In its 2016 edition, Art Stage Singapore will introduce the Southeast Asia Forum, which aims to emphasise the balance between art, commerce and content. An extension of the Southeast Asia Platform exhibitions at the Fair from 2014 to 2015, the Forum is a thematic programme that takes a more focused and deeper view into broad global issues that also affect our immediate region and lives.
This initiative draws attention to contemporary art’s significant place in the development of modern society and the central role the artist plays in the context of Southeast Asia. Moving beyond artistic discussions, the Forum will take a broader approach towards contemporary art by situating it outside the art world community and connecting it to the larger society, thus growing the range of contemporary art by involving individuals from other fields.
The inaugural Southeast Asia Forum is titled Seismograph: Sensing the City – Art In the Urban Age. Comprising two symbiotic parts – an exhibition and a talk series, it is centred on the theme of urbanisation. Cities not only shape our environments, spaces and interactions; they also shape our roles, functions, ideas, beliefs and identities, on different levels and in different spheres – as individuals, communities and ‘cityzens’. The Southeast Asia Forum makes the case for art to be regarded as part of the urban DNA. In the same vein that designers and planners build and shape cities, art explores visceral depths of human existence and civilisation by making the invisible visible. Contemporary art is a reflection of our time, and artists are instrumental to how we sense, measure and interpret perceived reality. The Forum will explore the role of artists as seismographs of society’s pulses and will cast light on Southeast Asia’s rapidly urbanising landscape.
The Forum’s exhibition component will survey the role of artists in the evolution of contemporary societies across Southeast Asia. The projects to be presented in the exhibition will focus on 19 artists who relate to issues and sentiments of extremely rapid urbanisation in their own countries.
Ren Ri (b. 1984), “Yuansu Series II #6-34”, 2014-2015, Pearl Lam Galleries
Raqib Shaw, represented by White Cube
Eri Imamura, “Miracle”, wall sculpture, beads on antique kimono frabric, 37x53x10cm, 2014, LaLanta Fine Art
SOUTHEAST ASIA FORUM TALKS PROGRAMME
Venue: Level 3, Angsana Room (3E & 3F), Marina Bay Expo & Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue
Registration: Admission is free
Due to limited seats, registration is required. To register, please visit – www.art-stage-singapore.eventbrite.com
Thursday, 21 January 2016
1.30pm – 3.00pm
Artist and Society in the Urban Age
Speakers:
Mami Kataoka / Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Sherman Ong / Artist
Piyarat Piyapongwiwat / Artist
Norberto Roldan / Artist
Moderator:
Enin Supriyanto / Curator and Project Officer, The EQUATOR International Symposium (Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation)
Thursday, 21 January 2016
3.30pm – 5.00pm
Do Museums Make Global Citizens?
Speakers:
Peggy Levitt / Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Wellesley College and Co-Director of the Transnational Studies Initiative at Harvard University
Tintin Wulia / Artist
Moderator:
Kwok Kian Chow / Associate Professor of Arts and Culture Management (Practice), Singapore Management University
Thursday, 21 January 2016
6.00pm – 7.30pm
Global Opinion Leaders Series: Art World – Quo Vadis?
Speakers:
Simon de Pury / Founder and Chairman, de Pury de Pury
Lorenzo Rudolf / Founder and President of Art Stage Singapore
Moderator:
Raphael Suter / Writer and Head of the Culture Section at Basler Zeitung, Switzerland
Friday, 22 January 2016
1.30pm – 3.00pm
Artists and Cosmopolitanism
Speakers:
Tiffany Chung / Artist
Nikos Papastergiadis / Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures and Professor, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne
Navin Rawanchaikul / Artist
Moderator:
Philip Ursprung / Professor, History of Art and Architecture, ETH Zurich
Friday, 22 January 2016
3.30pm – 5.00pm
What Are the Challenges in Leading an Art museum in the Psychogeography of the 21st Century?
Speakers:
Ann Demeester / Director, Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen Haarlem, Netherlands
Hou Hanru / Artistic Director of MAXXI (National Museum for 21st Century Art and National Museum of Architecture), Rome
Lu Xun / Founder and Director, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing
Moderator:
Zoe Butt / Executive Director, SànArt, Ho Chi Minh City
Saturday, 23 January 2016
11.00am – 12.30pm
The Great Creative City Race – Can Creativity Save the City?
Speakers:
Andy C. Pratt / Professor of Cultural Economy at the Department of Culture and Creative Industries, City University London
Tim Renner / Permanent Secretary for Cultural Affairs, Berlin
Moderator:
Lorenzo Rudolf / Founder and President of Art Stage Singapore
Saturday, 23 January 2016
2.00pm – 3.30pm
Who Owns the City?
Speaker:
Saskia Sassen / Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
Saturday, 23 January 2016
4.30pm – 6.00pm
The Present Cultural Revolution – Art, Space and Social Contract in the current urban condition, in Asia and beyond
Speakers:
Rem Koolhaas / Architect, Partner in OMA and Professor, Practice of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Michael Schindhelm / Cultural advisor, filmmaker, researcher and writer
Sunday, 24 January 2016
11.00am – 12.30pm
Interruption Patterns: Artists and Public Space in Southeast Asian Cities
Speakers:
Nani Kahar / Social Architect, Partner at labDNA and Director at Place Identity SB, Kuala Lumpur
Anon Pairot / Artist and Designer, Bangkok
Sutthirat Supaparinya / Artist
Moderator:
Erin Gleeson / Curator and Artistic Director, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh
Sunday, 24 January 2016
2.00pm – 3.30pm
“The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age”
Speakers:
Daniel A. Bell / Professor at Tsinghua University and Director of Berggruen Philosophy and Culture Centre
Chua Beng Huat / Provost Chair Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, National University of
Singapore
Ali Nurazmal Yusoff, “Infernal Affair”, Oil on Canvas, 168cm x 168cm, 2012, Image courtesy of Core Design Gallery
Manolo Valdes, Presented by Galerie Forsblom
Eko Nugroho, “My Plastic Bag is My Societ Me and My Religion I am Holding Knowledge While Wearing Boxing Glove”, Bronze Each 178cm high, 2013, Image courtesy of ARNDT.
DONNA ONG, “The Sixth Day”, mixed media, variable dimension, 2008, Image courtesy of Primo Marella Galler
