Come and join us on 24 January 2015 for an outdoor screening of experimental films at ICA Singapore.
Seen from Europe, the genius of Singapore is its formidable power of circulation: between the 64 islands of the archipelago and the rest of the world, an endless spatial flow of material and immaterial goods, combined to result in the rapid historical movement “from mangrove to metropolis” that rendered visible layers of each step of development, a lively and dense interlacing of communities and cultures. Amongst the symbolic assets of the city, circulate also its images. However, the usual representations of natural paradise in Singapore or as a conquering city-state, gazes at economic and architectural modernity contribute to a discourse that is more complex, subtle and sometimes unexpected articulated by a generation of visual artists both critical and constructive. What news are these authors sending us from Singapore? What forms of description, definition, dynamics that these artists invent, eager to share portraits of their territory with the rest of the world. We searched their works for both documentarist dimensions and logics of projection (on the past, the present and future possibilities). If each offer the singularity of its own perspective on Singapore, together, their images consolidate to form an additional chain of islands in the archipelago, a prismatic hub exchanging findings and values; memories and innovations; profound schemes of ancient tales and sensitive beauty of a Neon Realism.
The programme leads us from an enchanted description of Singapore to a visual reexamination of the founding myths and legends, to a consideration of certain events or spectacular rituals of the modern history of the archipelago (its Independence, the national parade...), to the visionary visiting of historical moments or secret sites (the student riots of May 13, 1954, or Orang Bukit Salah). It is about the creation of the portrait of an Electric Soul that claims the resources of a Neon Realism based not on the capturing of appearances, but the complexity of incessant and multiple movements.
Curated by Nicole Brenez and Silke Schmickl.
With the support of Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, National Arts Council Singapore, Lasalle College of the Arts, Art Week Singapore, Asian Film Archive, Lowave.
