.
Programme Series
Residencies AiRCAST
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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Transcript of Residencies AiRCAST #10: Min-Wei Ting
Subject
The topic of the resource
Identity
History
Description
An account of the resource
In this episode, Viknesh Kobinathan traverses the trajectory of our Artist-in-Residence Min-Wei Ting’s filmic practice. This conversation marks a full-circle moment for the pair as they first collaborated at the beginning of their careers at the Singapore Short Cuts programme in 2014.Throughout the conversation, they exchange memories that reveal shared notions of space and architecture, while contemplating upon the latent anxieties that stem from the everchanging landscape of Singapore prevalent in Min-Wei’s films. They also touch upon Min-Wei’s ongoing reflections and speculations on the Singapore state’s reactions and endeavours to address climate which he developed during his time in residence with us.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-12-14
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Min-Wei Ting
Viknesh Kobinathan
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
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Transcript
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A language of the resource
English
-
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16 – 19 February 2023
N TU CC A
ID E AS FE S T
202 3 :
FOOD
�set of questions and problems when confronted
with nature’s diminishing capacity to nourish life as
a result of harmful anthropocentric activity. Such
challenges demand that we rethink our modes of
production and consumption. As a platform to feature new initiatives, NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023: Food
is an invitation to share and engage in cooperative
projects and collective experiences through workshops, site visits, screenings, performances, public
installations, participatory projects, and a summit.
NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023: Food, conceived in partnership
with Future Cities Lab Global, Singapore-ETH Centre,
contemplates on sustainable food systems, climate awareness and solutions for a more sustainable future.
Locations:
NTU CCA Singapore
Gillman Barracks
37 & 38 Malan Road
Singapore 108934
Curated by Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (NTU CCA and NTU
ADM), Magdalena Magiera (NTU CCA), Assoc. Prof.
Laura Miotto (NTU ADM) and Prof. Thomas Schroepfer
(ETH FCL and SUTD)
A project by:
In partnership with:
Singapore-ETH Centre
1 Create Way
#06-01 CREATE Tower
Singapore 138602
For more information on NTU CCA IdeasFest
2023: Food visit ntu.ccasingapore.org or
Facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Image: Courtesy Saad Chinoy Edible Makerspace, lasercut edible materials.
NTU CCA IdeasFest, created in 2017, is a platform
to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage
thinking “out of the box”. It links the academic and
artistic communities with grassroots and selforganised initiatives and small-scale entrepreneurship. Following the global call for an ecological turn
in art, architecture, and design, NTU CCA IdeasFest
2023: Food presents projects that engage, investigate, and aim to ensure food security on a healthy
planet. The vitality of food poses a wide-ranging
�
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
NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2023 FOOD
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
NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2023 FOOD Postcard
Subject
The topic of the resource
Sustainability
Ecosystems
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
16 - 19 February 2023
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ute Meta Bauer
Magdalena Magiera
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Postcard
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
Asia
Europe
-
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Text
NTU CCA
IdeasFest 2023
FOOD
Eat. Secure. Sustain.
16 – 19 FEBRUARY 2023
NTU CCA IDEASFEST 2023
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023
FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain.
NTU CCA IdeasFest is a platform for the critical exchange of ideas and encourages
“out-of-the box” thinking by linking artist and academic communities to grassroots
initiatives and small-scale, nimble entrepreneurial enterprises. This year’s iteration
of NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 is titled FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain. in a call for art, archi
tecture and design to rise to the demands of the state of ecology today. The forum is
a collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and Future Cities Laboratory (FCL)
Global, Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) and presents projects that investigate ways to
restore food security throughout our stressed planetary system.
Since its pilot edition in 2016–17, NTU CCA IdeasFest has been a collective gathering
centred in contemporary issues and ideas and the development of cross-disciplinary
initiatives. By involving participants across art, architecture, design, urban planning
and science alongside members of impacted communities, NTU CCA IdeasFest aims
to identify and support potential solutions by bringing together knowledges from
different fields.
Building upon NTU CCA Singapore’s long-term research theme “Climates. Habitats.
Environments,” the third edition of NTU CCA IdeasFest contemplates urgent concerns including the instability of current food systems and proposes actionable steps
for sustainable and equitable food production and consumption cycles. We begin
by asking a wide range of questions around how harmful anthropocentric activity
diminishes nature’s capacity to nourish life. Such challenges demand re-thinking
modes of food production and consumption and highlight the need for listening to
those impacted most severely. Connecting existing practices across the region,
Documentation of Fieldtrip Microscopy. Courtesy Saad Chinoy / Edible Makerspace
NTU CCA IDEASFEST 2023
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 proposes a deeper transregional understanding of the
impacts of climate change in Singapore and Southeast Asia and intends to generate
transferable blueprints for adapting to new environmental realities.
As the global population continues to urbanise, food and nutritional security have
become key areas of concern, leading to implications in other spheres of life, especially in densely populated cities in Asia. Food security hinges on sustainable food
subsystems, including farming, waste management, and supply infrastructures,
which in turn interact with trade, energy, and health structures. While we are seeing
traditional agricultural land on the city fringes giving way to urban sprawl or landscapes of large-scale monocultural farming, the imperative to rethink the entire food
cycle has become more acute. FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain. will focus on urban food as
a lever for resilience, exploring cases where cities like Singapore have become
centres for alternative food practices and experimentation, which are vital in
creating solutions for urgent sustainability challenges
Over a period of four days, 15 international and Singapore-based architects, artists,
researchers and community leaders will lead discussions on the following themes:
Food Ecosystems, Urban Food Alternatives, Non-Conventional Food Sources and
Food Industries. Everyone is encouraged to share and engage in cooperative projects—a conference at CREATE Tower or at workshops and exhibitions on view at
NTU CCA Singapore in Gillman Barracks, and across Singapore.
Invited participants include Irene Agrivina, Madhumitha Ardhanari, Carlos Banon,
Britto Arts Trust’s Mahbubur Rahman and Shimul Saha, Prof. William Chen,
Joy Chee, Saad Chinoy, Alice Clarke, Dr. Franca Cole, Adrian Fuhrmann, Helen
Lei Fan, Ground-Up Initiative, Vartika Goenka, Dr. Iris Haberkorn, Hoo Fan Chon,
Hans Hortig, Paula Huerta, Karoline Kostka, Adeline Kueh, Alba Lombardia,
Loo Yanshan, Yuhao Lu, Kaiyu Lu, Niraly Mangal, Dr. Keri Matwick, Dr. Kelsi
Matwick, Muhammad Is’Maill Bin Azman, Isabella Meo, Alecia Neo, Valerie Pang /
Good Food Institute (APAC), Jasper Phang Wee Keat, Byron Perez, Raine Melissa
Riman, Firdaus Sani, Karen Shepherd, Helena Schmitt, Shaktheeshwari Silvaraju,
Chloe Tan, Tan Yong Jen, Zi Gui Toh, Milica Topalovic, Zhang Qihui, Dr. Zhang
Qianning, Bianca Wassmann, Dr. Christoph Waibel, Heng Chin Wee, Yanyun Yan,
Dr. Huang Zhaolu, Dr. Shi Zhongming, Carole Zermatten and others.
The curators would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and express
gratitude towards all the people, organisations and government bodies that made
NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain. possible, namely Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB),
Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global, Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), Campus for Research
Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), and NTU CCA Singapore.
NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 FOOD Eat. Sustain. Secure. is conceived and organised by
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (NTU School of Art, Design, and Media and Founding Director,
NTU CCA Singapore), Magdalena Magiera (Curator and Research Associate, NTU CCA
Singapore), Laura Miotto (Associate Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU),
Prof. Dr. Thomas Schroepfer (Co-Director, Future Cities Laboratory Global,
Singapore-ETH Centre and Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design, SUTD)
and Dr. Tanvi Maheshwari (Associate Director, Research, Future Cities Laboratory Global).
NTU CCA IDEASFEST 2023
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�SUMMIT
Free registration for Conference Days through
https://bit.ly/ntuccaideasfest2023_events
T H U R S D AY, 1 6 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
5.15PM – 8.00PM
Venue:
CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602
Theatrette, Level 2
5.15pm
Registration and Coffee
5.45pm
Opening Addresses
by
Guest of Honor Dr. Alvin Yeo (Singapore), Senior Director, Joint Policy and Planning
Division, Singapore Food Agency
Prof. Subodh Mhaisalkar (Singapore), Executive Director for Academic Research,
National Research Foundation Singapore, President’s Chair in Energy and Professor,
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Prof. Tim White (Australia/ Singapore), Vice President (International Engagement),
President’s Chair in Materials Science and Engineering, Professor, School of Materials
Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Prof. Sacha Menz (Switzerland), Director, Future Cities Lab Global (FCL-G)
and Professor of Architecture and Building Process, ETH Zürich
Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/Singapore), Co-Director, Future Cities Lab
Global (FCL-G), Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) and Professor of Architecture and
Sustainable Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director,
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore)
and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU
6.30pm
CLOSING THE LOOP: The Role of Circular Economy in the Food Sector
Keynote Lecture by Paula Huerta (Spain/Indonesia), Circular Economy Consultant
and Director, Bambook Studio and GUASL
Followed by a conversation with Assoc. Prof. Laura Miotto (Italy/Singapore),
School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
8.00pm
Reception
F R I D AY, 1 7 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
8 . 3 0 A M – 7. 3 0 P M
Venue:
CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602
Theatrette, Level 2
8.30am
Registration and Coffee
FOOD ECOSYSTEMS
9.00am
Welcome by Co-Curators
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, NTU ADM
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�Assoc. Prof. Laura Miotto (Italy/Singapore), NTU ADM
Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/Singapore), Co-Director, FCL-G, SEC
9.10am
Food Connects
Lecture by Raine Melissa Riman (Malaysia), Co-Curator, E.A.T Borneo Conference,
media strategist and social media lead, What About Kuching Festival
9.40am
Hello! I am a Black Soldier Fly and I am Transforming the Global Food System
Flash Lecture by Niraly Mangal (India/Singapore), Doctoral Researcher, SEC
10.00am
Clinically Relevant Materials & Applications Inspired by Food Technologies
Flash Lecture by Prof. Wiliam Chen (Singapore), Michael Fam Endowed Professor
and Director, Food Science and Technology, NTU
10.20am
Human Created Food Crisis
Flash Lecture by Britto Arts Trust / Mahbubur Rahman (Bangladesh), Artist,
Co-Founder and Trustee, Britto Arts Trust
10.40am—Break
11.00am
Discussion with Prof. William Chen (Singapore), Michael Fam Endowed Professor
and Director, Food Science and Technology, NTU, Niraly Mangal (India/Singapore),
Doctoral Researcher, SEC, Britto Arts Trust / Mahbubur Rahman (Bangladesh),
Artist, Co-Founder and Trustee, Britto Arts Trust, and Raine Melissa Riman
(Malaysia), Co-Curator, E.A.T Borneo Conference, media strategist and social media
lead, What About Kuching Festival
Moderated by Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director,
NTU CCA Singapore and Professor, NTU ADM
12.00pm
Lunch Break
U R B A N F O O D A LT E R N AT I V E S
1.30pm
Architecture of Urban Agriculture for Building Sustainable Cities
Lecture by Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/Singapore), Co-Director, FCL-G, SEC,
and Carlos Banon (Spain/ Singapore), Assoc. Professor, SUTD, Director and
Co-Founder, AIRLAB Singapore
2.00pm
How Singapore is Addressing Global Food and Environmental Challenges Through
Alternative Proteins
Flash Lecture by Valerie Pang (Singapore), Innovation Associate,
The Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC
2.20pm
Healing Remedies & Roadside Beauties
Flash Lecture by Adeline Kueh (Singapore), Artist, Senior Lecturer, LASALLE College
of the Arts
2.40pm
Consumer Acceptance of Alternative Proteins: Enduring and Emerging Issues
Flash Lecture by Bianca Wassmann (Germany/Philippines), Doctoral Researcher, SEC
3.00pm—Break
3.20pm
Discussion with Carlos Banon (Spain/ Singapore), Assoc. Professor, SUTD, Director
and Co-Founder, AIRLAB Singapore, Valerie Pang (Singapore), Innovation Associate, GFI
APAC, Adeline Kueh (Singapore), Artist, Senior Lecturer, LASALLE College of the Arts,
and Bianca Wassmann (Germany/Philippines), Doctoral Researcher, SEC
Moderated by Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/Singapore), Co-Director, FCL-G, SEC
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�4.20pm—Break
NON-CONVENTIONAL FOOD SOURCES
4.40pm
Quantifying the Environmental Impact of Our Food – How to Make More
Sustainable Choices
Lecture by Dr. Iris Haberkorn (Germany/Singapore), Senior Researcher and
Project Lead, SEC
5.10pm
Urban Food Production in a Circular Bioeconomy with Microalgae as Case Study
Flash Lecture by Byron Perez (Ecuador/Singapore), Doctoral Researcher, SEC
5.30pm
I Have Never Seen a Swimming Salmon in My Life
Flash Lecture by Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia), Artist
5.50pm
Reporting on Singapore’s Innovations of Cultivated Meat
Flash Lecture by Dr. Keri Matwick (USA/Singapore), Lecturer, School of Humanities NTU
and Dr. Kelsi Matwick (USA/Singapore), Adj. Asst. Prof., University of Florida
6.10 pm—Break
6.30pm
Discussion with Dr. Iris Haberkorn (Germany/Singapore), Senior Researcher and
Project Lead, SEC, Byron Perez (Ecuador/Singapore), Doctoral Researcher, SEC,
Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia), Artist, Dr. Keri Matwick, Lecturer, NTU, and
Dr. Kelsi Matwick, (USA/Singapore), Adj. Asst. Prof., University of Florida
Moderated by Dr. Tanvi Maheshwari (India/Singapore), Assoc. Director (Research),
FCL-G, SEC
S AT U R D AY, 1 8 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
9.00AM – 1.00PM
Venue:
CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602
Theatrette, Level 2
9.00am
Registration and Coffee
FOOD INDUSTRIES
9.30am
Welcome by Co-Curators
Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), Curator and Research Associate,
NTU CCA Singapore
Dr. Tanvi Maheshwari (India/Singapore), Assoc. Director (Research), FCL-G, SEC
9.40am
Sarawak Rice: From Traditional Significance to Modern Sustainability
Lecture by Karen Shepherd (Malaysia), writer, content creator, and Strategic
Director, UCCN Kuching Creative City
10.40am
On Palms, Weevils, and Owls:
Tracing more-than-human labour in the oil palm territories of Johor, Malaysia
Flash Lecture by Hans Hortig (Austria/Singapore), Doctoral Researcher, FCL-G, SEC
11.00am
Collective Making and Domestic Hacking
Flash Lecture by Irene Agrivina (Indonesia), Artist, Co-Founder HONF and XXLAB
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�11.20am
Microbial Fuel Cells: Mud, Microbes, and Midichlorians (of The Force)
Flash Lecture by Saad Chinoy (Singapore), Co-Founder SpudnikLab,
Storytellers’ Kitchen, and EdibleMakerspace
11.40am—Break
12.00pm
Discussion with Karen Shepherd (Malaysia), writer, content creator,
Strategic Director, UCCN Kuching Creative City, Hans Hortig (Austria/Singapore),
Doctoral Researcher, FCL-G, SEC, Irene Agrivina (Indonesia), Artist, Co-Founder
HONF and XXLAB, and Saad Chinoy (Singapore), Co-Founder SpudnikLab,
Storytellers’ Kitchen, EdibleMakerspace
Moderated by Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), Curator and
Research Associate NTU CCA Singapore
S AT U R D AY, 1 8 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
4.00 – 6.00PM
Venue:
National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Singapore 188969
Auditorium
4.00pm
Circularity and 3D-printing for Addressing Urban Agriculture for
Sustainable Future Cities
Talk by Carlos Banon, Assoc. Professor, SUTD, Director and Co-Founder,
AIRLAB Singapore
5.00pm
Guided Exhibition Tour of Circular Futures: Next Gen. (following the talk)
S U N D AY, 1 9 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
4.00 – 6.00PM
Venue:
National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Singapore 188969
Auditorium
4.00pm
The Potential for Digital Models in Urban Agriculture
Sharing Session by Alba Lombardia (Spain/Singapore), PhD Researcher, SUTD
with introductions by Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/Singapore),
Co-Director, FCL-G, SEC and Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design, SUTD,
and Carlos Banon, Assoc. Professor, SUTD, Director and Co-Founder,
AIRLAB Singapore
5.00pm
Guided Exhibition Tour of Circular Futures: Next Gen. (following the talk)
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�WORKSHOPS
Tickets for workshops can be purchased or registered for at
https://bit.ly/ntuccaideasfest2023_events
S AT U R D AY, 1 8 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
10.00am – 1.00pm
To Gathering: Food Flows
Alecia Neo (Singapore), Artist, Ground-Up Initiative (Singapore), and
Madhumitha Ardhanari (Singapore), Principal Sustainability Strategist,
Forum for the Future
Venue: Kampung Kampus, 91 Lorong Chencharu, Singapore 769201
2.30 – 5.30pm
Grow Your Own Microgreens with PVs
Dr. Christoph Waibel (Germany/Singapore), Module Coordinator, Powering the City,
FCL-G, Dr. Shi Zhongming (China/Singapore), Principal Investigator,
Building Integrated Agriculture, FCL-G, Dr. Zhang Qianning (China/Singapore),
Principal Investigator, Building Integrated Agriculture, NUS,
Dr. Huang Zhaolu (China/Singapore), Research Fellow, Building Integrated
Agriculture, NUS
Venue: Future Cities Laboratory, Value Lab, Level 6,
CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Singapore 138602
3.00 – 5.30pm
Novel Materials
Irene Agrivina (Indonesia), Artist, Co-Founder HONF and XXLAB, and
Saad Chinoy (Singapore), Co-Founder, SpudnikLab, Storytellers’ Kitchen,
and EdibleMakerspace
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
4.00 – 6.00pm
An Afternoon with “Salmon” Tea Sandwich
Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia), Artist
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Singapore 109441
S U N D AY, 1 9 F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
Tickets for Workshops can be purchased or registered for at
https://bit.ly/ntuccaideasfest2023_events
10.00am – 12.00pm
Stories & Food of Semakau
Firdaus Sani (Singapore), Founder, Oranglaut.sg and The Black Sampan
Venue: West Coast Park
10.00 – 11.30am
Elevating the Ordinary: Crafting a Creative Exploration of an Everyday Staple
Karen Shepherd (Malaysia), writer, content creator, and Strategic Director,
UCCN Kuching Creative City, Raine Melissa Riman (Malaysia), Co-curator,
E.A.T Borneo Conference, media strategist and social media lead, What About Kuching
Festival, and Dr. Franca Cole (UK/Malaysia), Consultant in Conservation and
Archaeology, Sarawak Museum, and Lecturer, NTU ADM
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
10.00am – 12.00pm
Healing Remedies & Roadside Beauties
Adeline Kueh (Singapore), Artist, Senior Lecturer, LASALLE College of the Arts
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-02, Singapore 109452
10. 00am – 12.30pm
Edible Wild
Joy Chee, Resident Bartender and Gardener, Native Bar
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�11.30am – 1.30pm
Human Created Food Crisis
Britto Arts Trust / Mahbubur Rahman (Bangladesh), Artist, Co-Founder, Britto Arts
Trust and Shimul Saha (Bangladesh), Artist, both Trustees, Britto Arts Trust
Venue: Intermission Bar, The Projector, 6001 Beach Rd, #05-00
GOLDEN MILE TOWER, Singapore 199589
2.30 – 5.30pm
DIY Self-Watering Plant Robot!
