New Platforms To Develop Visual Arts Hub (Press Release 28-Jan-2004)
SENI – Singapore
2004
Singapore Art 2005
Giving Singapore’s burgeoning arts scene an added boost are two exciting
biennial visual arts launch pads: SENI – Singapore 2004 (SENI) and Singapore Art
2005.
A total framework to provide expanded and alternative international visual arts
showcases in Singapore, the two biennials aim to further nurture our visual arts
talents, capabilities and audiences nationally, regionally, and internationally.
To be held in October this year, SENI is a prequel towards the development of a
Singapore Biennale, focusing on the development of Asian contemporary art in the
international scene. Singapore Art provides a national visual arts platform for
the discovery and development of Singapore artists which will alternate with the
proposed Singapore Biennale. The two biennial events are designed as mutually
complementary events. Added to the increasing Singapore’s presence at
international biennales, both events will enhance Singapore’s international
standing in the visual arts world.
“These are two iconic events to add to the vibrancy of Singapore’s arts scene.
They represent significant milestones in the development of Singapore into a
visual arts hub. I believe they will serve as important avenues that provide new
opportunities for Singapore artists, curators and visual art businesses, further
cultivate visual arts appreciation and build our visual arts audiences,” says Mr
Lee Suan Hiang, Chief Executive Officer of National Arts Council and Chairman of
SENI – Singapore 2004 Steering Committee.
SENI will present ideas on the theme ‘Art and the Contemporary’, and promote
discourse on socio-cultural influences today through works by Southeast Asian
artists in particular. It kickstarts the vision for the proposed Singapore
biennale to give greater profile and accessibility to Southeast Asian and Asian
contemporary art, adding Singapore’s own unique voice to the international
community of art biennales.
For the first time in a major programme of this scale, an artistic director,
Professor Chua Beng Huat from the National University of Singapore’s Department
of Sociology, has been appointed to conceptualise and guide the programming for
SENI. Prof Chua’s interests lie in contemporary culture and Asian inter-cultural
studies.
“ ‘Seni’ is the modern Malay word for ‘art’. As such, it gives immediate
reference to our location in Southeast Asia. SENI Singapore signifies Singapore
as the venue for the world to engage in exchanges and cultural examinations
through contemporary art. This festival aims to reach out to learned and new
audiences for contemporary art, with works that engage the senses and the
relevance of modern cultural ideas and objects to daily life,” says Professor
Chua.
SENI – Singapore 2004 will comprise several exhibition components. A main
exhibition, Home Fronts, will feature works by urban artist collectives from
Singapore, South East Asia and beyond to explore the notion of home in relation
to geographical, socio-cultural, economic constraints and location. Other
components will include new media projects that investigate the relationship
between moving images, location and the audience, and the influence of art
history and theory on new media art. Public art projects will also transform
some public spaces to explore the relationship between images, urban spaces and
the audience. 48 Documents, a multidisciplinary event, consists of a symposium
on the overall theme of the festival and various performances taking place
continuously over 48 hours.
In addition to the exhibition components, there will be a website and magazine
to provide comprehensive information on the artists and curatorial framework, as
well as a discursive platform, for the general public.
Says Dr Kwok Kian Woon, Chairman, National Archives of Singapore, National
Heritage Board and Co-chairman of SENI – Singapore 2004 Steering Committee, on
his vision for art development in Singapore, “The National Heritage Board has
over the years presented numerous exhibitions with the aim of developing the
museum as a platform for art history and contemporary art practices from
Singapore, and as part of a broader framework of global and international
developments. SENI looks towards a regional and international perspective,
bringing together artists from Singapore, South East Asia and beyond to explore
the notion of home in relation to geographical, socio-cultural, economic
constraints and location. This is a culture, a heritage, and a history as it
unfolds, in a continuous discussion and negotiation, that we are all a part of.”
SENI – Singapore 2004 will be held from 1 October to 28 November 2004. It is
jointly organised by the National Arts Council and the Singapore Art Museum of
National Heritage Board. More information is available in Annexes 1 to 4.
