Song-Ming Ang - Singapore

Dal sito ArtAsiaPacific apprendo che l'artista Song-Ming Ang  rappresenterà il padiglione di Singapore

News at Singapore Pavilion

March 29, 2017: Multidisciplinary artist Zai Kuning will represent Singapore at the 57th Venice Biennale. The presentation, Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge, is commissioned by the National Arts Council, Singapore and will exhibit at the Singapore Pavilion in the Sale d’Armi building at the Arsenale from 13 May to 26 November 2017.

Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge uncovers forgotten stories of the orang laut, sea people of the Riau Archipelago, juxtaposed against an artistic re-imagination of the seventh-century voyage of Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa through the kingdom of Srivijaya. Central to the presentation is a 17-metre-long ship that traverses the hall, suspended. Made only of rattan, string and beeswax, it appears as if emerging from an aluminum sea, carrying within its hull ghosts of the past, even as it unloads its cargo of sealed books in the present.

In this installation, Zai explores one of the lesser-known narratives of Southeast Asia, which presents Dapunta Hyang as the first Malay king of what was once a powerful empire – a hegemon that exercised immense political, economic and military influence, stretching across modern-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Yet, despite his pre-eminence in the ancient Malay world, Dapunta Hyang has been forgotten, fading over time with the arrival of Islam and later rulers.

As the first contemporary visual artist to resurrect Dapunta Hyang’s story, Zai’s journey is a culmination of over 20 years of research and discovery. The colossal ship is the fifth such vessel constructed by Zai, and the largest and most intricate to date – calling forth the grandeur and sheer force of a maritime world cast in darkness for centuries. The installation commands attention: it is imprinted in the viewer’s mind and forces us to confront this forgotten past.

Since 1999, Zai has built a relationship with the orang laut, also believed to be the first people of Singapore. Their ways of life are entwined with nature, with their ancestral customs and beliefs informed by animism. Zai has come to know intimately the harsh conditions in which they live, as a people marginalised and discriminated against. Through his interactions with the orang laut, Zai discovered the performers of mak yong, a pre-Islamic operatic tradition with Hindu-Buddhist roots that was once widespread but is now sustained only by a few remaining masters.   

The installation features 30 photographic portraits of living mak yong performers on a facing wall running parallel to the ship. An audio recording of an old mak yong master, speaking in an old Malay language, plays faintly on loop in the background. The fragility of these elements is a poignant reminder – yet another ancient tradition is on the verge of disappearance; presently safeguarded by a small community that has itself been neglected and discriminated against.

Zai has collaborated with Thai photographer Wichai Juntavaro on this aspect of the work, visiting Phatthalung and Surat Thani in Thailand, as well as the once vibrant trading cities of Palembang and Jambi in Indonesia, to uncover the history, landscape and influence of Dapunta Hyang and the Srivijayan Empire (650 CE–1377 CE). On these travels, they came across ancient relics believed to date back to Srivijaya, including a recurring motif of a leaf-shaped boat, engraved on the tombs of royalties at Palembang’s Bukit Seguntang.

Zai elaborates, “Relics or remains surviving from the Srivijayan world helped me imagine the old Malay world. My interpretations concerning Srivijaya are personal, inspired by my own dreams, life experiences and imagination, especially about how they may have lived in the seventh century. I am not a researcher, nor academic nor historian. I am an artist and a storyteller.”

Through the synthesis of Dapunta Hyang, mak yong and orang laut, Zai raises questions on how knowledge is transmitted and directed across time and space to inform future generations. The juxtaposition of the forgotten Malay king with a dying operatic tradition reminds us that history is not just documentation, but rather it is lived, and often painfully. This journey signifies the need for dialogue on issues of identity, culture and history amongst Malays in Southeast Asia.

Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council, says: “Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge is a poignant installation that invites viewers to reflect on our region’s history and identity. We are excited to see Zai’s work take shape at the Venice Biennale, the premier platform to showcase Singapore’s visual artists to the world. Our eighth participation in Venice continues the conversations and connections between Singapore artists and the rest of the world, and Singapore’s contemporary art practice will benefit and grow from this international dialogue.”

The Singapore Pavilion will be opened officially on Wednesday, 10 May 2017 by Guest-of-Honour Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore, at the Sale d’Armi building at the Arsenale. An exhibition catalogue will be published for the launch of the Pavilion, featuring essays by art historian T.K. Sabapathy, head of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum Ahmad Mashadi, and Professor, Southeast Asian Studies at NUS Dr. John Miksic, among others.