Dr. Christoph Waibel (Germany/Singapore), Module Coordinator, Powering the City,
FCL-G, Dr. Shi Zhongming (China/Singapore), Principal Investigator,
Building Integrated Agriculture, FCL-G, Dr. Zhang Qianning (China/Singapore),
Principal Investigator, Building Integrated Agriculture, NUS,
Dr. Huang Zhaolu (China/Singapore), Research Fellow, Building Integrated
Agriculture, NUS
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934
3.00 – 5.00pm
How Food Media Affect What We Eat
Dr. Keri Matwick (USA/Singapore), Lecturer, School of Humanities NTU, and
Dr. Kelsi Matwick (USA/Singapore), Adj. Asst. Prof., University of Florida
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
EXHIBITIONS
Venue:
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 & 38 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
Exhibition Hours
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
From 12.00pm– 7.00pm
Free admission to all exhibitions
Hello! I am a Black Soldier Fly and I am Transforming the Global Food System
Primary Contributor: Niraly Mangal, Doctoral researcher, SEC
Other Contributors: Adrian Fuhrmann, PhD Researcher, SEC,
Vartika Goenka, Research Assistant, SEC, Heng Chin Wee, Research Assistant SEC,
Shaktheeshwari Silvaraju, PhD Student, SEC, Chloe Tan, Research Assistant, SEC,
Tan Yong Jen, Research Assistant, SEC, Yanyun Yan, Research Associate,
Zhang Qihui, PhD student
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452
Sustainable Food Systems with Microalgae-based Proteins
Dr. Iris Haberkorn, Senior Researcher and Project Lead, SEC,
Byron Perez, Doctoral Researcher, SEC, Helena Schmitt, Research Intern SEC,
Carole Zermatten, Student SEC
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452
Hoo Fan Chon, Artist
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Singapore 109441
The Journey of Food
Primary Contributors: Yuhao Lu, Helen Lei Fan, Research Assistants, FCL-G
Other Contributors: Kaiyu Lu, Muhammad Is’Maill Bin Azman, Isabella Meo,
Jasper Phang Wee Keat, Zi Gui Toh, Loo Yanshan, all Research Assistants, FCL-G
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-05, Singapore 109441
Potential Agriterritories – Agrarian Questions and Agroecological Design
Architecture of Territory
Assoc. Prof. Milica Topalovic, Architecture and Territorial Planning, Department of
Architecture, ETH Zurich, Alice Clarke, teaching assistant, Architecture of Territory,
ETH Zurich, Hans Hortig, Doctoral Researcher, FCL-G, SEC, Karoline Kostka, Senior
Researcher, New Urban Agendas for Agrarian Territories, FCL-G, SEC, and Students
of the joint Master of Advanced Studies at the ETH Zürich and Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology Lausanne (ETH EPFL MAS UTD)
NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-07, Singapore 109441
SCHEDULE & VENUES
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�IRENE AGRIVINA
Artist, Co-Founder HONF and XXLAB
Flash Lecture
Collective Making and Domestic Hacking
Saturday, 18 February 2023
11.00am
Digital technology innovations tend to secure knowledge in the hands of a limited
number of institutions and corporations, but Indonesian group Critical Making
adheres to the principle of openness, organised through citizen initiation and run by
grassroots-level collectives, to create physical objects much like how the open-source
movement allows for innovations in software. Each individual has the right and
access to knowledge and the process of creating with materials and technology.
In Indonesia, collectives play an important role as the driving force of the cultural
sector and as catalysts for social and economic development. However, even though
these collectives are open to any gender, female and nonbinary gender participation in
open science and citizen science movements are still relatively small and imbalanced.
Moreover, in the digital technology industry at large, true inclusion remains lacking, as
women, trans people, and
children are “included” as
mere users and consumers. This non-inclusive
creation process creates
inequality and stifles true
innovation. Domestic
Hacking intervenes by
involving women, trans
people, and children in
making and hacking.
Irene Agrivina, Unsplash, 2022. Photo by Tim Oliver Metz. Courtesy the artist.
CARLOS BANON
Associate Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD),
Director and Co-Founder, AIRLAB Singapore
Circularity and 3D-printing for Addressing Urban Agriculture
for Sustainable Future Cities
Saturday, 18 February 2023
4.00pm
Venue: Auditorium, National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Singapore 188969
The Dense and Green Cities Future Cities Lab Global (FCL-G) in collaboration with
the Architecture Intelligence Research Lab (AIRLAB) @SUTD showcases the architecture of urban agriculture for building sustainable cities at the National Design Centre.
The exhibition Circular Futures: Next Gen., curated by Associate Professor Carlos
Banon, is centred in the themes of architecture, agriculture, design and sustainability,
and demonstrates how digital design and
additive manufacturing (3D printing) is a
powerful enabler of a circular economy.
During his talk, Banon presents prototypes of floating and vertical farms that
offer potential solutions to food security
challenges, as well as decorative walls
and furniture made from waste materials
from “Circular Futures”.
The talk is followed by a guided tour of
the exhibition.
FLOAT Lattice Garden System, 2021. Courtesy Carlos Banon / SUTD Air Lab.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�BRITTO ARTS TRUST / MAHBUBUR RAHMAN
Artist, Co-Founder and Trustee of Britto Arts Trust
Flash Lecture
Human Created Food Crisis
Friday, 17 February 2023
10.20am
A human-created food crisis is often thought of as a famine resulting from war—and is
sometimes weaponised as a tool of war between nation-states. Within nation-states,
domestic food policy features as a critical component of economic and human development, parallel to processes of urbanisation and industrialisation. However, this drive
of “development” is often countered by devastating implications for social, cultural,
ecological biodiversity. Moreover, due to globalisation, food crises are not contained
by geopolitical borders, and now, in belated acknowledgement of our planetary reality,
food crises permeate at every scale, from microbiome to atmosphere. Food politics are
life politics. Food has always been a big concern in projects by Britto Arts Trust. ZERO
WASTE-FoodArt (2019) was initiated during the Covid-19 pandemic, where artists and
art collectives, within Bangladesh and abroad, could grow, make and share food within
their communities—while reutilising waste to grow, make and share art.
Britto Arts Trust, Rasod, 2022, installation view (detail). Courtesy Britto Arts Trust / Tayeba Begum Lipi.
P R O F. W I L L I A M C H E N
Michael Fam Endowed Professor, Director Food Science and Technology, NTU Singapore
Flash Lecture
Clinically Relevant Materials & Applications Inspired by Food Technologies
Friday, 17 February 2023
10.00am
Food science and technology has a fundamental and considerable overlap with medicine, and many clinically important applications were born out of translational food
science research. Globally, the food industry generates huge quantities of agro-waste
and food processing by-products that retain significant biochemical potential for
upcycling into important medical applications. This review explores some distinct
clinical applications that are fabricable from food-based biopolymers and substances,
often originating from food manufacturing side streams. These include antibacterial
wound dressings and tissue scaffolding from biopolymers cellulose and chitosan
as well as antimicrobial food phytochemicals for combating antibiotic-resistant
nosocomial infections. Furthermore, fermentation is discussed as the epitome of a
translational food technology that unlocks further therapeutic value from recalcitrant
food-based substrates and enables sustainable large-scale production of high-value
pharmaceuticals, including novel fermented food-derived bioactive peptides (BPs).
“Clinically Relevant Materials & Applications Inspired by Food Technologies” (lecture slide). Courtesy Prof. William Chen.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�SAAD CHINOY
Co-Founder, SpudnikLab, Storytellers’ Kitchen, EdibleMakerspace
Flash Lecture
Microbial Fuel Cells: Mud, Microbes, and Midichlorians (of The Force)
Saturday, 18 February 2023
11.20am
Microbes power you. You have more bacterial cells than YOU cells that make you.
Non-human cells outnumber human cells by (at least) 1.3 times! Does this mean we’re
more alien than we think? Microbes are alive, invisible, everywhere (especially inside
you), and (luckily) can be used to power things!
Samples of vegan leather made from dehydrated SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast).
Courtesy Saad Chinoy / Edible Makerspace.
HOO FAN CHON
Artist
Flash Lecture
I Have Never Seen a Swimming Salmon in My Life
Friday, 17 February 2023
5.30pm
Born into a fisherman’s family that regularly hosted and attended seafood banquets,
fish has always been a mainstay in Fan Chon’s diet. In recent years, fish has also
become a recurring motif in his practice. He understands food consumption as a
constant negotiation between nature and culture inflected by social norms. During
his flash lecture, Fan Chon will share about his latest research on how pigments turn
tissues of various organisms, including salmon, into a pinkish-red hue. Besides its
distinctive colour, its consumption bespeaks the Western lifestyle aspirations of a
rising global middle class, prompting conversations on salmon as a class symbol in
Southeast Asia, our need to alter/design the colour of food, and food consumption
informed by cultural practice and class aspiration.
Hoo Fan Chon, I have never seen a swimming salmon in my life, 2022, mixed media installation. Courtesy the artist.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�DR. IRIS HABERKORN
Senior Researcher and Project Lead, Singapore- ETH Centre (SEC)
Lecture
Quantifying the Environmental Impact of our Food –
How to Make More Sustainable Choices
Friday, 17 February 2023
4.40pm
Despite all good intentions and efforts of establishing sustainable food systems to
support a steadily growing global population, traditional food production systems
and their associated value chains are exceeding our planetary boundaries. This talk
highlights how ovel production technologies, integrated sustainabiity assessment and
further data integration into national food systems through nutritional, environmental and social indicators could be a basis for a holistically developed, more sustainable food system. The focus for innovative system changes is emerging microalgae
processing and production.
Dr. Iris Haberkorn (ETH Zürich) cultivating yellow microalgae, 2021. Photo: Prof. Alexander Mathys.
PAUL A HUERTA
Circular Economy Consultant and Director Bambook Studio and GUASL
Keynote Address
CLOSING THE LOOP: The Role of Circular Economy in the Food Sector
Thursday, 16 February 2023
6.30pm
Our present global crises oblige us to accelerate the move towards a low-carbon
future. This includes the transition from a linear economy, defined by the consumption of finite resources and the accumulation of waste, to a circular economy, which
redefines growth by prioritising both people and the planet. In our current linear
economy, the food sector and its bio-waste accounts for the largest single component
of municipal waste landfills and is a significant source of greenhouse gases such as
methane. As part of a circular economy, bio-waste can bring gains linked to multiple
higher-value products, such as natural fertilisers for agriculture, energy production,
and even protein feed for aquaculture or farming.
In this keynote address, Huerta presents the main impacts of a linear economy food
system and the importance of introducing a well-functioning circular economy
food system. She will focus on applying solutions from the natural world and how
to implement a sustainable organic loop system.
Documentation of BSF Lombok. Courtesy Bambook Studio.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�HANS HORTIG
Doctoral Researcher, Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global, Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC)
Flash Lecture
On Palms, Weevils, and Owls: Tracing more-than-human Labour
in the Oil Palm Territories of Johor, Malaysia
Saturday, 18 February 2023
10.40am
This lecture discusses plantation agriculture as a technology aimed at extracting
natural resources and unpaid labour as well as installing regulatory authority. It is
focused on palm oil plantation territories iin the state of Johor in Malaysia, one of
the core zones of palm oil production, refining, and export. Through the operationalisation of territory, the presentation brings the discourse on the Plantationocene
into dialogue with critical urban studies. Palms, weevils, and owls are uncovered as
surprising agents in the production process, highlighting the fact that more-thanhuman assemblages have been utilised to enable the expansion of Malaysian palm oil
plantations and the socio-ecological transformation of territory. The entanglements
of agro-industrial operationalisation of territory and more-than-human life on the
plantations are traced temporally, showing the fragility of plantation ecologies on
which the global palm oil commodity chains depend.
*Several physical objects from palm oil plantations are presented at Gillman Barracks
in the exhibition POTENTIAL AGRITERRITORIES, Zurich and Singapore.
Plantation workers with barn owl and owl hut at the Palm Oil Experience Centre,
Carey Island, Malaysia, 2019. Courtesy Hans Hortig.
ADELINE KUEH
Artist, Senior Lecturer, LASALLE College of the Arts
Flash Lecture
Healing Remedies & Roadside Beauties
Friday, 17 February 2023
2.20pm
The focus of this presentation is the artist’s research interest and practice in food
foraging, healing remedies, and socially embodied practices. The Roadside Beauties
project, alongside a longstanding attentiveness to the interstitial spaces of care and
the intertwining of personal and cultural histories, serves as an example. Kueh looks
at the differing expressions and experimentations around nature, food, and healing,
specifically in relation to folk and intergenerational food remedies.
Adeline Kueh, Roadside Beauties (detail), 2020. Courtesy the artist & STPI.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�ALBA LOMBARDIA
PhD Researcher, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
With introductions by Prof. Thomas Schroepfer and Carlos Banon
The Potential for Digital Models in Urban Agriculture
Sunday, 19 February 2023
4.00pm
Venue: Auditorium, National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Singapore 188969
The Potential for Digital Models in Urban Agriculture focuses on the possibilities of
scalability of urban agriculture in high-density cities and the potential of sunlight-informed architectural models for controlled environment agriculture. With brief introductions by Professor Thomas Schroepfer and Associate Professor Carlos Banon’s
Urban Agriculture Architecture for Sustainable Future Cities, the talk is followed by
a guided tour of the exhibition Circular Futures: Next Gen., curated by Associate
Professor Carlos Banon.
Alba Lombardía, Agriculture 4.0, image created with Midjourney, 2023. Courtesy Alba Lombardia / SUTD Air Lab.
N I R A LY M A N G A L
Doctoral Researcher, Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC)
Flash Lecture
Hello! I am a Black Soldier Fly and I am Transforming the Global Food System
Friday, 17 February 2023
9.40am
What does a future-proof food system look like? How do we ensure a circular food
system in our cities? To ensure a truly circular food system, food waste management
holds the key to closing the loop. This talk presents a nature-based solution for
urban food waste management using the Black soldier fly. Black soldier flies (BSF)
represent an opportunity for realising a key principle of the circular economy by
targeting organic waste for continuous circulation into novel forms of value. BSF are
fast-growing insects that can transform food waste into sustainable high-protein feed
ingredients for poultry and aquaculture diets. These high-tech, high-producing,
space-efficient farms could become an integral part of Singapore’s food system by
helping to reduce and recycle food waste. They can be embedded into our dense
urban environment to use land efficiently and synergise with the built environment
of Singapore to also reap social benefits of urban agriculture. This talk elaborates on
developing design, network and operational solutions for BSF integration in dense
urban environments.
Black Soldier Fly larvae feeding on local food waste in Singapore.
Photo: Phira Unadirekkul. Courtesy Niraly Mangal.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�DR. KERI MATWICK & DR. KELSI MATWICK
Dr. Keri Matwick, Lecturer, School of Humanities, NTU
Dr. Kelsi Matwick, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Flash Lecture
Reporting on Singapore’s Innovations of Cultivated Meat
Friday, 17 February 2023
5.50pm
From chicken made in a test tube to protein grown “out of thin air,” new ways of
growing meat are emerging, and Singapore is leading the way. How do we talk about
foods that are unfamiliar to us? This presentation examines how cultivated meats
are made newsworthy through language and what values are conveyed. Focusing on
The Straits Times, we examine articles published between 2019 and 2022 and identify
news values and themes of positivity, impact, proximity, eliteness and superlativeness, which construct a sociocultural understanding of novel foods as positive, innovative and profitable. We discuss how this may motivate social and personal mobilisation of food choices by placing trust in the government and science technology.
Cultivated fish and fruit tartare by Avan Meals. Courtesy Good Food Institute.
VALERIE PANG
Innovation Associate, The Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC
Flash Lecture
How Singapore is Addressing Global Food and Environmental Challenges
Through Alternative Proteins
Friday, 17 February 2023
2.00pm
Protein demand is surging around the world, including here in Asia. As a result, conventional meat production is projected to nearly double by 2050, leading to historic
levels of natural resource depletion and climate disruption. Industrialised animal
agriculture is already responsible for roughly 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions, and
more than three quarters of all agricultural land is used to raise or feed livestock. In
this talk, we outline how alternative proteins can satisfy this rising consumer demand
in a more efficient and secure way and spotlight Singapore’s initiatives for developing
a future-proof global food supply.
Plant-based meat table spread by Love Handle. Courtesy Good Food Institute / APAC.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�BYRON PEREZ
Doctoral Researcher, Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC)
Flash Lecture
Urban Food Production in a Circular Bioeconomy with Microalgae as Case Study
Friday, 17 February 2023
5.10pm
Sustaining a growing population requires a shift in traditional linear production
concepts towards closed loop supply chains. Novel raw material valorisation combined with technological innovation and a sustainable transformation of existing
value-chains will be required to ensure global food security. This talk highlights the
potential of cellular agriculture for sustainably transforming existing linear production concepts into creating circular systems with microalgae as a case study,
highlighting current challenges and opportunities, as well as technological advances
related to novel protein production and processing with a strong link to industrial
implementation.
Microalgae cultivation in bubbling columns at ETH-Singapore Centre, 2023. Courtesy Byron Perez.
