A blast from the present

While the upcoming Singapore International Festival of Arts’ (SIFA) main programmes mainly features dance and theatre, its pre-festival of ideas, namely The OPEN offers a wider variety of disciplines, tapping into visual arts, fashion as well as music and film. 

In Singapore for the Open’s last afternoon and evening, I started with the exhibition at 72-13 titled “I Know Why the Rebel Sings” by Iranian |photojournalist Newsha Tavakolian, who had been in town earlier to give an inspirational talk. Later, at |the Capitol Theatre I watched Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fuocoammare” (“Fire at Sea”), the closing film of a mini film festival that also included Pimpaka Towira’s “The Island Funeral”. Both document real people and actual events that are taking place in other parts of the world. With keen eyes in capturing and editing, neither forces the messages on viewers but instead allows them to think and feel their relevance to our lives. 

My last OPEN experience was the multi-disciplinary blast “Club Malam” at the Old Kallang Airport, close to the National Stadium. Outside the main terminal, now no longer in use, were German artists Julius von Bismarck and Julian Charriere’s “Clockwork”, in which 12 concrete mixers were set up in a clock-like circle, and Mark Formanek’s “Standard Time”, in which crew members change the time display by hand every minute from twilight to midnight. At the entrance was one food truck, and this limited option was one reason I didn’t stay for long. 

Inside, Yogyakarta-based music duo Senyawa was capturing the audience with their unique singing style and instruments, a performance based on tradition and infused with experimental spirit. Video works by Singaporean artists Brandon Tay and Eugene Soh added to the visual vibe and another local visual artist Farizwan “Speak Cryptic” Fajari ” brought in more of a human element as scores of young performers known collectively as “The Tribe” moved around from one corner to another. Local duo NADA, who also had experimental fun with traditions, took the stage later on. On the mezzanine floor, audiences were invited to get a temporary tattoo designed by Marc Brandenburg and learn how to do origami.

In short, and like the entire |pre-festival itself, Club Malam, which was conceived by the director of the Open Noorlinah Mohamed, offered something for just about everyone. Visitors could enjoy it at their own path and pace, and the juxtaposition of all of these elements encouraged reflection on the wide variety, and possibility, of contemporary arts, and why we’re only exposed to limited parts of them.

The pre-festival pass, priced at S$45(Bt1,150) and only S$ 25 for local and international students, allowed admission to all 43 programmes over three weeks. The total number of spectators was almost 40-per-cent higher than last year and double the attendance at the first edition in 2014.

 “The most amazing outcome has been the uptake of audiences to quality public engagement through ideas, debunking the approach that community engagement requires a simplification of art so as to make it less elitist,” said festival director Ong Ken Sen. 

“Perhaps we are finally getting it right in this, the third year. In any event, it’s reassuring that we are headed in the right direction.”

Let’s see how this excitement carries on to this month’s SIFA.