Singapore Art (SA) aims to be the national platform for both outstanding and
up-and-coming local visual artists to showcase their latest works, and also be
the important avenue to build public appreciation of our diverse visual arts
practices. The programme structure of SA is still being developed. To be
launched in 2005, it will allow for the showcase of artworks from various genres
and medium by Singapore artists, and seek to engage the visual arts community in
Singapore through outreach components, public art, platforms for the discovery
of new talents, and awards.
www.nac.gov.sg/VALaunchPads.doc
Annex 1
SENI Singapore 2004
Steering Committee Members
Chairman: Lee Suan Hiang
CEO, National Arts Council
Co-Chairman: Dr Kwok Kian Woon
Chairman, National Archives of Singapore, National Heritage Board
Members: Lim Siok Peng (Ms)
CEO, National Heritage Board
Mrs Koh-Lim Wen Gin
Chief Planner and Dy CEO (Physical Planning and Conservation & Urban Design),
Urban Redevelopment Authority
Dr Kaizad Heerjee
Vice-President, Corporate Business, Starhub
Christine Khor (Ms)
Director, Special Projects (Arts), Singapore Tourism Board
Matthew Ngui
Artist
Chua Soo Bin
Chairman, Art Galleries Association Singapore
Tan Kay Ngee
Principal, Kay Ngee Tan Architects
Chua Chim Kang
Editor, Commentary Desk, Lianhe Zaobao
Kwok Kian Chow
Director, Singapore Art Museum, NHB
Khor Kok Wah
Director, Arts & Heritage Development, MITA
Goh Ching Lee (Ms)
Director, Programmes & International Development, NAC
Secretary: Chua Ai Liang (Ms)
Deputy Director, Programmes & International Development, NAC
Annex 2
Professor Chua Beng Huat
Artistic Director, SENI Singapore 2004
Chua Beng Huat is Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Asia Research
Institute, the National University of Singapore. He has held visiting
professorships at universities in US, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany,
Australia and the US. During his recent Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Fellowship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he delivered the
Inaugural Lecture of the Carolina Asia Center. He has published widely in urban
planning and public housing, comparative politics in Southeast Asia and the
emerging consumerism across Asia: Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in
Singapore (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) and Political Legitimacy and
Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore (London and New York: Routledge, 1997). He
has edited, Consumption in Asia: Lifestyles and Identities (London and New York:
Routledge, 2000). His most recent book is Life is Not Complete without Shopping
(Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003). A new book of which he is the
contributing editor will be in press in March, 2004, entitled Communitarian
Politics in Asia (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon). In addition to being on
the editorial board of many international social science and cultural studies
journals, he is currently founding co-executive editor of the journal,
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (London: Routledge).
December 2003
Annex 3
SENI Singapore 2004
Curatorial Concept and Framework
Concept and Objectives
Seni, the modern Malay lexicon for art. A direct and immediate announcement of
its object; and refers to art in an inclusive mode. A Malay word, it makes
immediate reference to Singapore as a nation, Malay being our language, to its
geographic location in Southeast Asia and opens up to the world.
Singapore as the site for the event is immediate and explicit in ‘Singapore
2004’. The event aims to promote cultural discussion in Singapore, as a vehicle
for dialogue in relation to cultures of Southeast Asia, Asia, and those beyond.
The macro thematic framework of this event is an affirmation of the
inter-relation between art and the ‘contemporary’. The theme investigates the
permanent present and presence that is new, emerging and at the cutting edge of
building on the foundation of what had been. More importantly through
encouraging inter-cultural engagements and joint artistic investigations, the
theme faces the openness of its own unfolding towards the future.
Proposed Event Structure
The event will be made up of a series of projects. Although these projects can
be viewed independently from each other, they are inter-linked through
curatorial collaborations and sharing of artistic resource.
1. Main exhibition – Home Fronts
An investigation into the often-fluid notions of place, locations and
boundaries, characterised by the permeability of social and geographical spaces.
The theme may also be explore in relation to displacement, dispossession,
migration and diaspora – voluntary or enforced – often exacerbated by continuing
social tensions caused by impacts of urbanisation and capitalism. Economic
inequalities, social injustices and political tensions formed localised
dimensions for the larger global dynamics.
2. Video & New Media
A series of exhibitions, public events and conference exploring digital
technologies. An investigation into the relationship between image, location and
the audience. Involving works by both local and international artists, the
exhibition is planned to be simultaneously presented at other venues
internationally. Thematically, this component presents two related aspects of
new media art today - the rise of new media production, and its development as
artistic expression. Focusing on the image surface of digital video and new
media through the tensions of art and cinema, the exhibition explores the
language and negotiations of the mediated image in contemporary art practice.