RAINE MELISSA RIMAN
Co-curator, E.A.T Borneo Conference, media strategist and social media lead,
What About Kuching Festival
Lecture
Food Connects
Friday, 17 February 2023
9.10am
E.A.T. Borneo’s first homegrown conference, titled Innovate. Elevate. Celebrate.,
was focused around FOOD and took place in October 2022, in Kuching, Malaysia’s
UNESCO “City of Gastronomy.” The driving force behind this movement was the idea
of sustainability and security, to address the fact that significantly more resources
go into our global food system than come out of it. Food connects people. Food is
political. Food is our past, present and future. Food is art, culture and a way of life.
Meaningful dialogue and shared learning becomes a catalyst for growth and future
collaborations with diverse people from the food system from across the world.
E.A.T. serves as a platform to initiate and negotiate conversations, enable more
creations, elevate connections and celebrate different producers and consumers in
the food system. Conversation does matter, and we’re all strangers at first. To address
change, it needs conversation and negotiation between various people from diverse
backgrounds. This year’s conference theme, Collaborate. Curate. Co-Create, focuses
on the many cultures from Southeast Asia.
Documentation of E.A.T: Taste of Borneo Conference, Innovate, Elevate, Celebrate, Sarawak, 2022.
Courtesy E.A.T: Taste of Borneo.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�P R O F. T H O M A S S C H R O E P F E R
& CARLOS BANON
Professor Thomas Schroepfer, Co-Director, Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global, Singapore-ETH
Centre (SEC), Carlos Banon, Associate Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design
(SUTD), Director and Co-Founder, AIRLAB Singapore
Lecture
Architecture of urban agriculture for building sustainable cities
Friday, 17 February 2023
1.30pm
The fourth agriculture revolution is predominately situated in cities and encompasses
the three pillars of sustainability—social, environmental, and economic. It is expected
to bridge together people and the planet through eco-friendly food production systems
in urban areas. Urban Agriculture is thus seen as a significant addition to the architectural vocabulary for future cities. This talk touches on the theme of architecture,
agriculture, design and sustainability as we explore the potential of future technologies in the form of digital and additive manufacturing (3D printing) as a key enabler
in integrating these concepts within sustainable urban agriculture. The talk explores
the evolving field of urban agriculture architecture and presents the journey of the
architectural evolving elements for planning a circular, sustainable, regenerative and
productive future city.
FLOAT Lattice Garden System, 2021. Courtesy Carlos Bañon / SUTD Air Lab.
KAREN SHEPHERD
Writer, content creator, Strategic Director, UCCN Kuching Creative City
Lecture
Sarawak Rice: From Traditional Significance To Modern Sustainability
Saturday, 18 February 2023
9.40am
Rice is the most widely eaten staple across Asia, though it’s often merely a vehicle
for other, more exciting foods. In Sarawak’s traditional indigenous culture, this grain
has great ritual and cosmological significance. Set against a backdrop of extreme
rainforest biodiversity and management dating back 50,000 years, it is one that has
long puzzled anthropologists. Modern agricultural research confirms that Sarawak
now has at least 100 heirloom varieties, many of them unique to this area, and most
of them boasting a flavour, texture and aroma profile unmatched by commercially
available alternatives. This lecture gives background to the importance of rice in
Sarawak’s indigenous and gastronomic
environment and address the approaches
being taken by the UCCN Kuching team
to make the story of rice into the story
of Sarawak: its indigenous land tenure, its relationship with this land and
its modern, sustainable landscape. It
furthermore explores how the UNESCO
designation has impacted this as part of a
larger network focused on food security
and food justice, sustainability and traditional knowledge systems.
Rice varieties from Sarawak. Photo: Alan Lee Pik Jin.
Courtesy UCCN Kuching City of Rice.
SUMMIT
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�BIANCA WASSMANN
Doctoral Researcher, Singapore- ETH Centre (SEC)
Flash Lecture
Consumer Acceptance of Alternative Proteins: Enduring and Emerging Issues
Friday, 17 February 2023
2.40pm
Rising food prices, disease-inflicted livestock and a shortage of imported chicken
meat are emerging issues of concern in Singapore. The world affects what we eat, and
what we eat impacts the world. Are alternative proteins a possible answer? Would
you consider them?
Our daily food choices have a huge impact on the environment. Production of meat
has a much larger impact compared to the production of vegetable-based proteins.
To create a food production and supply system that is more sustainable and environmentally friendly, food consumption behaviour needs to change. A reduction of meat
intake is necessary. The introduction of alternative protein sources—for instance,
those reliant on insects, cultured meat, or microalgae—could be a potential solution
to replace meat. This presentation highlights the aspect of consumer acceptance and
potential barriers for the creation of novel food products based on alternative proteins.
Phototrophic microalgae in flasks, ETH Zürich, 2019. Photo: Prof Alexander Mathys.
AN AFTERNOON WITH “SALMON” TEA SANDWICH
HOO FAN CHON
Workshop
Saturday, 18 February 2023
4.00 – 6.00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Singapore 109441
Carotenoids are naturally-occurring pigments that turn the tissues of various organisms, including salmon, into a pinkish-red hue. While the pink pigmentation of wild
salmon is due to a natural diet made of krill and shrimp, the flesh of farmed salmon
is either grey or off-white. In order to achieve the vibrant hue that makes salmon
appealing to consumers, farmed salmon are regularly fed synthetic carotenoids (astaxanthin) to emulate the colour of wild salmon. Besides its distinctive colour, salmon is
also seen as a premium source of protein in Southeast Asia. Its consumption bespeaks
the Western lifestyle aspirations of a rising global middle class. It can be found at
higher-end supermarket fish counters and restaurant menus and is featured in luxury
hotels’ high-tea services as our food chains become increasingly globalised. It is a
common food preparation practice to change or add colour to our food in Southeast
Asia, especially in pickled fruit and desserts. This workshop will put the How to turn
your siakap into salmon instruction video work into practice by inviting participants
to make salmon tea sandwiches with pre-dyed siakap (barramundi) with a selection of
natural and synthetic dying agents. It intends to prompt conversations on salmon as
a class symbol in Southeast Asia, our need to alter/design the colour of food, and food
consumption informed by cultural practice and class aspiration through an afternoon
session of preparing and sampling “salmon” tea sandwiches together.
Hoo Fan Chon, How to turn your siakap into salmon, still from video, 2022. Courtesy the artist.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�EDIBLE WILD
JOY CHEE / NATIVE
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
10.00am – 12.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934
Edible Wild is a two-and-a-half-hour-long workshop aimed at bringing participants
closer to nature. Despite the greenery that surrounds us in our concrete jungle, it
is easy to overlook the plants that flank our sidewalks. As the world moves at an
ever-increasing pace, we need the occasional reminder to slow down and reconnect
with the earth—and one of the best ways to do so is to learn how to care for it. This
workshop is a gentle introduction to the myriad of herbs, both common and uncommon, found growing around our garden city, as well as a chance to understand their
history and uses. Participants learn simple plant identification techniques, pick up
basic gardening skills to use at home and make simple herbal infusions. The overall
goal is to renew a sense of wonder for our green companions while providing the
skills to identify and care for them.
Herbs from Native’s garden, 2022. Courtesy Native.
ELEVATING THE ORDINARY:
CRAFTING A CREATIVE EXPLORATION OF
AN EVERYDAY STAPLE
KAREN SHEPHERD, RAINE MELISSA RIMAN,
& DR. FRANCA COLE
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
10.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
This workshop picks up where the group’s UCCN Kuching City of Gastronomy
presentation left off, examining the team’s creative approaches to constructing a
narrative around Sarawak’s heirloom rice as an important traditional crop, explaining
why the Sarawak indigenous cultures cultivated this one grain, largely for its spiritual
and social significance rather than food security, and how that has impacted
Borneo’s biodiversity.
The group invites workshop participants
to share ways of crafting perceived value
for an often-overlooked item. The highly
interactive session aims to generate suggestions and sensory narratives for positioning Sarawak rice in a modern global
context using storytelling, documentation
and other creative media. Participants
collectively consider how issues of food
security, food justice, sustainability and
traditional knowledge can be addressed in
a commercial agricultural context, both
to increase appreciation and to drive
societal change.
Rice varieties from Sarawak. Photo: Alan Lee Pik Jin.
Courtesy UCCN Kuching City of Rice.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�GROW YOUR OWN GREENS WITH PVS
DR. CHRISTOPH WAIBEL, DR. SHI ZHONGMING,
DR. ZHANG QIANNING, & DR. HUANG ZHAOLU
Workshop
Saturday, 18 February 2023
2.30 – 5.30pm
Venue: Future Cities Laboratory, Value Lab, Level 6, CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way,
Singapore 138602
This workshop introduces a novel Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) app that
provides customised plant-growing suggestions, including vegetable type selection
and a planting calendar, to grow your own greens at home! The app also provides a
comparison of the environmental impact when growing vegetables at home against
conventional methods. Activities include training on the beta version of the BIA app,
a demonstration of the app’s built database and a hands-on plant-growing session.
DIY SELF-WATERING PL ANT ROBOT!
DR. CHRISTOPH WAIBEL, DR. SHI ZHONGMING,
DR. ZHANG QIANNING, & DR. HUANG ZHAOLU
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
2.30 – 5.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934
This DIY technical workshop results in an automatic self-watering plant robot to
help greens grow at home. By using Arduino, an easy-to-learn microcontroller for
custom-made robots, and by connecting a photovoltaic panel to a battery that powers
a soil-moisture-controlled automatic water pump, home-grown crops won’t dry out
while owners are on holiday. The workshop consists of a brief introduction to the
individual hardware components and how to connect all parts to achieve a functioning, solar-powered watering robot.
Working in pairs is recommended. Please bring your own laptop.
Tropical Technological Laboratory (T2) affiliated with the National University of Singapore. Photo: Zhang Qianning.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�HEALING REMEDIES & ROADSIDE BEAUTIES
ADELINE KUEH
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
2.30 – 4.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-02, Singapore 109452
What alternative narratives and creative strategies of healing practices, food histories,
folk and community knowledge and its relation to land may be brought to the fore?
Could there be a legacy through narratives around food and a way to resurface “lost
knowledge” while bringing together various forms of cross-cultural wisdom?
This workshop is part of Adeline Kueh’s larger body of work that examines the history of foraging, oral traditions and existing knowledge systems based on the artist’s
cartographic research and reconsiders the human-nature relationship in light
of climate change and the current pandemic. The workshop explores alternative
knowledge-building of flora-fauna’s healing elements that can be responsive towards
our immediate ecological concerns as well as applied by future generations.
Adeline Kueh, from Indices for Cooling Remedies, photographic series, 2021. Courtesy the artist.
HOW FOOD MEDIA AFFECT WHAT WE EAT
DR. KERI MATWICK & DR. KELSI MATWICK
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
3.00 – 5.00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
Get smarter about your food choices in this workshop! Participants in this workshop
reflect on food information in the media and identify what influences their food
choices and attitudes. Food advertising is everywhere (e.g., billboards, magazines,
TV, radio, social media ads), so it is important to think about what advertisements
influence your choices the most and why.
In hands-on learning, you’ll identify your favourite advertising features, reflect on what
appeals to you and why, and evaluate which sources of information influence you the
most. Your next food choice may help you and Singapore reach greater food security.
Social Media Food Phenomenon. Courtesy Astock Publications.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�HUMAN CREATED FOOD CRISIS
MAHBUBUR RAHMAN & SHIMUL SAHA
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
11.30am – 1.30pm
Venue: Intermission Bar, The Projector, 6001 Beach Rd, #05-00 GOLDEN MILE
TOWER, Singapore 199589
Let’s gather around a table full of stories, memories and companionship! Present
day food practices and habits are inherently influenced by cultural, racial and ethnic
identities. By bringing people together, in a communal and artistic cooking experience over ubiquitous hotpots, this workshop intends to unpack the significance and
legacies of certain ingredients and recipes.
Britto Arts Trust, Rasod, 2022, installation view. Courtesy Britto Arts Trust / Tayeba Begum Lipi.
NOVEL MATERIAL
IRENE AGRIVINA & SAAD CHINOY
Workshop
Saturday, 18 February 2023
3.00 – 5.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452
This experimental approach to “de-anthropocentrate” design and care includes ways
to “build a committed and eco-responsible ‘living together’ that includes the plant,
animal and fungal kingdoms, up to the communities of bacteria in our biotopes.”
Participants learn how to use biotechnology, such as fermentation, at home and show
how fermentation can help reduce various problems related to health, the environment and sustainability.
The second part, Living Material: Fermentation Culture, is a hands-on social exploration of biomaterials highlighting by-products of both fermentation and tofu-making
processes. Participants learn about kombucha—its production process as well as the
material properties (texture, durability, colour, transparency, breathability, biodegradability and aesthetics) of the SCOBY, which can be turned into vegan leather in the
kitchen at home.
Left: Irene Agrivina, SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE, 2019, installation (detail). Courtesy the artist.
Right: Vegan leather pouch made from dehydrated SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast).
Courtesy Saad Chinoy / Edible Makerspace.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�STORIES & FOOD OF SEMAKAU
F I R DAU S S A N I / O R A N G L AU T. S G
Workshop
Sunday, 19 February 2023
10.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: West Coast Park
This workshop shares the impacts of relocation; from the southern islands to mainland Singapore and the aftermath that still threatens the livelihoods and traditions of
active Orang Laut/Pulau community members. It explores food through Orang Laut/
Pulau values and traditions that have shaped (and still shape) a more sustainable way
of life.
With a visit to West Coast Park, where a small Orang Laut/Pulau community still
thrives, this session questions Singapore’s progress as a young nation, asking if there is
space for indigenous cultures and traditions to stay alive here. The session highlights
some ways young individuals in Singapore can contribute to salvaging a lesser-known
tradition. It also speaks of heritage and culture through a shared meal. Firdaus shares
a tangible aspect of his family’s heritage—its cuisine that reflects a life on the island
that is no longer accessible. The food is lovingly cooked by Pulau Semakau islanders
who have learnt their ancestors’ original cooking methods and recipes.
Left: Visit to the Orang Laut/Pulau community in West Coast Park (Singapore). Photo: Oranglaut.sg.
Right: Bubu traps at West Coast Park (Singapore), 2022. Photo: Magdalena Magiera.
TO GATHERING: FOOD FLOWS
ALECIA NEO, GROUND-UP INITIATIVE,
& MADHUMITHA ARDHANARI
Workshop
To Gathering: Food Flows
Saturday, 18 February 2023
10.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: Kampung Kampus, 91 Lorong Chencharu, Singapore 769201
What does it take to make food? How can we connect with our food stories, heritage
and systems in creative ways? Composed around Ground-up Initiative, a low-carbon
footprint campus, this experience offers a two-part journey, beginning with a guided
tour where participants get their hands dirty through composting and harvesting,
followed by a creative exercise exploring how we can deal with loss and bounty in the
systems that sustain us—so that we can sustain them.
To Gathering is a series by Brack, a Singapore-based platform for socially engaged
artists in Southeast Asia who are interested in dialogical exchanges across mediums,
disciplines, and communities.
Commual cooking sessions at Ground-Up Initiative. Courtesy Ground-Up Initiative.
WORKSHOPS
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�HOO FAN CHON
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-06, Singapore 109441
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
12.00pm– 7.00pm
This Exhibition was part of SEA AiR Studio Residencies for Southeast Asia Artists
in the European Union Cycle 1, a programme funded by the European Union.
Despite Hoo Fan Chon’s hope that the residency at Helsinki International Artist
Programme would provide some respite from his obsession with fish-based iconography and symbolism, upon arriving in Helsinki the artist found himself immediately
drawn to the salmon pink colour that commonly adorns buildings in Finland. This
chromatic cue ignited his interest in issues of taste, class aesthetics, and fish culture
triggering an erratic investigation about the cosmetic processing of farmed salmon, the
environmental plight of this fish, and the social status of its consumption as a signifier
of class and wealth. Inspired by amateur tutorials commonly found on YouTube, the
video How to turn your siakap into salmon illustrates DIY techniques to colour fish.
While the pink pigmentation of wild salmons is due to a natural diet made of krill and
shrimp, the flesh of farmed salmon is off-white. In order to achieve the vibrant hue
that makes salmon appealing to consumers, farmed salmons are regularly fed
synthetic carotenoids, the health implications of which are still under scrutiny. In
Southeast Asia, salmon is a luxury good and its consumption bespeaks the Western
lifestyle aspirations of a rising global middle class.
The ironic speculation on how to “domesticate” a foreign species continues in I have
never seen a swimming salmon in my life. Accompanied by a voiceover by Sir David
Attenborough borrowed from an advocacy campaign to protect salmon, the installation features 3D animations of salmon cuts—fillet, loin and streak—swimming
inside a fish tank, a staple fixture in Chinese seafood restaurants. The artist’s familiar-yet-distant relation to salmon culminates with Finnish landscape painting series,
an installation featuring 13 paintings hung on a salmon pink wall. In this series, the
artist introduced the motif of the proverbial “carp leaping over the dragon’s gate” and
auspicious Chinese blessings into existing Finnish landscape paintings purchased in
thrift shops around Helsinki. Both salmon and carps are known for their strength and
jumping ability; in Chinese culture, the iconography of the leaping carp symbolises
courage and perseverance leading to wealth and prestige.
Hoo Fan Chon, paintings from Finnish landscape painting series, 2022, oil and acrylic interventions on found paintings.
Courtesy the artist.
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�H E L LO ! I A M A B L A C K S O L D I E R F LY
AND I AM TRANSFORMING
THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM
P R I M A RY C O N T R I B U T O R : N I R A LY M A N G A L
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: ADRIAN FUHRMANN, VARTIKA
GOENKA , HENG CHIN WEE, SHAK THEESHWARI SILVARAJU,
CHLOE TAN, TAN YONG JEN, YANYUN YAN, ZHANG QIHUI
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
12.00pm– 7.00pm
The small island state of Singapore imports 90% of food from overseas and uses less
than 1% of its land for agricultural use. Developing approaches to an alternative food
system based on insects, seaweed, microalgae or cultured meat can contribute to
securing a resilient food future for Singapore and contribute to its “30 by 30” policy.
But how do we create a circular food system in our cities? Food waste management
holds the key to closing the loop. This exhibition demonstrates a nature-based solution for urban food waste management using the black soldier fly, the superfly that
is transforming the global food system. It showcases how black soldier fly facilities
convert local food waste into high-quality animal feed and fertilizers, which can then
be used by other forms of urban agriculture, such as vertical or indoor farming and
aquaponics. On display is your food’s journey from consumption to waste processing,
showing how the black soldier flies upcycle it into by-products that carry valuable
nutrients back into the food chain. This process not only helps to use land efficiently
but also to synergise the built environment of Singapore with the social benefits of
urban agriculture.