Minister Grace Fu says, “I am happy to see Zai Kuning’s work being displayed at the Venice Biennale, which is widely regarded as one of the most established international platforms for contemporary art. It will raise our artists’ profile beyond our shores, and tap into a most important global network to reach new audiences for our Singapore art. Having worked closely with the orang laut community since 1999, Zai’s work infuses elements of the Malay archipelagic culture which he has mastered so well. It will be a masterpiece that will truly reflect our identity, and I have no doubt it will move the hearts of many visitors to the Singapore Pavilion.”

The Singapore Pavilion is commissioned by the National Arts Council and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

www.nac.gov.sg/SingaporeinVenice

Join the conversation with the Singapore Pavilion via the hashtag #SingaporeInVenice.

Zai Kuning per Singapore

Il National Arts Council di Singapore ha selezionato l'artista Zai Kuning.

Tema del progetto sarà Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa, il primo Maharaja della regione Srivijaya.

Curatore dell'evento sarà June Yap.





 

Dal sito NAC 

 The National Arts Council (NAC) today announced the appointment of Singapore multidisciplinary artist, Zai Kuning, and curator and art historian, June Yap, as the artistic team representing Singapore at the 2017 Venice Biennale from 13 May to 26 November 2017. Their proposal, Dapunta Hyang, is a culmination of over 20 years of Zai’s research on Malay culture and history in Southeast Asia, as part of a broader inquiry on identity that includes his having spent more than a decade with and creating work on the Orang Laut (sea gypsies) — the pre-nation and pre-colonial inhabitants of both island and sea in the region.




The exhibition for the Biennale extends a series produced in recent years that takes as its vantage point Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa, the first Maharaja of the early kingdom of Śrīvijaya. Considered the first large state of ‘world economic stature’ of its time in Southeast Asia, the empire of Śrīvijaya stood at the crossroads of the maritime route between China and India, where merchant vessels plying their trade brought about an exchange of cultural influences, religious ideas, and goods. The success and influence of the empire is captured within Zai’s work in a symbol of voyage central to the exhibition.




Besides the history of the Śrīvijaya empire, Dapunta Hyang also points to the history of the Malay language and the establishment of Old Malay as the region’s lingua franca. The transmission and spread of the Malay language is a subject that has also surfaced in Zai’s work on the Orang Laut and his documentation of what remains of the Mak Yong opera in Riau, in that the Mak Yong may be traced to the Pattani kingdom via its Pattani-Kelantan Malay dialect. Having been immersed in Ghazal music and Zapin dance performance, and appreciating the livelihoods and cultures of the Riau islands from a young age, Zai considers the Mak Yong opera as a crucial and much neglected part of the region’s cultural history and relationships. Where artefact may not survive the passage of time, in language we find the traces of cultural development and transmission, in this instance also calling to mind Austronesian connections.




As the only Singaporean artist exploring our collective regional history through the pre-Islamic Śrīvijaya era, Zai explains, "Dapunta Hyang allows me to delve deep into a history and heritage of Southeast Asia not commonly found in history books on the Malay peoples and culture. As an aesthetic project, however, it is not a presentation of history in material and object, or as ideology and in politics. Rather it is about a sense of fellowship and solidarity that arises from knowing who we are. I am keen to have audiences spend time reflecting upon the elements the work combines: of craft in the sculpture of the ship, the subject of knowledge as embodied in the waxed books, the portraits of islanders and Mak Yong, and the voice of the Mak Yong master who speaks in a language rarely heard now in Singapore and Malaysia, even Indonesia.




As for the concept of transmission of knowledge, it is not merely about a passing of information. Instead the receiver’s imagination is essential to this process. But even received knowledge and their interpretation should not simply be taken as given. Dapunta Hyang is thus a prompt and a means to attend to this history and the knowledge that go back in time. Not just from 50 or 200 years ago, but centuries, back to the 7th century, in order to understand what and who we are, and the actions and even accidents that brought us here."




Ms. Kathy Lai, CEO of NAC and Co-Chair of the Commissioning Panel, adds, “Dapunta Hyang invites us to reflect on the region we are in, its past and how its heritage has been transmitted through the trajectories of empire, language and culture. Zai’s proposal stood out strongly as it spotlights forgotten stories of a people whose culture influenced what we recognise as ‘Southeast Asian’ today. The uncovering of forgotten histories will, I believe, strike a chord with the international audience at the Venice Biennale.”