3. Public Art Project
An investigation into relationships between image, urban spaces and the
audience, as and/or the production of social spaces through aesthetic
interventions.
The work(s), situated in the public realm, will serve as an emblematic front to
the festival or can also be used as a ‘connector’ between the exhibition sites.
It will involve the use of the Singapore city space or landmarks as a ‘canvas’
for a multimedia presentation that will appeal to the audio and visual senses of
the public.
The project may also take the form of design or architectural interventions in
the city. Architectural forms may be mobilised to dot the public spaces
in-between the exhibition sites, serving a number of functions; as connectors,
as visual interventions, as resting points, as information points, etc.
4. 48 Documents
A hybrid of symposium and performance base events, taking place over a
continuous period of 48 hours. It will focus of critical issues expressed in the
overall theme of the event, contemporary art practices, and audience
engagements. Content and invitees involved will be closely aligned to the other
projects of the festival.
Artists, curators, museum directors, art historians, social scientists,
architects, designers, filmmakers and performing artists will be invited to
participate in this multidisciplinary event. Performances, talks, and artists’
discussions will correspond to the overall theme of the festival.
5. SENI Online
The project will be accompanied by a virtual educational and discursive platform
for the exhibition that will provide information on the artists and essays. It
will also be a means for audience engagement through an educational forum where
audiences can respond to the works.
6. SENI Magazine
A hybrid catalogue/magazine for the general public, with curatorial essays
written in reader-friendly, ‘journalistic’ styles. The catalogue will also
engage in further discussions of the various projects included in the festival,
and will be a platform for active dialogue of artists, projects and analysis.
Annex 4
Background of Major Visual Arts Events
The series of visual arts festivals started with the National Day Art
Exhibition, which was first organised in 1969 to provide an exhibition platform
for Singapore artists. This was further developed to become the Singapore Art
Fair in 1986 to introduce a stronger sales component of artworks and art-related
businesses.
In 1993, the Singapore Art Fair was modified to become a regional art fair with
the theme “Art in Asia”. Its objective is to raise the overall quality of the
Fair and to provide a regional market focus. The expanded Fair was held as a
curated section within the newly arrived Tresors d’Art, that was organised by
international fair organizer, Bradbury International.
Following feedback, National Arts Council (NAC) and Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
of National Heritage Board jointly revived the visual arts exhibition platform,
similar to the former National Day Art Exhibition, called Singapore Art ’95 and
Singapore Art ’97. Greater emphasis was given to the quality of artworks
displayed. They featured two categories – an “Invited Section” that exhibited
works by National Day Award, Cultural Medallion and Young Artist Award
recipients; and, an “Open Section”, which invited entry submissions from all
artists. A panel of adjudicators comprising two ASEAN art curators/critics and
other local experts was formed to select the best amongst the submitted entries
for the exhibition.
The Singapore Art series was then renamed Nokia Singapore Art (NSA) in 1999 with
sponsorship from Nokia (Singapore). The NSA series was co-organised by NAC and
SAM. The timing of the project was shifted from August to December 1999 to mark
the millennium with a theme of “City/Community”. It also moved from a single
venue exhibition to multiple exhibitions at various venues. Greater emphasis was
placed on showcasing contemporary art. NSA also aimed to celebrate the diversity
of visual arts practices in Singapore, and inculcate an appreciation and
awareness of the visual arts among Singaporeans. Fringe activities comprising
workshops, talks and demonstrations were programmed. NSA 1999 also saw the
inauguration of an International Symposium as an important forum aimed at
extending art dialogue as well as exchange ideas on contemporary art, curatorial
issues and exhibition practices in Asia. A cyberart component was introduced in
NSA 2001 under the theme “Histories/Identities/Technologies/Spaces (HITS)”.
The organisers hope to usher in a new development phase for the visual arts
scene in Singapore with two biennials: SENI Singapore 2004 – Art and the
Contemporary as a prequel to the proposed Singapore Biennale; and a tentatively
titled Singapore Art, slated for 2005, as the development of a new national
platform. It is hoped that the two biennials will eventually be marketed as an
integrated visual arts entity and evolve into mutually complementary events of
equivalent standing. The local visual arts landscape can also enjoy added
vibrancy with these two biennials where a culture of collecting and patronising
local art and artists is further developed; artistic talents, in the curatorial,
art writing and exhibition design fields, are discovered and groomed; and, the
standard of visual arts appreciation in Singaporeans increased