This research is a collaboration between researchers from the National University
of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore-ETH Centre and
ETH Zurich. This research is supported by the National Research Foundation,
Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and
Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.
Black Soldier Fly larvae feeding on local food waste in Singapore. Photo: Phira Unadirekkul. Courtesy Niraly Mangal.
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�THE JOURNEY OF FOOD
PRIMARY CONTRIBUTORS: DR YUHAO LU, HELEN LEI FAN
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: ZI GUI TOH, MUHAMMAD IS’MAILL BIN
A Z M A N, K A I Y U LU, JA S P E R P H A N G W E E K E AT, I S A B E L L A M E O
LOO YANSHAN
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-05, Singapore 109441
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
12.00pm– 7.00pm
Considering urbanisation through the lens of food is important as cities grow, particularly in Asia, where cities are consuming fertile agricultural land at an unprecedented
rate. Simultaneously, the industrialised agricultural practices developed to meet the
rising food demands of urbanising populations are degrading and residualising the
countryside. Mitigating the impact of climate change on Singapore’s food security
requires both short-term tactics and long-term strategies. This includes sustainable
and smart production in source countries and locally in Singapore, as well as raising
public awareness on food waste. Displayed is the journey of rice—one of Singapore’s
staple food sources, from its cultivation, processing, transportation and arrival in
Singapore. As an island nation that highly depends on imports, Singapore relies
heavily on the global food chain to source even its most basic food ingredients. This
interactive exhibition shows, in a playful way, the pressing food-related challenges
and hardship of conventional food cultivation.
Food Map of Singapore, 2022. Photo: Helen FAN Lei.
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�POTENTIAL AGRITERRITORIES — AGRARIAN
QUESTIONS AND AGROECOLOGICAL DESIGN
ARCHITECTURE OF TERRITORY
MILICA TOPALOVIC, KAROLINE KOSTKA, HANS HORTIG,
ALICE CLARKE AND STUDENTS OF ETH EPFL MAS UTD
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 38 Malan Road, #01-07, Singapore 109441
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
12.00pm– 7.00pm
With nearly half of the total land area on the planet dedicated to agricultural production, the urbanisation and industrialisation of agrarian territories have emerged
among the most urgent impacts affecting ecologies and ecosystems around the world.
Their effects include increasing dependence on fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fuels;
depletion of soil fertility, water and natural resources; consumption of land; forced
migration, and other disadvantages for local populations. Through fieldwork in agrarian regions supporting Zurich and Singapore, Potential Agriterritories explores critical
questions emerging under 21st-century planetary urbanisation. We asked ourselves,
what would be the alternatives to global food regimes that shape regional agricultural
landscapes and local food cultures? Can we de-commodify agricultural territories
of the Global North, such as those we encounter around Zurich? Can we decolonise
plantations of the Global South, such as palm oil plantations surrounding Singapore?
Can we re-examine the ways in which plants and animals are used in industrial food
systems? How can novel and pioneering practices—from regenerative to solidarity
agriculture—move us towards more local and regional food systems? What potential
agrarianisms from today, and rural experiences from the past, may help restore relationships of care and reciprocity with soil and biodiversity?
The exhibition showcases parts of an evolving research and design archive created by
Architecture of Territory at ETH Zurich. The two large maps explore urbanisation processes and their effects on emerging agricultural territories and landscapes in the metropolitan regions of Zurich (2023) and the Singapore-Johor-Riau (2015). Placed in dialogue,
those maps present foreign and familiar (agricultural) landscapes with the intent to
provoke critical reflection on regional, sustainable food production amongst the ongoing
agricultural intensification and urbanisation. The video footage shows agricultural practices in Singapore-Johor-Riau and around Zurich, including experimental and pioneering
practices of permaculture, solidarity agriculture and biodynamic farming.
Karoline Kostka and Muriz Djurdjevic, ARCHITECTURE OF TERRITORY. Landscape Typologies of Potential for the
Agroecological Region Zurich, 2023, digital print on canvas blacu (detail), Courtesy Karoline Kostka / Muriz Djurdjevic.
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS WITH
MICROALGAE-BASED PROTEINS
DR. IRIS HABERKORN, BYRON PEREZ,
H E L E N A S C H M I T T, & C A RO L E Z E R M AT T E N
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-03, Singapore 109452
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday, 19 February 2023
12.00pm– 7.00pm
Despite decent intentions of establishing sustainable food systems to support a steadily growing global population, traditional food production systems and their associated value-chains are exceeding our planetary boundaries. Sustaining a growing and
increasingly urbanised population will require the development of novel food production and processing concepts that focus on shifting traditional linear production concepts towards circular solutions. Singapore aims to increase its domestic, independent food supply and a population growing under highly urbanised constraints with
the “30 by 30” initiative. However, arable land in Singapore is limited and traditional
food production and processing methods alone cannot meet this goal. This exhibition highlights how a state-of-the-art urban single-cell protein production platform
could support Singapore in reaching it using microalgae, embedded in the context of
the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals—and explores what microalgae
looks like, how it grows and is processed as well as potential taste experiences.
Liquid culture and powder of green and yellow microalgae, 2022. Photo: Yap Xiong.
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�BIOGRAPHIES
Irene Agrivina (Indonesia) is an open systems
advocate, technologist, artist and the founder
of House of Natural Fibre (HONF), a centre of
arts, science and technology, and XXLAB, an
all female and nonbinary collective focusing
on art, science, and free technology, a spin-off
project from HONF, both of which are based
in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Irene works at the
intersection of art, science, and technology and
is engaged in collaborative, cross-disciplinary,
and multimedia actions responding to social,
cultural, and environmental challenges.
Carlos Banon (Spain/Singapore) is an Architect
specialised in Digital Processes and Advanced
Manufacturing methods. He is Director and
Co-Founder of AIRLAB Singapore, Partner
of Subarquitectura Architects, and Assistant
Professor of Architecture and Sustainable
Design at the Singapore University of
Technology and Design. His research projects
span from 3D Printing in the built environment
(3DPA), Geometric Exploration for Sustainable
Space Making (GESSM), Artificial Intelligence
in structural design, and Affordable Housing.
His work has been exhibited at the Venice
Biennale of Architecture in 2018 and 2020, and
has won several international awards including
the Design of the Year Prize by the London
Design Museum, the Mies Van der Rohe Prize
nomination, the German Design Award 2020,
and four SG Marks (Singapore Good Design),
and selected as one of the Iconic designs by
the German Design Council in 2020. His recent
work AirMesh received the Singapore PD*A
President Design Award, the highest distinction
for designs and designers in Singapore.
Britto Arts Trust / Mahbubur Rahman
(Bangladesh) was born in Dhaka and completed
his MFA at the Institute of Fine Art, University of
Dhaka. He is Co-Founder and Trustee of Britto
Arts Trust, the first non-profit artists’ collective
in Bangladesh, in 2002 (www.brittoartstrust.org).
A pioneer of the cross-media approach in
the country, his practice includes drawing,
sculpture, installation, performance, and video.
Mahbubur’s work engages with questions of history, society, and the human condition to examine the impact of modernity on contemporary
life in South Asia. Mahbubur has held a number
of solo exhibitions and projects in Dhaka, Delhi,
Mumbai, Chittagong, and Yogyakarta, as well as
group shows and perennial exhibitions throughout Asia, Europe, and the US.
Britto Arts Trust / Shimul Saha (Bangladesh)
is a contemporary visual artist, living and working in Dhaka. His research-based works look
into matters of nature, social, psychological and
political issues from his surrounding environment. Through his research-based process and
experimentation with different materials, his
body of work is primarily series-based. Besides
his art practice, Shimul works as assistant
curator at Chobimela and Dhaka Art Summit.
He is also part of artist-run non-profit Britto
Arts Trust, and teaches at Pathshala South
Asian Media Institute. Most recently, Shimul
has participated in documenta fifteen in Kassel,
Germany as part of Britto Arts Trust, where
they created a vivid interconnected landscape
devoted to food politics, displacement and
culture. Shimul has participated in several
residencies in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Japan,
and has exhibited at home and abroad.
Joy Chee (Singapore) has been the resident
bartender/gardener (or bardener, if you will) at
Native, a Singaporean restaurant-bar focused
A scanned image of red amaranth produced in the experiments conducted at T2 Lab. Photo: Huang Zhaolu
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�on working with local and regional craftsmen
and communities. Drawn to them for their
ethos of sustainability and commitment to
highlighting native produce, she has been
working on rewilding the gardens with local
kampung herbs and supporting the garden-to-table concept. When she’s not elbowdeep in compost, she can be found shaking up
a cocktail or two at 52 Amoy Street.
Alice Clarke (Switzerland) is an architect and
teaching assistant at Architecture of Territory,
ETH Zurich D-ARCH. Alice gained extensive
practical experience at Grafton Architects in
Dublin, Ireland and completed the MAS Urban
and Territory Design at ETH Zurich and EPFL
which explored ecology and circular design at a
territorial scale in 2022. In 2019 she co-founded
the research and spatial design collective
BothAndGroup to understand the behaviour
of living systems, aiming to embed the logic of
biospheric systems into their work.
Prof. William Chen (Singapore) is the Michael
Fam Endowed Professor and Director of NTU
Food Science and Technology. He is also
involved in two Singapore government-funded
food initiatives: as Director of Singapore
Agri-food Innovation Lab (SAIL) and Scientific
Director of Singapore Future Ready Food
Safety Hub (FRESH). His technology innovations in zero food waste processing and
Food Circular Economy have been extensively attracting global attention, and active
partnerships with the food industry leading to
consumer products. The recent ‘Going Green’
programme by CNN described him as a GameChanging Leader in the green revolution. His
views on food tech and food security have been
covered regularly by major local and international media. He is also advisor/consultant to
overseas universities, government agencies,
food industry, and international organisations.
Saad Chinoy (Singapore) is a professional
geek with a passion for technology for
good, critical making, and OpenSource
Dr. Franca Cole (UK/Malaysia) is a conservator
and archaeologist, as well as a material culture
researcher and collections expert. Her BSc in
Archaeological Conservation at UCL’s Institute
of Archaeology started a freelance career
as an archaeological conservator in Greece,
Turkey, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Norway, Peru,
Chile, UAE, Malaysia, India, Qatar and Syria.
Her MPhil and PhD studies at the University
of Cambridge (2007-2011), used the Sarawak
Museum Harrisson Archives to investigate the
role of indigenous ceramics in mortuary practices at Sarawak’s Niah Caves. Franca was ERC
Post-Doctoral fellow in trans-Saharan trade
at University of Leicester before gaining a lectureship in Conservation Studies at UCL Qatar
and returning to Sarawak Museum as Research
Fellow in 2017. She is currently Consultant in
Conservation and Archaeology to Sarawak
Museum, and Lecturer in Collections, Care
and Management; and Research Methods and
Academic Skills for NTU ADM MA in Museum
Studies and Curatorial Practice.
Helen Lei Fan (Singapore) is a PhD researcher
at Future Cities Laboratory Global and the
Department of Architecture at the National
University of Singapore. She was trained as a
landscape architect (MLA) and environmental
engineer (B.Eng) with diverse experiences in
design practices and community development.
Her PhD focuses on the social aspect of landscape design, and how space creation can engage
and empower human potentials. Her current
projects take place in the dynamic urban-rural
interfaces of Monsoon Asia, in the context of
agriculture and urban food system strategies.
Adrian Fuhrmann is a Doctoral Researcher
at SEC and ETH Zurich under Prof. Alexander
Mathys, Dr. Moritz Gold and Asst. Prof. Nalini
Puniamoorthy (NUS). His research works
towards using heterogeneous food waste in an
urban system like Singapore.
Vartika Goenka is a research assistant under
Asst. Prof. Janice Lee, NTU. Her research focuses
methodology. He is Co-founder of Singaporebased Frugal Innovation startup, SpudnikLab,
a PotatoProductions company that works to
address the #digitalDivide through digital
skills education and effective use of low-cost
technologies. His Storytellers’ Kitchen and
EdibleMakerspace community initiatives bring
together writers, illustrators, researchers,
publishers, citizen scientists, and readers to
demystify the complexity of smart-phone
interactivity AR / VR / stop-motion animation
through learning by doing. In the non-commercial context, Saad initiated [SalvageGarden] an
assistive technology makerspace that engages
a community of makers, engineers, caregivers,
persons with disabilities, and care professionals towards the research and development of
Assistive Tech devices and low-cost solutions.
Saad also serves on the advisory boards of the
Global Innovation Gathering, and r0g_agency for
open culture and critical transformation. Saad
is a self-confessed maker and coffee epicure.
Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia) is a visual art practitioner based in Penang; he graduated with
a BA in Photography at the University of Arts
London – London College of Communication
in 2010. He was the co-founder and a member of an art collective, Run Amok Gallery
(2012-2017). In 2019, Fan Chon participated in
the 3rd edition of the Makassar Biennale. The
following year he co-curated “Bayangnya itu
Timbul Tenggelam - Photographic Cultures in
Malaysia” at the Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
His solo exhibitions include “Biro Kaji Visual
George Town” (Penang, 2019) and “The World
is Your Restaurant” (Kuala Lumpur, 2021). His
practice explores taste and foodscapes as cultural and social constructs. His research-driven
projects examine how value systems fluctuate
as people move from one culture to another.
Reframing mundane aspects of everyday life
with irony and wry humour, his multimedia
works address notions of cultural authenticity
and they set in motion the frictions and the
overlaps produced by the migration of cultural
symbols between different sociocultural contexts.
on conducting Life Cycle Assessments to
assess the environmental impacts of replacing
traditional feeds for livestock and aquaculture,
and fertiliser for agriculture, with the products
obtained from the bioconversion of food waste
using BSF to determine whether BSF products
are in fact sustainable for future production.
Dr. Iris Haberkorn (Germany/Singapore) is
a food scientist combining expertise in food
science, biotechnology, and engineering,
aiming to drive sustainable innovation in the
agri-food sector with a focus on single-cellbased value-chains. She has a strong interest in
questions relating to today’s food system and
how we can sustainably transform it, including
the role of single-cell protein such as that from
microalgae, and how technological innovations
can support that process. Dr. Iris Haberkorn
is based at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC)
where she is leading a project on “Urban
Microalgae-based Protein Production”. Her
research focuses on the up- and downstream
processing of microalgae harnessing innovative
biological and technological approaches, such
as the establishment of a pulsed electric field
(PEF)-based biorefinery for single-cell processing. Her overall goal is to improve efficiency,
mitigate costs, and consequently leverage the
application of microalgae on the market.
Paula Huerta (Spain/Indonesia) is a Licensed
Architect specialised in Sustainable Design
and Net Zero Architecture with a Masters
Degree in Energy & Environmental Studies
of the University of East London. She is also
a LEED AP, BREEAM AP and GREEN MARK
MANAGER. Paula has a strong background
in conceptual design and extensive building experience. She has been working as a
Sustainability Consultant Internationally for
over 15 years, developing sustainable strategies
and optimisation of building performance.
With her company, Bambook Studio, based in
Lombok, Indonesia, she designs NET ZERO
sustainable architecture in the region. She is
also an Ambassador for Circular Economy and
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�a Board Member of the Climate Action Alliance
of the EU TECH Chamber with a clear mission
to accelerate the UN SDGs and accelerate
the transition towards a Low Carbon Future.
Paula is also actively involved in Circular Food
Systems and Food Security Challenges, helping
develop a legal framework for Organic Waste
Conversion through insect farming which will
be crucial to achieve our goals. She is a Leader of
the Advanced Leadership Foundation providing
conferences and talks about Circular Economy
and the role of Sustainable Architecture in the
path towards a Low Carbon Future.
Hans Hortig (Austria/Singapore) is a Doctoral
Researcher at Future Cities Lab Global,
Singapore-ETH Centre and a landscape
architect working between Singapore, Zurich
and Berlin, focusing on Palm Oil Territories.
He studied landscape architecture and open
space planning at the Technical University
Berlin, the ETH Zurich, and the School of
Design, Mysore. Since 2013 he has taught at the
Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, the ETH
Zurich and TU Berlin. Hans has contributed
to the Rotterdam Biennale 2014, the Shenzhen
Biennale for Architecture/Urbanism 2015, and
SAM Basel 2019 and has published regularly.
Adeline Kueh (Singapore) makes installations
and socially embodied works that reconsider
the relationship we have with things and rituals around us. Using drawing as a conceptual
tool, Adeline Kueh looks to cartographies, craft
and oral tradition to map out the historical
trajectories across time and space through her
use of found objects and new productions. As
a co-founder of the Critical Craft Collective
(Singapore) and the pan-Borneo Serumpun
Collective, the centrality of craft in contemporary practice as well as the politics of care
are the core focus in her research practice.
Presently a Senior Lecturer with the MA Fine
Arts programme at LASALLE College of the
Arts, Adeline has exhibited internationally. She
was involved in the Word-of-Mouth exhibition
in Venice Biennale (2019), the Passion Made
integrating food waste management and sustainable food production using Black Soldier
Flies (BSFs) in high density urban environments like Singapore.
Dr. Keri Matwick (United States/Singapore),
PhD, teaches at Nanyang Technological
University. A linguist, Keri conducts research
on the language of food. She has published
academic articles, news articles, and a book
on a range of topics, including cooking shows,
culinary diplomacy, food radio, humour, and
storytelling. She is currently working on an
MOE grant-funded project to study the discourses of novel foods in the media.
Dr. Kelsi Matwick (United States/Singapore),
PhD, teaches at the University of Florida. A
food and language scholar, Kelsi explores how
we communicate about food, through food, and
around food. Cookbooks, cooking shows, food
radio, food politics, and storytelling inspire her
research and publications in academic journals,
newspapers, and a book co-authored with her
twin sister. Kelsi teaches a course on the future
of food with topics including sustainability,
food waste, and food production.
Possible Culture Shaper Tribe Films (Singapore
Tourism Board, 2019) and Hermes Singapore
(2016). In 2021, Adeline was part of Singapore
Tyler Print Institute’s Visiting Artists
Programme (VAP) Residency.
