ART CITIES:Singapore-Stagings, Soundings, Readings
“Stagings. Soundings. Readings-Free Jazz II” reviews the performative format that marked NTU CCA Singapore’s inauguration in 2013 with “Free Jazz 2013”, a series of talks and performances where participants of various disciplines were invited to imagine and envision a new institution and its potential. On its five-year anniversary, the Centre continues advocating for free spaces, celebrating the practice of improvisation, as well as of collective and performative approaches.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: NTU CCA Singapore Archive
Discussing ethical values with an expanded sense of community, territorial, and environmental concerns, “Stagings. Soundings. Readings.” employs an open, multidisciplinary structure that challenges traditional modes of presentation and re-presentation through a range of artistic practices and formats. Situated within a complex and contemporary understanding of the Centre’s current overarching research topic “Climates-Habitats-Environments”, the featured works link theory and practice, emphasising collectiveness. Today, the planet is witnessing a moment of unprecedented loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, and cultural transformations. In the face of such agitated times juxtaposed with advanced communicative tools, contemporary social and environmental issues require responses from a collective body through establishing processes of instigation, negotiation, and collaboration. Maria Loboda’s sculptural installation is grounded in historical narratives, as a reminder that things can change and be taken down overnight, especially by the invisible mechanisms of power. In the foyer, Tyler Coburn addresses forms of labor and examines the notion of writing in the 21st Century by engaging with complexities of our legal, technological, and geopolitical networks, while Heman Chong analyses motifs of exchange and its boundaries, embracing the space of inter-human connections. Unfolding in the exhibition space, Cally Spooner brings to Singapore an exercise in building new vocabulary and knowledge through bodily means. Using the space as a laboratory, the work investigates new ways of organising and working together. Alexandra Pirici’s choreography explores the possibility of collectively assembling memories of human and non-human presence on the planet. Carlos Casas presents his long-term multi-format ethnographic research based on the human ecology and richness of one of the world’s highest inhabited villages, Hichigh, located in the Pamir mountain range in Tajikistan. Together with composer Phill Niblock, they create an audio-visual experience, traversing landscape, soundscape, and contemporary music that changes with every iteration. In response to the five-year anniversary and by taking the topic of its celebration Ming Wong will stage an improvisational performance. Boris Nieslony, co-founder of performance collective Black Market International, will engage with Lee Wen, during the Centre’s first cycle, with a discussion and performance.
Info: Curator: Ute Meta Bauer and Magdalena Magiera, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Block 43 Malan Road, Singapore, Duration: 21/9-6/11/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Thu & Sat-sun 12:00-19:99, Fri 12:00-21:00, http://ntu.ccasingapore.org