Continuing from Zai’s series of installations that were previously presented at Ota Fine Arts (2014), the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (2014), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (2015), Art Basel Hong Kong (2015) and Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2015), Dapunta Hyang will be his most complex and intricate installation to date. Audiences in Singapore will have the opportunity to preview the work in progress and interact with Zai at the studio space in Gillman Barracks, before it leaves for the Venice Biennale.




More details about the public programmes in September 2016 will be available on gillmanbarracks.com and nac.gov.sg.

Singapore brunch

Singapore - rinuncia

Dopo tre partecipazioni il Singapore non parteciperà alla  prossima edizione della Biennale di Venezia nel 2013. Il National Arts Council di Singapore ha dichiarato che sta rivalutando le strategie di promozione e che prevede dei ripensamenti di sostegno culturale. 

di "rivalutare criticamente Singapore a lungo termine partecipazione" alla manifestazione. Aveva partecipato nelle ultime sei edizioni, che risale al 2001. Nessun motivo è stato dato per la decisione di Singapore di ritirarsi dalla vetrina del prossimo anno.

Gli artisti selezionati alle scorse edizioni furono nel 2011 Ho Tzu Nyen, nel 2009 Ming Wong e nel 2007 Tang Dawu, Vincent Leow, Jason Lim e Zulkifle Mahmod.

Ho Tzu Nyen per Singapore

Internationally recognised artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen has been selected to represent Singapore at the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale this year.

Known for work that persistently engages a wide spectrum of the community – actors, film producers, artists, students, musicians and the public, Young Artist Award recipient Ho’s art is characterised by three broad themes: historiography or the production of new histories spanning pre-colonial founding myths (Utama – Every Name in History is I) to art histories (4 x 4: Episodes of Singapore Art); re-interpreting historical objects from philosophical texts (Zarathustra: A Film for Everyone and No One), history painting (EARTH), and popular songs (The Bohemian Rhapsody Project); and the analysis of the production of visual aesthetic and acoustic deconstruction (NEWTON and EARTH).

This will be Singapore’s 6th consecutive presentation at the Venice Biennale. The
Commissioner for the Singapore Pavilion is the National Arts Council (NAC) and the curator is June Yap, an independent curator based in Singapore. She has curated with the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (LASALLE) and the Singapore Art Museum.
The theme of the 54th Biennale, “ILLUMInations”, calls for a reflection upon the conventions through which contemporary art is viewed, and a reflection on the subjects that inspire the contemporary artist to produce works that would create an evocative experience for the viewer.

It is in this context that Ho will present a piece of work that continues his exploration of histories, in this case art history, looking at forms of illumination, luminance and transport (of being transported) in art, in the subject of clouds — clouds as embodiments of change, signs of transience, vehicles for elevation, symbols of transcendence, exercises for the imagination, engines for hallucination; clouds as objects and subjects in art such as in landscape, or as markers of a different world; and clouds represented by emptiness, or even as the unrepresentable.

Both Ho and Yap have worked on projects interrogating cultural histories, sensibilities and concerns, contextualising local art practice for an international audience. This has seen Ho’s works presented at the international festival circuits of film, performing and visual arts, including the KunstenFestivaldesArts, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, and the Asia-Pacific Trienniale. His feature films have also been shown in festivals such as the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, Venice and Rotterdam Film Festivals .As a duo, both artist and curator have worked together -in exhibitions such as Some Rooms at Osage in Hong Kong; and at national exhibitions such as Seni: Singapore 2004, Art & the Contemporary; and the Singapore Art Show.

Ho will be joining 13 other Singapore artists who have presented their works at the oldest and most prestigious global contemporary art platform over the last 10 years. They included Matthew Ngui, Suzann Victor, Salleh Japar and Henri Chen (2001); Francis Ng, Heman Chong and Tan Swie Hian (2003); Lim Tzay Chuen (2005); Zul Mahmod, Jason Lim, Vincent Leow and Tang Da Wu (2007), and Ming Wong (2009). The curators involved were Joanna Lee and Ahmad Mashadi (2001); Low Sze Wee (2003); Eugene Tan (2005); Lindy Poh (2007) and Tang Fu Kuen (2009).