Karoline Kostka (Germany/Singapore) is a
senior researcher and landscape architect
practising between Switzerland, Germany
and Singapore. She graduated in 2013 from
TU Berlin Institute for Landscape Architecture
and Environmental Planning and is currently
based at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) with
the FCL Global research project on New Urban
Agendas for Agrarian Territories. Her work
focuses on the interstice between territorial
research and landscape reading, exploring
ecological design approaches through mapping
and critical cartography. From 2013-15 she
worked with the Architecture of Territory
team at the Future Cities Laboratory at SEC
in Singapore on the Hinterland Project, exploring cross-border relations and dependencies
regarding resource flow. Since 2015 she has
taught research and design studios at ETH
Zurich Switzerland. In 2017 she co-founded
Maps and More – Kartografische Werkstatt and
has exhibited her independent cartographic
work in distinguished museums.
Dr. Yuhao Lu (China/Singapore) focuses on
urban planning, spatial statistics, cartography,
and data visualisation. He held a PhD from the
IRSS lab at the University of British Columbia
with a Ph.D. investigating urban vegetation and
socio-economic changes in cities using time
series of satellite images. Currently working at
the Future Cities Laboratory Global, he is particularly interested in solving multi-scale and
cross-disciplinary challenges using geospatial
tools and time series (big) data.
Niraly Mangal (India/Singapore), is a Doctoral
Researcher at Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC)
and ETH Zurich. Her research work with Prof.
Stephen Cairns at SEC focuses on investigating
design, network, and operational solutions for
specialisation in Food Processing at the ETH
Zurich in Switzerland. In August 2022, Byron
joined the SEC to work on integrating pulsed
electric field technology to increase the efficiency
of microalgae production and downstream processing. Byron’s interest is in optimising novel
technologies for developing more nutritious,
affordable, and sustainable food sources.
Dr. Zhang Qianning (China/Singapore) is
co-founder and CEO of Power Facade Pte. Ltd.
She was the Lab Technologist of the Tropical
Technologies (T2) Laboratory. In the BIA project, she led the work on the NUS side. Trained
as an architect, she specialises in sustainable
building design, building evaluation, and
human-oriented design. Her doctoral study
focuses on Internet-of-Things technologies
concerning human-oriented buildings and
behavioral changes in architecture. She carried
out the case studies and supervised the T2
lab’s experiments.
Valerie Pang (Singapore) is the Innovation
Associate at GFI APAC. In her role, she acts
as the first point of contact at GFI APAC for
alternative protein startups, investors and
accelerators. She conducts university outreach
to start and support alternative protein student
groups. She also does community building to
connect the alternative protein ecosystem in
Asia together.
Zhang Qihui (China) is a Doctoral Researcher
from NUS under Asst. Prof. Nalini Puniamoorthy.
Her research topic is about phenotypic plasticity of black soldier flies on bioconversion.
The plasticity of Black soldier flies in different
life history stages were/will be tested and
quantified. Dr Liu Mei Hui, Heng Chin Wee and
Koh Rui En are a group of food scientists interested in turning insects into food. There are
many ways to do this, and, on most days, these
scientists examine how to best convert black
soldier fly larvae into feed for chickens and fish
and how best to use frass from the larvae as
fertilizers to grow vegetables.
Byron Perez (Ecuador/Singapore) is a doctoral
researcher on the “ Urban Microalgae-Based
Protein Production “ project at the SEC under
the supervision of Prof. Alexander Mathys.
Byron received his bachelor’s degree in Food
Engineering from the USFQ in Ecuador, his
native country. He received the ESOP scholarship from the ETH Foundation to pursue
his master’s studies in Food Science with a
Raine Melissa Riman (Malaysia) is the Chief
Marketing Officer (CMO) of ARC Creators, and
a doctoral candidate in Media Anthropology at
Swinburne University of Technology. She is the
do-curator of the E.A.T. Borneo Conference and
the media strategist for What About Kuching
Festival. In 2019, she co-organised the first
Borneo Coffee Symposium and co-founded the
Sarawak Coffee Culture Network in Malaysia.
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�She was invited to speak at the British Library’s
‘Food Season’ in 2021, where she spoke about the
role of indigenous women in the coffee industry.
She is now researching the media politics of food
culture and planning the next “EAT:Fest 23” with
partner and co-curator Ronald Lim, the Chief
Technology Officer (CTO) of ARC.
Firdaus Sani (Singapore) is a fourth-generation Orang Laut descendant whose ancestry
can be traced to the Orang Pulau of Singapore
and the Riau Islands. In 2020, Firdaus started
oranglautsg, a page dedicated to retelling stories
of Pulau Semakau through photographs and
personal anecdotes. Firdaus has a keen interest
in conservation issues and hopes to take on
more sustainable approaches and strives to
bridge the gap between sustainability and indigenous traditions. He runs a social enterprise
and marketing agency, The Black Sampan, since
2021 that supports local non-profit organisations and ground-up initiatives. Firdaus shared
his learnings as a speaker on TedxYouth@
Singapore, and made his first artistic showcase
at Singapore’s Writers Festival 2021, and subsequently in the 2022’s edition. Firdaus and his
family’s narratives have been featured on BBC,
CNA, The Straits Times, and more.
Helena Schmitt (Switzerland/Singapore) is a
research intern at the Singapore-ETH Centre,
working on the “Urban Microalgae-based
Protein Production” project. Her research
focuses on the extraction and concentration
of protein won from microalgae with the
ultimate goal of using this protein for creating plant-based meat alternatives. She has
recently finished her Master at ETH Zurich in
Microbiology and Immunology.
Karen Shepherd (Malaysia) is currently the
Strategic Director for UCCN Kuching Creative
City and the focal point for Kuching as a “City
of Gastronomy” under UNESCO. A writer and
content creator living and working full-time
out of Sarawak, one of the two Borneo states
of Malaysia, she was instrumental in crafting
urbanisation. In their recent research work and
studios, Architecture of Territory have been
looking at regions marked by unsustainable
agriculture and energy production practices
to envision transitions toward regenerative
landscapes and territories organised around the
principles of agroecology and energy commons.
Dr. Christoph Waibel (Germany/Singapore)
is module coordinator and researcher for
the “FCL Global: Powering the City” project
and lead developer of the Hive tool, a Rhino
Grasshopper plug-in for early-stage energy-integrated building design. His research focus lies
in the development and integration of building
simulation and hybrid surrogate models,
multi-energy systems optimisation models,
and black-box optimisation algorithms in the
architectural and urban design process. Dr.
Waibel has worked in industry as a programmer and 3D modeler, as project engineer and
building simulation specialist, and in various
architectural design firms.
Bianca Wassmann (Germany/Philippines) is a
PhD researcher at the ‘Urban Microalgae-Based
Protein Production’ project at Singapore-ETH
Centre for which she conducts consumer
studies to support the development of novel
microalgae food products. Her research focuses
on psychological aspects of sustainable eating
behaviour. She is especially interested in consumers’ acceptance of sustainable novel foods
like plant-based meat substitutes, insects,
microalgae, or in-vitro meat.
Yanyun Yan is a research associate in Assoc.
Prof. Roman Carrasco’s lab. Her research aims
to promote an understanding of the relationship between humans and nature and propose
sustainable development. Her work focuses on
a national survey that aims to understand residents’ perspectives on food waste upcycling
and insect feed product purchasing. In addition, she is trying to find out the impact of the
different environmental messages on students’
choice of a sustainable diet and food waste
the application for designation in the network,
building on her varied experience constructing narrative across a range of media. She is
an active player in the creative life of the city
in various events and programmes, including
as Content Director for the Rainforest World
Music Festival. Through her own website,
www.ceravasarawak.com, which won Best
Personal Website at the Malaysian Website
Awards in 2019, she tells stories about Sarawak
and its unique culture. Karen holds an LLB
in Laws from King’s College, University of
London and a Master’s in Communication and
Culture from the London College of Fashion.
Shaktheeshwari Silvaraju is a Doctoral
Researcher at NUS and Wilmar International
under Asst. Prof. Nalini Puniamoorthy
(NUS) and Dr Sandra Kittelmann (Wilmar
International). Her research focuses on investigating the performance of black soldier flies on
nutritionally poor waste streams from edible
oil extraction and characterising their gut
microbiome.
Chloe Tan is a research assistant in Assoc.
Prof. Roman Carrasco’s lab. Her research
aims to tease apart and identify the important
factors relating to consumers’ acceptance or
rejection of novel food alternatives such as
insect-based meat, cultured meat and cooking
oils produced from insects and microbes.
Milica Topalovic (Serbia/Switzerland)
is an Associate Professor of Architecture
and Territorial Planning at the Department
of Architecture, ETH Zurich. Her work is
concerned with territories beyond-the city and
transformation processes they are exposed
to through the movement of capital, social
restructuring, and environmental change. With
researchers and students at the Architecture of
Territory she undertook a range of territorial
studies and design projects around the world,
in remote regions, resource hinterlands, and
countrysides, to decenter and ecologise architect’s approaches to the city, the urban, and
generation through a campus experiment. In
her spare time, Yanyun is a nature lover, and
you may run into her in natural spaces across
Singapore during holidays.
Carole Zermatten (Switzerland/Singapore) is
a Food Science student who joined SingaporeETH-Center for her Master thesis. Her research
focuses on microalgae cultivation to develop
urban food production systems. Microalgae
are unicellular organisms containing healthful
proteins and omega-3 fatty acids which can be
grown in bioreactors with little arable land and
low carbon footprint. In her work, she explores
and compares gentle permeabilisation techniques to open up the cells and extract their
valuable components in order to fully benefit
from microalgae nutritional potential.
Dr. Huang Zhaolu (China/Singapore) worked
at the Tropical Technologies (T2) Laboratory.
In the BIA project, she led the empirical
experiments. She has experience in agriculture related studies, such as smart agriculture
service and real crops planting studies.She
has a background in environmental ecology,
bioengineering, and agriculture application.
She planted the vegetables and analyzing the
status of the plants, including their growth and
nutrients content so that the BIA could reach
higher harvest with lower cost. She contributes to optimise the growing conditions and
consider more about the sustainability.
Dr. Shi Zhongming’s (China/Singapore) doctoral research was part of the research grant
for FCL2’s project, Multi-Scale Energy Systems
for Low Carbon Cities (MuSES). His research
was built upon the concept of energy-driven
urban design at the district scale. His research
relied on parametric urban design models
in Grasshopper, coupled with the City Energy
Analyst, an open-source energy simulation
program developed by team members in Zurich
and Singapore. In the BIA Project, he led
the BIA-App development and computational
works using the City Energy Analyst.
BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS
�CURATORS
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/ Singapore) is a
curator and educator in the field of contemporary art. As full professor in the School of Art,
Design and Media (ADM) at NTU she co-chairs
the Master of Arts in Museum Studies and
Curatorial Practices and is the Principal
Investigator for “Cultural Loss and Climate
Crisis”. Since 2013, she has been the Founding
Director of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art
Singapore and holds a courtesy appointment
at NTU’s School of Humanities. Her recent
curatorial projects include the Singapore
Pavilion featuring artist Shubigi Rao at the 59th
Venice Biennale and the 17th Istanbul Biennial
(2022) that she co-curated with filmmaker
Amar Kanwar and art historian David Teh.
She served as the editor of Climates. Habitats.
Environments. co-published by NTU CCA
Singapore and The MIT Press (2022), as well
as the co-editor of SEA: Contemporary Art in
Southeast Asia together with Karin Oen and
Boon Hui Tan (Weiss Publications, 2022).
Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore)
is currently Curator and Research Associate
at NTU CCA Singapore. Her practice and
expertise encompasses a wide range of
disciplines, including exhibition-making and
venue building; developing process-based
research; organising lectures and conferences;
and staging events and performances. She has
worked with institutions throughout Europe,
North America, and Asia, including biennales,
museums, and artist-run spaces. She developed projects with Rockbund Art Museum,
Shanghai; dOCUMENTA(13); KW Institute for
Contemporary Art, Berlin; e-flux in Berlin,
Mexico City, and New York City; and frieze d/e.
She is currently Editor at mono.kultur, a Berlinbased interview magazine, which profiles leading figures in contemporary art and culture.
Prof. Thomas Schroepfer (Germany/
Singapore) is a Full Professor of Architecture
and Sustainable Design at the Singapore
University of Technology and Design and
Co-Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre
Future Cities Laboratory Global. His research
and design projects relate to advances in
environmental sustainability, materials,
structure and form, performance and energy,
digital fabrication and building processes. He
has published extensively on his work that
has been exhibited at important international
venues including the Venice Architecture
Dr. Tanvi Maheshwari (India/Singapore) is
currently Associate Director for Research at
Future Cities Laboratory Global, SingaporeETH Centre. She is an urban designer and
planner, trained at the School of Planning
and Architecture in Delhi and University of
California, Berkeley. She conducted her doctoral studies at ETH Zurich, where she studied
the impact of technological disruptions in
transportation, such as vehicle automation
and mobility-as-a-service, on urban design
and planning. She has over a decade of experience in developing planning support tools,
futures thinking, scenario building, and exploring design thinking methods for collaborative
and transdisciplinary research.
Laura Miotto (Italy/Singapore) is an
award-winning exhibition designer and
educator. With 20 years of experience in the
design field, both as a creative director and
an architectural designer, Miotto has worked
on permanent and temporary exhibitions,
focusing on heritage interpretation and
sensorial design strategies, in the context
of museums, thematic galleries, and public spaces. Her recent projects include the
Borneo Cultures Museum in Malaysia (2022),
The Posthuman City. Climates. Habitats.
Environments. (2019–20) at the NTU Centre
for Contemporary Art Singapore, Guo Pei:
Chinese Art and Couture (2019) at Singapore’s
Asian Civilisations Museum, and the Lee Kong
Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore,
completed in 2015.
Biennale and the World Architecture Festival.
His books have been translated into several
languages and include Dense and Green Cities:
Architecture as Urban Ecosystem (2020),
Dense and Green: Innovative Building Types
for Sustainable Urban Architecture (2016),
and Ecological Urban Architecture (2012).
He is the recipient of prestigious awards and
recognitions including the President*s Design
Award, Singapore’s highest honour accorded
to designers and designs across all disciplines;
the German Design Award; and the Asia
Education Leadership Award.
Saad Chinoy, LaserToast, 2021, lasercut edible materials. Courtesy Saad Chinoy / Edible Makerspace
BIOGRAPHIES
C RCredits
EDITS
�NTU CCA IdeasFest
Series Concept
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore and Professor,
School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023
FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain.
CURATORS
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer
Magdalena Magiera
Dr. Tanvi Maheshwari
Laura Miotto
Prof. Thomas Schroepfer
ORGANIZERS & PARTNERS
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
Operations
Jasmaine Cheong, Senior Assistant
Director, Business Operations
Management
Regina Yap, Manager Finance
Low Ming Aun, Assistant Manager,
Programmes and Operations
Project Management
Hyphen (May Leong, Shirley Tang,
Natasha Lau)
Venue Partner
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art
Singapore, Studios, Gillman Barracks
Project Support
Mei Jia Ng, Research Assistant
Soh Kay Min, Research Associate
Campus for Research Excellence and
Technological Enterprise (CREATE)
Social Media
Nomadic Collective
Image Credits
Collaterals
mono.studio
Acknowledgements
Unless otherwise stated, image courtesy of
the artists, authors, researchers.
We wish to thank and acknowledge all the
individuals who have generously lent their
time and expertise throughout NTU CCA
IdeasFest 2023.
Guide IdeasFest 2023
Magdalena Magiera, Editor
Jennifer Piejko, Copy Editor
Videography
Eric Lee
Grace Baey
FUTURE CITIES LAB GLOBAL,
SINGAPORE-ETH CENTRE
Media and Communication
Barathan Kandasamy, Events and
Communications Manager, SingaporeETH Centre
IdeasFest Summit at CREATE
Dr. Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan, Module
Coordinator, Dense and Green Cities
Dr. Tongchaoran Gao, Postdoctoral
Researcher
Dr. Irina Orlenko, Postdoctoral Researcher
Anjanaa Devi Sinthalapadi Srikanth,
PhD Researcher
Dr. Lei Xu, Postdoctoral Researcher
Xuan Zhang, Visiting Scholar
Dr. Benjamin Sanchez Andrade,
Postdoctoral Researcher
NTU CCA IdeasFest is jointly supported by
the Economic Development Board (EDB)
Singapore and Nanyang Technological
University (NTU), with additional support of Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global,
Singapore-ETH Centre and Campus for
Research Excellence and Technological
Enterprise (CREATE).
The researches conducted at the
Singapore-ETH Centre, are established
collaboratively between ETH Zurich and
the National Research Foundation of
Singapore under its Campus for Research
Excellence and Technological Enterprise
(CREATE) programme.
Technical Support
Sean Eu, Associate Director for
Technology
C RCredits
EDITS
�ABOUT NTU CCA IDEASFEST
A platform to catalyse the critical exchange of ideas and encourage thinking outside the
box. It is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and the academic with community
groups and grassroots initiatives. The pilot edition, Cities for People (2016–17), expanded
on artistic interventions and engaged with contemporary issues such as air, water, food,
environment, and social interaction in connection to artistic and cultural fields, academic
research, and design applications. This second iteration IdeasCity Singapore (2020), guest
curated by IdeasCity, New Museum NYC, explored the role of art and culture beyond
the walls of the museum, and examined the urgency of solidarity structures in negating
climate change and its impact on Southeast Asia and communities worldwide.
NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
A national research centre of Nanyang Technological University Singapore, with a focus
on Spaces of the Curatorial, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA
Singapore) addresses the urgencies of our time such as the climate crisis and its impact on
communities. A leading international art institution, driven by dynamic thinking in its
three-fold constellation: RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION; RESIDENCIES
PROGRAMME; and EXHIBITIONS. It brings forth innovative, multi-disciplinary, holistic and experimental forms of emergent artistic and curatorial practices that intersect the
present and histories of contemporary art embedded in social, geo-political, geo-cultural
spheres with other fields of knowledge. NTU CCA Singapore’s office and research centre
is located at Gillman Barracks.
ABOUT NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, SINGAPORE
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.
ABOUT FUTURE CITIES LAB GLOBAL, SINGAPORE-ETH CENTRE
Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global helps to shape sustainable cities and settlement systems
through science, by design, in place, over time. FCL brings transdisciplinary and distinctive European and Asian perspectives to this global mission with the support of ETH
Zurich, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University Singapore,
Singapore University of Technology and Design and Singapore’s National Research
Foundation, under its CREATE programme.
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
Regina Yap, Manager, Finance
Maggie Yin, Manager, Research & Publications
Low Ming Aun, Assistant Manager, Programmes and Operations
Magdalena Magiera, Research Associate
Nadia Amalina Binte Abdul Manap, Programmes Coordinator
NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
CO-CHAIRS
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, Singapore
MEMBERS
Fong Pin Fen, Vice President (Consumer), Singapore Economic Development Board
Kathy Lai, Enterprise Fellows, Enterprise Singapore
Professor Simon Redfern, Dean, College of Science, NTU
Kay Vasey, Chief Connecting Officer, Mesh Minds Pte Ltd / Mesh Minds Foundation
Professor Michael Walsh, Savannah College of Art and Design
Professor Tim White, Vice President (International Engagement), NTU
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
Antonia Carver, Director, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, independent advisor, 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, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Credits
�NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023
FOOD Eat. Secure. Sustain.
NTU CCA Singapore
16–19 February 2023
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38 Malan Road,
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Free admission unless
otherwise stated
IdeasFest Summit
CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602
Theatrette, Level 2
Exhibition and Workshops
NTU CCA Singapore,
Block 6 Lock Road and
Block 37 & 38 Malan Road, Gillman
Barracks, Singapore
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
ntu.ccasingapore.org
ntu.ccasingapore
ntu_ccasingapore
A RESEARCH CENTRE OF
Exhibition Hours
Thursday, 16 February – Sunday,
19 February 2023
From 12.00pm – 7.00pm
LOCATED AT
A project by:
In partnership with:
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed in February 2023 by First Printers.
Cover: Mugwort leaves. Courtesy Native Bar.
�
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Short Description
NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2023 FOOD: Eat.Secure.Sustain
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
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NTU CCA Ideas Fest FOOD: Eat.Secure.Sustain Festival Guide
Subject
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Sustainability
Ecosystems
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Exhibition Guide
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A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
16 - 19 February 2023
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An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ute Meta Bauer
Magdalena Magiera
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Southeast Asia
Asia
Europe
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Resources
Corporate Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials for corporate development or marketing purposes. Examples include quarterlies and residency inserts, Chinese New Year cards, exhibition reports, fact sheets, news clippings, etc.
Short Description
2022 MA in Museum Studies & Curatorial Practice Postcard
Corporate Resource Type
Communications
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2022 MA in Museum Studies & Curatorial Practice Postcard
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Curatorial Practice
Education
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2022 MA in Museum Studies & Curatorial Practice Postcard
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2022
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Nanyang Technological University
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English
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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
Map and salmon colour chart for Hoo Fan Chon's SEA AiR exhibition
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Afternoon Tea with Salmon Experience in Singapore
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Oceans & Seas
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Map and Salmon Colour Chart
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2022
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Hoo Fan Chon
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SEA AiR
Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists in
the European Union
Cycle 1
Hoo Fan Chon, George Town
Citra Sasmita, Bali
Vuth Lyno, Phnom Penh
HIAP, Helsinki
WIELS, Brussels
Villa Arson, Nice
New Works
NTU CCA Singapore, Residencies Studios
38 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks
Singapore 109441
11 January – 5 February 2023
�Exhibition
Hoo Fan Chon
Citra Sasmita
Vuth Lyno
New Works
SEA AiR
Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists in
the European Union
Official Opening
in the presence of H.E. Iwona Piórko,
EU Ambassador to Singapore and the artists
10 January 2023, 4.00 – 5.00pm
Public preview: 4.00 - 7.00pm
Creative Trajectories
Artist talk by Hoo Fan Chon,
Citra Sasmita, and Vuth Lyno
11 January 2023, 6.00 – 7.30pm
The Seminar Room
Block 37 Malan Road
Cycle 1
11 January – 5 February 2023
Exhibition hours:
Tue to Sun: 12.00 – 7.00pm
13 January: 12.00 – 9.00pm
Open on public holidays
(except Mondays)
Image: Vuth Lyno, prototype for Vibrating Park-Forest, detail, 2022.
Courtesy the artist.
Funded by the European Union
Part of
�
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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
SEA AiR Cycle 1 Exhibition Postcard
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Artistic Research
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11 January - 5 February 2023
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Anna Lovecchio
Kai von Rabenau
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SEA AiR
Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists
in the European Union
Cycle 1
Hoo Fan Chon, George Town
Citra Sasmita, Bali
Vuth Lyno, Phnom Penh
HIAP, Helsinki
WIELS, Brussels
Villa Arson, Nice
New Works
11 January – 5 February 2023
�A very warm welcome to Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works, the
inaugural exhibition of SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the
European Union at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore in Gillman Barracks.
A new programme launched jointly by the European Union Delegation to Singapore
and the Nanyang Technological University’s Centre for Contemporary Art, SEA AiR
celebrates diversity and people-to-people connectivity between the EU and ASEAN. We
embarked on this pioneering project in a milestone year as the EU and ASEAN commemorated the 45th anniversary of their relations in 2022. SEA AiR embodies the rich spirit of
dialogue and exchange that are hallmarks of the partnership between our two regions.
The exhibition presents works of the three artists who participated in the first cycle
of SEA AiR: Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia, in residence at Helsinki International Artist
Programme, Finland), Citra Sasmita (Indonesia, in residence at WIELS, Belgium) and
Vuth Lyno (Cambodia, in residence at Villa Arson, France). They were selected from
a pool of 24 candidates nominated by curators and artists from across Southeast Asia.
These established European art institutions offered the artists a three-month residency
in Helsinki, Brussels, and Nice respectively, together with the opportunity to create
new works inspired by their experiences, discoveries, and interactions in Europe.
Foreword
Iwona Piórko
Ambassador of the
European Union
to Singapore
For the artists the residencies unfolded not only in the midst of a new surge of the COVID-19
pandemic but also during the start of Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified, and illegal war of
aggression against Ukraine. All three artists witnessed protests in Europe and met with
representatives of the Ukrainian arts community. These and many other encounters have
informed the compelling and thought-provoking artworks featured in this exhibition.
A made-in-Singapore programme, SEA AiR drives the development of Southeast
Asia’s contemporary art and serves as a springboard for dialogue and mutual learning
between European art institutions and Southeast Asian artists. The programme is
specifically dedicated to artists who have not yet had a significant exposure to and professional experience in Europe. SEA AiR pivots on the creative and cultural exchange
between the EU and ASEAN enabling us to highlight a region that has historically been
under-represented in most Artist-in-Residence programmes in Europe.
Citra Sasmita, Timur Merah Project VIII: Pilgrim,
How You Journey, acrylic on Kamasan canvas, 2022.
1
With Singapore as both the engine and the end point of their inspiring journey, I wish
the artists a successful exhibition here. Sparking conversations and discourse among
the wider community, this show fittingly opens during Singapore Art Week 2023. It gives
an opportunity to art lovers from the region and beyond to immerse themselves in a
cross-regional artistic project and experience how travels and cultural exchanges shape
contemporary art practices.
�Since its foundation in 2013, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore has been
committed to make a significant contribution to the arts ecosystem in Singapore and
Southeast Asia. Amongst the multiplicity of international exhibitions, publications,
and research projects we have developed over the years, our in-house Residencies
Programme at Gillman Barracks, where our Centre is located, stood out as a particularly
effective platform to support artistic research, engender cross-regional encounters,
and spark connections and collaborations. Thanks to the generosity of the European
Union Delegation to Singapore, we had the opportunity to develop SEA AiR – Studio
Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union (SEA AiR), a new programme which stems from our understanding of the needs and aspirations of emerging
visual artists in this vibrant region. A three-month residency at arts institutions in various
European countries and an exhibition at our Centre weave together research and
production foregrounding the tremendous importance of cultural mobility to nurture
artistic practices and, on a broader level, more open and inclusive societies.
Through a region-wide nomination process, Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, and Vuth Lyno
were selected as participants in the inaugural cycle of SEA AiR. In the spring of 2022,
the artists conducted their residencies in Europe—with Helsinki International Artist
Programme (HIAP), WIELS in Brussels, Villa Arson in Nice as host institutions—with
Director’s
Welcome
Ute Meta Bauer
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
and Professor, NTU School of Art,
Design and Media
unwavering enthusiasm in spite of persisting outbreaks of COVID-19 and the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. We warmly welcome them at NTU CCA Singapore where the
exhibition Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works, curated by Dr Anna
Lovecchio, Assistant Director (Programmes), fittingly presents their artworks in our
Residencies Studios bringing their journeys to full fruition.
Hoo Fan Chon, Finnish landscape painting series –
#7 Bright future ahead, oil on found painting
(U. Huumo, 2003), framed, 2022.
2
A catalyst for interregional connectivity, SEA AiR could only be made possible thanks
to the joint efforts of many individuals across different institutions. We are grateful to
H.E. Iwona Piórko, the European Union Ambassador to Singapore, for embracing this
project with enthusiasm, her predecessor Ms. Barbara Plinkert, and Deepika Shetty,
Press Officer at the EU Delegation to Singapore, who has accompanied this project from
the start. My gratitude also goes to Professor Tim White, Vice President (International
Engagement), Professor Joseph Liow, Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and
Social Science, at Nanyang Technological University and, of course, to our Centre’s
team for their whole-hearted endorsement of this unique collaboration between the
University and the European Union Delegation to Singapore. I thank HIAP, Villa Arson,
and WIELS for hosting and mentoring the artists within their residency programmes.
Last but not least, I thank the artists Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, and Vuth Lyno
for embarking on this exciting journey together with us.
3
�operate, instead, at the fringes of the artworld in this region. It is
therefore worth noting that Hoo Fan Chon and Citra Sasmita live and work
in George Town and Bali, respectively, rather than the more networked
and developed scenes of Kuala Lumpur and Java. The same holds true for
the Phnom Penh-based Vuth Lyno, an artist who earnestly counteracts
Cambodia’s systemic lack of infrastructure for contemporary art and education through the work of Sa Sa Art Projects, the art collective he cofounded,
as well as through his solo practice.
The exhibition Hoo Fan Chon, Citra Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works
is the final yield of the first cycle of SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union (SEA AiR). In spite of its
official designation, SEA AiR extends beyond the conventional format
of a residency programme. This exhibition must therefore be contextualised within the wider framework that brought it into being, a framework
wherein artistic development, institutional collaboration, and mutual
learning are deeply intertwined.
In the first half of 2022, amidst unrelenting surges of the pandemic and
the ghastly military invasion of Ukraine, the artists took off from their
home countries to conduct three-month-long residencies: Hoo Fan Chon
at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme (Finland); Citra
Sasmita at WIELS (Brussels, Belgium); and Vuth Lyno at Villa Arson
(Nice, France). Albeit sited at different latitudes and embedded within
different institutional contexts, these residency programmes have a long
history in facilitating cultural mobility and they share a commitment to
supporting emerging artists through curatorial mentorship, peer-to-peer
dialogues, and public programmes.
Developed by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore thanks to
the support of the European Union, SEA AiR engenders opportunities
for artistic growth and cultural dialogues between Southeast Asia and
Europe. The programme caters specifically to emerging Southeast Asian
artists who have not previously had a significant working experience
in Europe and it provides them with a platform for research, networking,
and exposure. At the same time, by means of partnerships with overseas
residency programmes, European institutions are granted unique access
to Southeast Asia’s visual arts ecosystem through their involvement in
the process of selecting the artists and the collaboration with the artists
Anna Lovecchio,
Assistant Director, Programmes,
NTU CCA Singapore
Notes from the Curator
While in residence, artists always work in a situation. They immerse
themselves in a new environment made of people, politics, histories, arts,
and habits that are likely to influence their artistic process to one extent
or another. Hoo Fan Chon arrived in Suomenlinna, the island off Helsinki
where HIAP is located, in the midst of the rigid Nordic winter. The son of
a fisherman—the artist’s personal obsession with fish often surfaces in his
work—he became captivated by the salmon pink colour of a building by the
main pier, a colour he soon began to detect in other buildings across Finland
and its neighbouring countries. The question “Do Finnish people love
salmon so much that they paint their houses pink?” became the conceptual
compass of his ironic and erratic investigation into the processing of farmed
salmon and the class connotations of this fish species in Chinese culture.
themselves during the residencies. As much as it seeks to benefit individual artists, on a systemic level SEA AiR also aspires to address the historical underrepresentation of Southeast Asian artists in most European
arts institutions and it contributes to cultivate a better understanding of
Southeast Asian creative practices for European institutions and publics.
The participating artists in the inaugural cycle of SEA AiR are
Hoo Fan Chon (Malaysia), Citra Sasmita (Indonesia), and Vuth Lyno
(Cambodia). They were selected through a scouting process propelled by
nominations solicited from curators and artists in each Southeast Asian
country. The nominators were approached in light of their involvement
with the local art scenes of their respective countries of expertise and
connectivity with a young generation of creative practitioners. Whereas
no restrictions were placed with regard to artistic mediums, the nominators were prompted to zero in on artists whose work is informed
by a research-based approach and reverberates with a critical awareness of the diverse challenges contemporary societies struggle with.
Furthermore, in planning the selection process of the first cycle of SEA
AiR, we purposefully steered away from the most prominent art hubs in
Southeast Asia in order to open up this opportunity to artists who
4
5
Located on the eastern edge of the French Riviera, Villa Arson comprises a
school of fine arts, a research centre for contemporary art, an international
exhibition programme as well as artist residencies. During his residency,
Vuth Lyno travelled from Nice to Paris to research the architectural remnants of the International Colonial Exposition which took place in the Bois
de Vincennes forest park in 1931. There, he discovered that the former
Cameroon Pavilion had been converted into a Buddhist temple in the
�late 1970s. Following its conversion into a place of worship, the building,
and the surrounding greenery, have come to play a significant role in the
spiritual, cultural, and social life of the Cambodian community in France.
The contemporary appropriation of buildings and grounds which once
hosted the display of colonial power became the kernel of the artist’s
comparative research on forest parks as sites for refuge, decolonial practices, community formation, and emancipation in the contexts of Paris,
Phnom Penh, and Singapore.
Decolonial impulses were also at the core of Citra Sasmita’s residency
at WIELS, a leading contemporary art institution that provides space for
innovative ideas and creative experiences. Midway through her residency
Citra remarked: “My art residency experience in Europe is a pilgrimage to
the traces of my ancestors”. Indeed, her efforts focused on researching
Balinese artefacts that are held in European museum collections as well
as scholarly publications on Balinese history that are not available in her
home country. Research trips to the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam
and to the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean
Studies (KITLV) in Leiden allowed the artist to excavate the figure of
I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya, a queen of the Klungkung kingdom in Bali who
fiercely opposed the Dutch colonisers in the 19th century. Ruled out from
most historical accounts, the history and words of this mighty woman
leader are revived in the powerful figurations of Citra’s paintings and
video work.
The last stage of a process made of journeys and collaborations, fieldwork and encounters, research and art making, Hoo Fan Chon, Citra
Sasmita, Vuth Lyno: New Works constitutes a significant outcome of
SEA AiR’s multifaceted framework. The artworks featured in the exhibition were created by the artists in the months following their residencies,
a much-needed time for critical reflection and material experimentation
that allowed them to develop their research findings and creative inspiration into full-fledged artworks. Ranging from installation and video to
sculpture and painting, some of these works also mark these artists’
first attempts at embracing new mediums and materials: 3D animation
techniques for Hoo Fan Chon, video for Citra Sasmita, and paper for Vuth
Lyno. Most importantly, they bear witness to how the artists’ interests in
the cosmetics of food, cultural contaminations, decolonial practices, the
empowerment of women, and the resilience of marginalised communities, have evolved over the last year.
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Vuth Lyno, preparatory drawing for
Vibrating Park-Forest, graphite on paper, 2022.
�LEARNING
JOURNEYS
Anna Lovecchio: It’s been a few months
since your experiences overseas and
I am curious to know what is the most
vivid memory related to your residencies.
Without thinking too much about it, what
impression, image, or feeling comes to
your mind when you go back to the time
you spent in Finland, Belgium, and France
respectively?
Hoo Fan Chon: I never knew I would
need to learn how to walk again. The first
week in Helsinki, I slipped a few times
until I learnt to identify safe walking
surfaces based on the different colours
and textures of the ice and snow. A good
pair of boots plays a vital role in the
Nordic winter, giving you a solid grip on
the ground. The heels of my boots fell off
An Interview with Hoo Fan Chon,
Citra Sasmita, and Vuth Lyno
on my second day of arrival while I was
touring the city and I had to rush to get a
new pair of second-hand boots in town.
I distinctly remember feeling the chill
from the ground for a good half hour.
Vuth Lyno: Perhaps the most vivid image
stuck in my mind is that of thousands of
Cambodian immigrants living in Paris
taking over a patch of green in the Bois
de Vincennes during Khmer New Year
last April. They gathered around a grand
Buddhist pagoda—the former Cameroon
Pavilion built for the 1931 Colonial
Exposition—to pay respects to the mas
sive statue of Buddha and the monks.
People laid down mats all over the adjacent grass field to have group picnics,
chit-chat, and hang out. My feeling at
Left: Hoo Fan Chon in front of HIAP Studios,
February 2022.
Middle: Vuth Lyno at Villa Arson, March 2022.
Right: Citra Sasmita on her first days in Brussels,
April 2022. Photo: Veerle Melis.
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the time was one of exciting energy.
I experienced a sense of comfort being
surrounded by relatable people, and a
sense of freedom about being oneself and,
at the same time, part of a community. The
simple act of sitting down on mats around
a historical, politically charged site, on such
a massive scale, made a deep impression on
me: a migrant community was performing
a decolonial practice on the ground.
Citra Sasmita: My residency apartment
was located five kilometres away from
WIELS, quite a distance to walk. At the
beginning, I didn’t know how to take
public transportation, so I rented a bike to
explore the city. I managed to go through
this phase of adaptation thanks to the help
of some Muslim immigrants from the
�Middle East who run a grocery store that
also provides useful information on how
to live in Brussels, access the internet,
use public transport, and other important
tips for a newcomer.
AL: The three-month residency gave you
the opportunity to engage with new cultural ecosystems and meet a variety of
practitioners from different backgrounds.
How has this process unfolded for you?
VL: During my time at Villa Arson, there
was a combination of encounters which
enriched me professionally and personally. Interestingly, some encounters were
planned and others were unplanned.
At the beginning, the residency evolved
slowly. The host institution, which is also
an art school, didn’t arrange a public
programme for me early on so I couldn’t
meet the students properly. It was hard
for me to get in. The students were not
curious to meet neither myself nor the
other artists-in-residence. There seems
to be something very ‘stubborn’ about
French culture. Nevertheless, I managed
to make connections with a professor and
a couple of students who introduced
me to the pedagogical framework of the
school. I visited their studios to see what
they were doing and gained access
to art events in town. I also made friends
with other artists-in-residence from
Afghanistan and Ukraine who had to
leave their countries in order to survive.
I learnt a lot from their stories.
CS: This was my first experience in
Europe and relating to foreign ways of
thinking and habits proved quite challenging. It took me some time to adapt to
the new environment and social fabric.
At WIELS there are weekly programmes
that bring together fellow residents as
well as mentorship sessions, studio visits,
and discussion groups with students
from other art institutions. But for me
meeting local artists and curators also
took place organically, without the mediation of the host institution. I joined up
with some Indonesian friends who are
well-connected with activist groups and
the local arts scene. For sure, connecting with the ecosystem in Brussels was
important but I had to go beyond that
because my research materials were in
the Netherlands so I had to put an extra
effort into reaching out to curators and
academics there.
AL: The experience of displacement and
the encounter with the unfamiliar often
spark a soul-searching process which leads
us to reconsider what we do and our context of origin from a different perspective.
Was this the case for you? Did you gain
new insights into your work or generate
new thoughts about the future development of your practice?
Citra Sasmita introducing her work to members of
Club WIELS during a studio visit, 29 May 2022.
Photo: Mashid Mohadjerin.
Studio of Vuth Lyno at Villa Arson (detail), May 2022.
HFC: In some ways, this residency
prompted me to confront my position as
an artist growing up in Malaysia. It made
me think more about the geographical
audience I engage with and the role of my
work within the context of a larger global
art discourse. For instance, I became
quite disheartened when I discovered
that the subject of salmon had already
been extensively explored from an
ethical and environmental perspective by
Cooking Sections, a London-based artist
duo. I felt that I didn’t have much to add
and I had to push myself to find a different
angle to tackle the subject.
out some ideas about the history of
colonialism in Bali. I strongly feel that this
experience, and the challenges of being in
a new environment, will benefit my artistic
process and career, especially in terms of
developing new perspectives and exploring
different mediums and working methods.
In particular, this residency gave me the
confidence to take my visual language into
new forms. After the residency, I made my
first animated film and I am now working
on my first video work for the upcoming
exhibition at NTU CCA Singapore. Along
this process I hold on to my cultural roots,
but thanks to constructive mentorships
CS: Visiting major cultural institutions in
Europe, especially historical archives and
the Dutch museums with large collections
of Balinese paintings, helped me to map
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and to the visual references and ideas
I encountered in Europe my perspective
on art and on the international art scene
has significantly changed.
VL: I haven’t done many residencies
abroad and SEA AiR is the longest one.
My first two weeks were mainly spent on
reorienting myself and forming connections to a new context. Also, this was
the first time I had a studio and I didn’t
quite know what to do with it at first. In
fact, it was very intimidating. What was
I supposed to fill the room with? Then,
I started to print out my research images
and scatter them around on the table and
on the walls. On the one hand, this helped
me to process the research. On the other
hand, it allowed me to visualise my ideas
into an artwork. The realisation of the
importance of a studio at this stage of my
practice was illuminating to the point that,
upon returning to Phnom Penh, I started
to look for a studio. I am actually writing
from the studio I just rented!
HFC: The interactions with some of my
fellow artists-in-residence have stretched
my thinking about performance art,
a visual language I have always struggled to
relate to. During my residency, I attended
other artists’ events. For instance, Iranian
artist Parsa Kamehkhosh conducted a
walking tour around Suomenlinna “waiting for a miracle to happen”, Australian
artist Sumugan Sivanesan held a silent
disco event, and Estonian artist Maria
Metsalu used her body as a walking
billboard for a performance event at an
artist-run space called Myymälä2. The
exchanges I had with these artists and my
own experience as an audience member
compelled me to think about working with
actions, steering away from studio-based
skills and from the display of objects on
plinths and walls. I am becoming more
�through organising my research materials,
the existence of a salmon pink colour chart
was brought to my attention. I realised
that a project about the colouration of
salmon could be a fertile subject to explore
and a more viable entry point for me to
better understand a foreign yet familiar
food species.
interested in exploring how to use one’s
body as a conduit to create a temporary
structure that engages the audience
through improvisation.
AL: To a certain extent, your practices
have in common an engagement with
issues relevant to specific contexts: the
status of women in Balinese society
for Citra, the complexities of Malaysian
Chinese cultural identity for Fan Chon,
and the politics of space and place
making practices for Lyno. How was
the experience of introducing your work
to artists, curators, and audiences
who might not be very familiar with the
contexts you make reference to?
VL: Many people in Nice were quite
familiar with both Cambodia and the
Bois de Vincennes. However, the historical and present uses of the Parisian
urban park in relation to colonialism
and decolonialism seemed to be not so
well-known. Hence, I took time to explain
these contexts to people after they saw
my work. I like when people relate to my
work first, either visually or through a
sensorial encounter, before I share about
its context and stories. It’s visual art after
all. People seemed very open to discover
more about the work, read the materials,
and talk to me.
CS: At first, I wondered how the Balinese
context of my work would be understood
by the audience at WIELS. In spite of its
framework of reference, presenting the
work I made during the residency turned
out to be an interesting experience. As a
matter of fact, the local knowledge I put
forth contributed to produce new understandings for the European audience
since they were not very familiar with
the cultural contexts of Southeast Asian
countries. I observed that the Europeans
Citra Sasmita with ancient Balinese paintings in
the storage of Tropenmuseum, June 2022. Photo:
Kerstin Winking.
DIY salmon colour chart. Courtesy Hoo Fan Chon
find the style of my paintings familiar to
their own cultural references and I came
to see the potential of iconography in my
work as a crosscultural language. Also,
I noticed that feminism is a kind of universal keyword there.
cultural contaminations, food culture, etc.,
mistranslation can actually be conducive to
further extrapolation.
HFC: Generally, I had no problem
explaining my works to the cultural
practitioners I met during my residency.
Perhaps because Finland is a comparatively small nation within the European
Union in terms of population size and, like
Malaysia, is a country with a long colonial history. Finnish people have been
exposed to many other cultures and they
had to constantly negotiate their own
identity. It was interesting to have some
interlocutors share with me their Finnish
perspective on the work. Some contexts
or nuances might be lost in translation,
but since most of my works explore general subjects, such as class aesthetics,
AL: You were selected for SEA AiR –
Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian in
the European Union because of the quality
of your portfolio and the promise of your
research proposal. How has your original
research project evolved during and after
the residency?
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HFC: I had very little knowledge about
Finland. I wanted to start with a clean slate
leaving my research open to hunches and
chances so that it would develop through
living experience and the people I came in
contact with. After spending a few weeks
on Suomenlinna Island, where HIAP is
sited, I decided to make a project about
the appearance of salmon pink colour in
architecture and the role of the artist as
a pigment-making alchemist. Halfway
CS: After establishing connections with the
University and the Museum Volkenkunde
in Leiden and the Tropenmuseum in
Amsterdam, my research progressed
a lot. I was excited to encounter, for the
first time, Balinese artefacts held in the
Netherlands and to get access to significant
archival sources at the Leiden University
Library. The Royal Netherlands Institute
of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
(KITLV) in Leiden invited me to present
my research at the international conference “The Makings of Arts from Southeast
Asia and the Problems of Colonial Legacies”,
co-organised with the Bandung Institute
of Technology. This allowed me to meet
wonderful experts in Southeast Asia
studies. There are many English books by
foreign researchers who discuss Balinese
history but they are not available in Bali.
I brought back a suitcase full of research
materials and exhibition catalogues. These
materials and connections will fuel my
work for a long time.
VL: Initially, my research project hinged
on a specific French site, the Bois de
Vincennes, and it entailed exploring a particular history of relations between France
and Cambodia. I wanted to study historical
colonial expositions and the current use of
the Bois de Vincennes by minority groups,
not only the migrants but also the homeless and queer communities. During the
research, I grew interested in comparative
studies with the former Democracy Park in
Phnom Penh. Then, after the residency,
�1900 Paris World’s Fair where Finland
had a pavilion for the first time and the
opportunity to showcase works in an
art nouveau style imbued with national
romanticism. It was intended to show
that Finland was a state separate from
Russia and culturally independent. And it
also marked the beginning of ideological
and geopolitical tensions between the
Western and the Eastern Blocs. Initially,
I wanted to conduct a research on Finland
as a first-time host country and Malaya as
a first-time participant, but I soon found
out that Malaya did not participate in the
1952 Helsinki Olympics because it was
undergoing the Malayan Emergency.
research and create more works about
Balinese history. In addition to Kerstin
Winking, I was also supported by professor Marieke Bloembergen from Leiden
University, who helps Balinese people
to retrieve old manuscripts for ancient
rituals. These relationships became quite
miraculously intertwined and they are a
crucial starting point for me to develop
a more comprehensive understanding of
Bali’s historical context and visual codes.
AL: Is there any significant encounter or
discovery which occurred during the residency that you would like to mention?
Cambodian communities having picnics around
La Grand Pagode, Bois de Vincennes, Paris, April 2022.
Courtesy Vuth Lyno.
Hoo Fan Chon visiting The Salmon – Science Centre
in Oslo, April 2022.
HFC: My stay in Helsinki coincided with
the 70th anniversary of the 1952 Helsinki
Olympics. I visited the TAHTO Center for
Finnish Sports Culture, a section of
which is dedicated to the 1952 Helsinki
Olympics. On a symbolic level, the 1952
Helsinki Olympics marked Finland’s
recovery from WWII after the country had
paid off the war reparations to the Soviet
Union. This international sports event
was aimed at promoting Finland as a progressive and modern nation to the world.
It was as culturally significant as the
CS: A very memorable experience was
to eventually access the collection of
Balinese paintings in the Tropenmuseum
which took me two months. I am especially grateful to curator and researcher
Kerstin Winking who was instrumental
in allowing me to see the paintings right
before my return to Indonesia. Seeing
works of art painted by my ancestors
engendered complex feelings. It was
undoubtedly an enlightening experience
which nurtured my spirit and strengthened my commitment to continue this
E-1027 modernist villa. Having studied
this 1929 villa as part of an Architectural
Theory and History class back in 2014,
it was surreal to be inside the building in
person. The villa was designed as a boat
house by the ocean. It made me think of
the Preah Suramarit National Theatre
by the riverfront in Phnom Penh which
was designed by Vann Molyvann in 1966
and also features a ‘boat aesthetic’. I began
speculating whether there could be any
connection, or influence, between the two
architectures. It also made me think about
I began to struggle because I was
supposed to create a new work to be presented in Singapore. I felt a disconnect
between geographies and audiences
and I was at pains to make sense of how
a work which is born out of the FrenchCambodian colonial entanglement could
resonate with people in Singapore. Then
I realised that by focusing on the politics of
space and by expanding the scope of my
research, other relevant contexts could
be brought in. In the case of Singapore,
for example, I became interested in
Gillman Barracks itself, where my work
will be exhibited, which was originally
built by the British as a military complex
in a forest, and in Hong Lim Park, a public
park where LGBT+ movements exercise
free speech and assert their visibility
within a sexually controlled regime.
That gave me new momentum and my
work will eventually address urban parks
and forests in Paris, Phnom Penh, and
Singapore as sites of political contestations and community-building processes.
I am glad that the project grew organically out of the necessity to connect with
audiences and sites in Singapore.
VL: For me one fortunate and unexpected
encounter was a trip to Roquebrune Cap
Martin in southern France, to visit the Cap
Moderne Association and Eileen Gray’s
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the meeting point between architecture
and the environment (i.e. earth, water) and
how that creates a special consciousness
of living.
AL: During the residency, you had the
opportunity to do research trips to
different countries. Some trips were
motivated by interests related to your
research while others were driven by
the desire to experience the work of your
peers at major exhibitions such as the
Venice Biennale and documenta.
HFC: The trip to Tallinn organised by
HIAP was particularly inspiring for me,
especially the visit to the House Museum
of Estonian artist Flo Kasearu. The house
was originally built by her great-grandparents nearly a hundred years ago. It was
nationalised during the Soviet Union era
and returned to her family in the 1990s.
This living museum is a residential space,
an art gallery, and a museum, and all these
functions are balanced with a great sense
of seriousness and irony. On a separate
note, my visits to The Salmon Centre in
Oslo and the Fishery History Museum in
Bergen were not what I was expecting.
Later I discovered that both exhibitions
were sponsored by a salmon export
company, Lerøy Seafood, which explains
the disproportionate amount of content to
justify the importance of salmon farming.
The Salmon Centre, which actually turned
out to be a salmon-themed restaurant,
was not dissimilar to some eco-tourism
experiences we can find in Asia, mostly
restaurants above floating fish pens by the
sea with a dedicated room to explain the
health benefits and importance of certain
fish species.
CS: The trips to attend major art events
like the Berlin Biennale, Venice Biennale,
and documenta fifteen meant a lot.
�They allowed me to observe the colours,
dynamics, discourses, and goals underlying these important cultural events.
I was especially impressed with the
Berlin Biennale curated by Kader Attia
because it gave space to voices that are
hard to hear. It featured idealistic works
that make strong statements against the
repression of rulers and the dehumani
sation of industrial developments. I really
admire artworks that bring together
aesthetic achievement, solid research,
and the artists’ own life experiences. The
residency also allowed me to be present
at my first exhibition in Europe. My work
was included in a group exhibition at
Savvy Contemporary in Berlin and, by
attending the opening, I had the privilege
to witness the reception of new audiences.
Thanks again to NTU CCA Singapore for
making this possible.
VL: These trips were definitely crucial to
my residency experience. I took several
trips to Paris where my research site was.
I made my way to visit relevant archives,
connected with a Khmer-French cultural
association, and returned multiple times
to the Bois de Vincennes to observe how
the space is used by different people.
In addition, I took a trip to see the Venice
Biennale. Seeing so much art there in a
concentrated time was overwhelming.
Yet it was also very inspiring. Among the
artworks that left an imprint on me was
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’ work in the Polish
Pavilion. It felt like entering into a different
world, or rather into three parallel worlds
as the installation consisted of three horizontal bands of textiles depicting Roma
narratives: one mythological, one archival, and one based on the artist’s own
experience. The work was so powerful
that it might have actually influenced my
forest installation project, something that
I just realised writing this answer.
my work in relation to its presentation
in Singapore.
AL: I came across an interview from 2016
where Fan Chon states: “I am still in the
state of realising what exactly ‘Artist-inResidence’ stands for”. I would like to
hear your thoughts on being an artist-inresidence within the framework of SEA
AiR, with its two-fold structure consisting
of a residency and the production of new
works for an exhibition.
CS: The residency for me was a stepping
stone to regenerate existing thinking
methods. Exposed to new situations and
experiences, my artistic ideas and processes have been constantly tested through
intense discussions and meetings with
audiences from different cultures.
VL: To be a guest in a new place, I suppose.
Being an artist-in-residence in SEA AiR
meant that I could immerse myself in
a new environment and develop a new
research. This structure has been around
for a very long time in the history of artistic residencies. However, SEA AiR also
HFC: I have limited experience with
artistic residencies. I participated in a
month-long research residency in Taiwan
in 2017 and a two-week-long research
and production residency in Sulawesi,
Indonesia, for the Makassar Biennale in
Vuth Lyno giving an artist talk at the Association
Culturelle Franco-Khmère, Paris, 2 April 2022.
Photo: Jean-Alex Quach.
Hoo Fan Chon during HIAP Open Studios,
6 May 2022. Photo: Sheung Yiu. Courtesy HIAP.
has the second component of supporting
the materialisation of research ideas into
new works for an exhibition. This model
drives motivation. It is concrete and
realistic because, in the end, as artists we
make artworks. To be able to think, and
to know from the beginning that there are
the material conditions to create an artwork out of the research was very helpful
to bring my ideas to fruition. And, as I
mentioned earlier, the exhibition opportunity also challenged me to reconsider
2019. Both were organised by artist-run
initiatives. If a well-supported residency
creates an environment that allows artists
to focus purely on learning, reflecting, and
producing, it is a luxury and privilege to
take part in it.
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This interview took place over email in
October 2022.
�New Works
Hoo Fan Chon
�Despite Hoo Fan Chon’s hope that the residency at Helsinki International Artist
Programme would provide some respite from his obsession with fish-based iconography
and symbolism, upon arriving in Helsinki the artist found himself immediately drawn
to the salmon pink colour that commonly adorns buildings in Finland. This chromatic
cue ignited his interest in issues of taste, class aesthetics, and fish culture triggering an
erratic investigation about the cosmetic processing of farmed salmon, the environmental plight of this fish, and the social status of its consumption as a signifier of class
and wealth.
Inspired by amateur tutorials commonly found on YouTube, the video How to turn your
siakap into salmon illustrates DIY techniques to colour fish. While the pink pigmentation of wild salmons is due to a natural diet made of krill and shrimp, the flesh of farmed
salmon is off-white. In order to achieve the vibrant hue that makes salmon appealing to
consumers, farmed salmons are regularly fed synthetic carotenoids the health implications of which are still under scrutiny. In Southeast Asia, salmon is a luxury good and its
consumption bespeaks the Western lifestyle aspirations of a rising global middle class.
This instructional video shows how to simulate a salmon-eating experience by dying
affordable local fish and is presented alongside takeaway maps of upscale Singaporean
restaurants where salmon is served at high tea.
Hoo Fan Chon
George Town
HIAP
Helsinki
The ironic speculation on how to ‘domesticate’ a foreign species continues in I have
never seen a swimming salmon in my life. Accompanied by a voiceover by Sir David
Attenborough borrowed from an advocacy campaign to protect salmon, the installation
features 3D animations of salmon cuts—fillet, loin, and streak—swimming inside a fish
tank, a staple fixture in Chinese seafood restaurants.
The artist’s familiar-yet-distant relation to salmon culminates with Finnish landscape painting series, an installation featuring 13 paintings hung on a salmon pink wall. In this series,
the artist introduced the motif of the proverbial “carp leaping over the dragon’s gate” and
auspicious Chinese blessings into existing Finnish landscape paintings purchased in thrift
shops around Helsinki. Both salmons and carps are known for their strength and jumping
ability; in Chinese culture, the iconography of the leaping carp symbolises courage and
perseverance leading to wealth and presPrevious spread: Hoo Fan Chon, 3D animation rendering
tige. By conflating Chinese symbolism and
for I have never seen a swimming salmon in my life, 2022.
Nordic waterscapes where wild salmons
Opposite, above: Hoo Fan Chon, How to turn your siakap
once thrived, the work enacts a process of into salmon, still from video, 2022.
cultural contamination while also hinting
Opposite, below: Hoo Fan Chon, from the series
at the hardships of migratory journeys and Finnish landscape painting series, oil and acrylic on found
environmental change.
paintings, 2022.
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�New Works
Citra Sasmita
�Citra Sasmita
Bali
Wiels
Brussels
Dutch upon Balinese women. Dressed in a black and white cloth, the Queen makes her
appearance from the third painting onwards, first leading the armed resistance in the battle
of Kusamba (1849) and then requiring the Dutch to offer a one-horned rhinoceros to stop
her subjects from committing mass suicide. The elaborate scenes in the two following
paintings are representations of Hell and Heaven drawn from the Bhima Swarga, a Hindu
epic evoked by the Queen in her anti-Dutch propaganda. The last painting illustrates the
abominable trade of slaves which entailed the massive deportation of Balinese people,
including a great number of women, to other Dutch colonies.
The artistic practice of Citra Sasmita revisits ancient mythologies and revives traditional artistic techniques and materials to question historical misconceptions and
misrepresentations that persist in Balinese society, especially with regard to the status
of women. The residency at WIELS enabled the artist to research the legacy of her
ancestors in European archives and museum collections—built during the colonial era
by often dubious and unethical means—and to produce the eighth chapter of her longterm project Timur Merah (The East is Red).
Timur Merah Project VIII: Pilgrim, How You Journey is a two-part work featuring an
installation and a double-channel video. Eight antique carved wooden pillars float
mid-air, each adorned by a painting. They are arranged in a star-shaped configuration
that references ancient cosmologies and the nine kingdoms of Bali, with the Klungkung
kingdom symbolically at the centre of the installation. The vivid imagery of this painting
series unfolds complex narratives inspired by the life of I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya, the
daring and undaunted Queen of Klungkung who opposed the Dutch through military
struggle and cunning diplomatic manoeuvring in the mid-19th century. The series starts
off with a Dutch warship rigged with batik sails to suggest the possibility of a peaceful
encounter between the two civilisations. Brutal Hindu rituals, such as the widow’s
sacrifice on the husband’s funeral pyre, are juxtaposed to the violence inflicted by the
Previous spread: Citra Sasmita, Timur Merah Project
VIII: Pilgrim, How You Journey, acrylic on Kamasan
canvas, 2022.
Opposite: Citra Sasmita, Timur Merah Project VIII:
Pilgrim, How You Journey, still from video, 2022.
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Above: Citra Sasmita, Timur Merah Project VIII:
Pilgrim, How You Journey, acrylic on Kamasan canvas
(detail), 2022.
Set in the royal palace of the Karangasem
kingdom where I Dewa Agung Istri
Kanya was allegedly born, the video
features a singer performing Prelambang
Bhasa Wewatekan (The Coded Language
of Symbols), a poem written by the ruler
herself. The tantric symbolism of the poem
secretly encodes the Queen’s own memoir,
military strategies, and calls for
anticolonial resistance.
�New Works
Vuth Lyno
�Penh, the artist’s hometown. Known for its Speaker’s Corner—an area where, upon registration with the authorities, citizens can hold demonstrations and political speeches—since
2009 Hong Lim Park hosts Pink Dot, an annual rally of thousands of people in support of
LGBTQ communities, freedom of love, and inclusiveness in a country where male samesex relationships were criminalised until just a few months ago. Democracy Park has a
history of entanglement between colonial power, the nation state, and the people. Created
at the end of the colonial period, throughout the 1950s the park was used to celebrate the
country’s independence and parade the nation building process. In recent years, it became
a designated site for political demonstrations until it was closed off to the public following
anti-government protests in 2014.
The layered identities of these urban forest parks as sites of contestation, refuge, community building, and emancipation are conveyed in Lyno Vuth’s immersive installation where
the forest is turned into a mosaic made of pulsating paper tiles. Fluttering delicately to the
movement of the air, the forest’s ‘leaves’ reveal underneath drawings. They depict a diverse
range of events that took place at those sites, from manifestations of state power to
grassroots initiatives and other informal modes of appropriation by which marginalised
communities reclaim public space to enact their agency.
Vuth Lyno
Phnom Penh
Villa Arson
Nice
Pursuing intersecting interests in architecture, the politics of space, and place-making
practices, during his residency at Villa Arson Vuth Lyno travelled to Paris to research
the Bois de Vincennes forest park. In 1931, the park hosted the International Colonial
Exhibition, a showcase designed to boast the ‘accomplishments’ of colonialism wherein
pavilions modelled after indigenous architectural styles housed displays of the ‘native’
cultures of the colonies. Some of these structures outlived the temporary exhibition and
are still extant today. In the late 1970s, the Cameroon Pavilion was transformed into a
Buddhist temple known as La Grande Pagode. In the spring, thousands of Cambodians
living in France swarm to the temple to celebrate Khmer New Year occupying the
adjacent grounds with picnic mats and makeshift stalls. The community’s appropriation
of a public space previously used to stage Eurocentric (mis)representations of those
very colonial subjects struck the artist as a self-powered emancipatory practice of
place-making and community-building.
Vibrating Park-Forest ensues from Vuth
Lyno’s comparative study of heteronormative practices that unfold in the Bois de
Vincennes as well as in Hong Lim Park in
Singapore and Democracy Park in Phnom
Previous spread: Vuth Lyno, prototype for
Vibrating Park-Forest, installation view, Open Studio,
Villa Arson (Nice, France), May 2022.
Above: Vuth Lyno, preparatory drawing for
Vibrating Park-Forest, graphite on paper, 2022.
Opposite: Vuth Lyno, preparatory drawing for
Vibrating Park-Forest, graphite on paper, 2022.
28
29
�Artist
Biographies
Partner
Institutions
HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme
Helsinki, Finland
Hoo Fan Chon (b. 1982, Malaysia) is a visual artist whose practice
explores taste and foodscapes as cultural and social constructs. His
research-driven projects examine how value systems fluctuate as people
move from one culture to another. Reframing mundane aspects of
everyday life with irony and wry humour, his multimedia works address
notions of cultural authenticity setting in motion overlaps and frictions
produced by the migration of symbols amongst different sociocultural
contexts. Hoo recently received a solo exhibition at The Back Room,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2021) and he has participated in a number
of group shows including the last Makassar Biennale, Indonesia (2022).
Also active as a curator and a grassroot cultural producer, he was
the co-founder of the art collective Run Amok Gallery (2012-2017)
in George Town.
Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) is an international artist
residency organisation which was established in 1998. The HIAP residency
programme offers time and space for developing new work in dialogue
with the local art scene. The goal is to support experimental, crossdisciplinary art practices and to actively contribute to topical debates
within and around the context of art. Since 2019 HIAP is also responsible
formanaging the Villa Eläintarha artist residency which focuses on
short-term production residencies.
Villa Arson
Nice, France
With a background in literature and physics, Citra Sasmita
(b. 1990, Indonesia) is a self-taught painter who turned to visual arts
after working as an illustrator at a local newspaper in Bali. She is deeply
invested in the social empowerment of women and in questioning colonial
legacies. By unravelling myths and misconceptions that persist in Balinese
culture, her work figures forth secular mythologies for a post-patriarchal
future. Regularly exhibited in Indonesia, her work has been presented
internationally at SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany (2022),
Kathmandu Triennale 2077, Nepal (2022); and ParaSite, Hong Kong (2020).
In 2020, she received the UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space
Commission. She is the Gold Award Winner of the UOB Painting of
The Year 2017.
Vuth Lyno (b. 1982, Cambodia) is an artist, curator, and educator interested in space, cultural history, and the production of knowledge through
social relations. He often articulates his research into spatial configurations that resonate with personal stories and collective practices. His
artistic and curatorial approach is deeply rooted in communal learning
and aims to engage a multiplicity of voices in the production of meaning.
Besides his solo practice, Lyno is currently Artistic Director of Sa Sa Art
Projects in Phnom Penh, an artist-run initiative that addresses the lack
of infrastructure for contemporary art education and engagement in
Cambodia. His works have been featured in several group exhibitions at
institutions such as the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand (2020)
and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane, Australia (2019) amongst
others. With Sa Sa Art Projects, he was a participant in documenta fifteen,
Kassel, Germany (2022).
Villa Arson is an innovative public institution of the French Ministry of
Culture that fulfils several complementary functions in favour of contemporary creation: teaching, research, experimentation, production, dissemination, promotion and support. The Villa Arson school of art, contemporary art centre, artists’ residency and specialised library form a unique
ecosystem dedicated to supporting young generations of artists towards
professional practices, presenting original artistic visions and facilitating
critical exchanges with an international perspective. Villa Arson welcomes
residents for its teaching and research activities and within the framework
of tailored partnerships for artistic production and research.
WIELS Contemporary Art Centre
Brussels, Belgium
30
WIELS is the main centre for contemporary art in Europe’s capital city.
An international laboratory for innovation and creative practices that aims
to enrich the debate, open up new perspectives and stimulate the senses,
enhancing cultural mobility and interactions with creators and authors
from other cultures and geographies. As a space dedicated to the transmission of knowledge, support and professionalisation of emerging and
less-visible artists since its inception in 2007, WIELS occupies a central
position in the art scene from Brussels and Europe and puts its know-how
at the service of artistic invention and innovation. For the second decade,
WIELS engages in new efforts to connect artists and intellectuals from
East and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
31
�SEA AiR
Selection Process
Cycle 1
Nominators
Artists and curators from different
Southeast Asian countries were prompted
to leverage on their in-depth knowledge
of emerging contemporary art practices
in their respective contexts to nominate
promising artists who could benefit from
participating in SEA AiR.
Aung Myat Htay, artist, writer, and
independent curator (Myanmar)
Kittima Chareeprasit, curator, MAIIAM
Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand)
Đỗ Tường Linh, researcher and curator
(Vietnam)
Misouda Heuangsoukkhoun,
independent curator (Laos)
Renan Laru-an, researcher and curator
(Philippines)
Melati Suryodarmo, artist (Indonesia)
Meta Moeng, independent curator
(Cambodia)
Syaheedah Iskandar, assistant curator,
Singapore Art Museum (Singapore)
Yee I-Lann, artist (Malaysia)
HOO FAN CHON, CITRA SASMITA, VUTH LYNO: NEW WORKS
11 January – 5 February 2023
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Residencies Studios
Selection Committee
Project Director
Ute Meta Bauer (Chair),
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore;
Professor, School of Art, Design and Media,
NTU
Sylvie Christophe, Head of International
Relations, Villa Arson
Juha Huuskonen, Director, Helsinki
International Artist Programme
Siddharta Perez, Curator, NUS Museum
Deepika Shetty, Press Officer, European
Union Delegation to Singapore
Dirk Snauwaert, Director, WIELS
Ute Meta Bauer
Curator
Anna Lovecchio
Programmes Coordinator
Nadia Amalina Binte Abdul Manap
Admin and Operations
Jasmaine Cheong
Low Ming Aun
Maggie Yin
Shortlisted Artists
Communication
In addition to the selected artists, six
artists were shortlisted by the Selection
Committee in recognition of the merit
and promise of their artistic practice.
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Deepika Shetty
Press Officer
European Union Delegation to Singapore
Thuy Anh Dang (b.1996, Vietnam)
Priyageetha Dia (b.1992, Singapore)
Tada Hengsapkul (b.1987, Thailand)
Rita Khin (b.1992, Myanmar)
Kat Medina (b.1984 Philippines)
nor (b.1993, Singapore)
Graphic Design
mono.studio
Exhibition Fabrication
Auxilio Studio
Shipping
Lotus Fine Arts
Acknowledgments
NTU CCA Singapore wishes to thank the
artists for their enthusiastic commitment
to this project. We are also grateful to
our partner institutions, in particular to
Juha Huuskonen and Mia Mikkola (HIAP),
Eric Mangion and Sylvie Christophe (Villa
Arson), Dirk Snauwaert and Eva Gorsse
(WIELS), for supporting and mentoring
the artists throughout their residencies.
We warmly thank Paolo Zingale (Head)
and Michel Mouchiroud (Deputy Head)
of the EU Foreign Policy Instruments Asia
& Pacific for their guidance throughout
the implementation of this project.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge our
former staff members Peter Lin, Karin
Oen, Celine Yeo, and Kristine Tan who,
in different capacities, significantly contributed to the development of SEA AiR –
Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian
Artists in the EU.
In collaboration with
32
33
�Artwork
Credits
Hoo Fan Chon
How to turn your siakap into salmon, 2022
Single-channel video, Full HD, colour,
sound, 15 min 36 sec
Talent: Zufar Zeid
Production Assistant: Sven Tang
I have never seen a swimming salmon
in my life, 2022
Installation, 3D animation, projection, fish
tank, plastic plants, bubble pumps, sound,
2 min 58 sec
Dimensions variable
Animation: Darrel Chia Chee Sum
Voiceover: Sir David Attenborough
(extracted from “Year of the Salmon”,
produced by Pace Productions, 2019)
Finnish landscape painting series, 2022
Oil or acrylic interventions on 13 found
paintings, framed
Dimensions variable
Afternoon tea with salmon experience
in Singapore, 2022
Takeaway foldout map, 500 copies
29.7 cm x 42 cm (open), 7 x 14,8 cm
(closed)
Graphic Design: hrftype
Research: Hoo Fan Chon, Chong Hui
Shien, Celine Yeo
NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
A national research centre of Nanyang Technological University Singapore, with a focus
on Spaces of the Curatorial, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA
Singapore) addresses the urgencies of our time such as the climate crisis and its impact on
communities. A leading international art institution, driven by dynamic thinking in its
three-fold constellation: RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION; RESIDENCIES
PROGRAMME; and EXHIBITIONS. It brings forth innovative, multi-disciplinary, holistic
and experimental forms of emergent artistic and curatorial practices that intersect the
present and histories of contemporary art embedded in social, geo-political, geo-cultural
spheres with other fields of knowledge. NTU CCA Singapore’s office and research centre
is located at Gillman Barracks.
Citra Sasmita
Timur Merah Project VIII: Pilgrim,
How You Journey, 2022
Installation, acrylic on traditional Kamasan
canvas, antique carved wooden pillars
Dimensions variable
Timur Merah Project VIII: Pilgrim,
How You Journey, 2022
Double-channel video, 4K, colour, sound,
22 min
Videography & Editing: Niskala Studio
Sound: Agha Praditya
Talent: Dayu Mang Anna, Bhumi Bajra
Location: Puri Gde Karangasem Royal
Palace
Research Team: Mira MM Astra,
Dwi Setyo Wibowo
Production Manager: Ruth Onduko
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
Regina Yap, Manager, Finance
Maggie Yin, Manager, Research & Publications
Low Ming Aun, Assistant Manager, Programmes and Operations
Magdalena Magiera, Research Associate
Nadia Amalina Binte Abdul Manap, Programmes Coordinator
Vuth Lyno
Vibrating Park-Forest, 2022
Installation, paper, wall drawings, fans
Dimensions variable
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, image courtesy of
the artists.
34
35
�NTU CCA SINGAPORE GOVERNING COUNCIL
ABOUT NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
CO-CHAIRS
Young and research intensive, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU
Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in engineering, business,
science, humanities, arts, social sciences, education and medicine. Ranked among the
world’s top universities, NTU is home to world-class institutes – the National Institute of
Education, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore,
and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering.
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, Singapore
MEMBERS
Fong Pin Fen, Vice President (Consumer), Singapore Economic Development Board
Kathy Lai, Enterprise Fellows, Enterprise Singapore
Professor Simon Redfern, Dean, College of Science, NTU
Kay Vasey, Chief Connecting Officer, Mesh Minds Pte Ltd / Mesh Minds Foundation
Professor Michael Walsh, Savannah College of Art and Design
Professor Tim White, Vice President (International Engagement), NTU
Besides being reputed as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses, the NTU Smart
Campus is a living testbed of tomorrow’s technologies and a model of sustainability, with
61 Green Mark Platinum awards for its building projects. In addition to its main campus
in the western part of Singapore, NTU also has a medical campus in Novena, Singapore’s
healthcare district.
ABOUT SINGAPORE ART WEEK
NTU CCA SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
As Singapore’s signature visual arts season, Singapore Art Week (SAW) represents
the unity and pride of a diverse and vibrant arts community in Singapore. From
6 to 15 January 2023, SAW 2023 will present an array of over 130 art events featuring new
works and transnational collaborations across the island and online. In its 11th edition, the
ten-day celebration of the visual arts will also showcase two dynamic art fairs, S.E.A. Focus
and the inaugural ART SG; two highlight commissions are the homecoming presentation
of Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book at the recent 59th International
Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and the Singapore Biennale; as well as a vibrant
Light to Night in the Civic District. SAW is a nexus for creative collaborations and
audiences can look forward to an exciting line-up of art experiences at our museums,
galleries, independent art spaces and public spaces, and enjoy enriching discussions,
talks, walks and tours.
CHAIR
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures, and
Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne, Australia
MEMBERS
Antonia Carver, Director, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Catherine David, independent advisor, 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, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
SAW 2023, a celebration of Singapore’s vibrant art landscape, is a joint initiative by the
National Arts Council (NAC) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
36
�Free admission unless otherwise stated.
ntu.ccasingapore.org
ntu.ccasingapore
ntu_ccasingapore
In light of COVID-19, we have implemented safety measures to ensure the
safety of our staff and visitors. For advisories from the Ministry of Health, please
visit www.moh.gov.sg
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
A RESEARCH CENTRE OF
SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for
Southeast Asian Artists in the EU
is funded by the European Union
PART OF
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Printed in December 2022 by First Printers.
Cover: Vuth Lyno, prototype for Vibrating Park-Forest, installation (detail)
at Open Studio, Villa Arson (Nice, France), May 2022. Courtesy the artist.
LOCATED AT
�
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
SEA AiR Cycle 1 Exhibition Guide
Corporate Resource Type
Branding
News Type
Leave blank if not applicable
Exhibition
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
SEA AiR Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union Cycle 1 Exhibition Guide
Subject
The topic of the resource
Artistic Research
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
Europe
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
11 January - 5 February 2023
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anna Lovecchio
Kai von Rabenau