Commemorating its 12th year anniversary in Australia, the Indonesian Film Festival 2017 will be the most grandiose celebration of Indonesian Screen Culture held in Australia, showcasing an eclectic range of art house cinema from a particular corner of the globe often known for its striking beauty and rich culture. IFF 2017 will strive to become […]
12th Indonesian film festival, Australia (via IFF Australia) Read More »
“In a time of ignorance and fears about AIDS, Paddy Chew came out publicly as HIV-positive. He was the first person to do so in Singapore. Three months before he died, he worked with the local theater company The Necessary Stage to stage a monologue titled “Completely With/Out Character” about the coming-out experience. The docu-theater
Singapore Poetry: Loo Zihan on Completely With/Out Character (2015) Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali 20-26 March 2017 JAKARTA Monopolis, 25 March 2017, Black Box Theater Salihara, Jakarta A performance by Komunitas Seni Hitam Putih, Monopolis highlights economic and social issues in Indonesia. These issues are presented through the bodies of the actors in this non-verbal performance. This performance is also the
20 – 26 March 2017: Indonesia Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (529 words, 5 minute read) Solo Rites: Seven Breaths by Jen Shyu, a highly acclaimed experimental jazz vocalist from the US, was staged at the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama on 14 February 2017. Shyu, who is of East Timor-Taiwanese ancestry, has spent years conducting research and learning the traditional musical and
Solo Rites: Asian Degustation Menu Causes Indigestion Read More »
“Eko Supriyanto’s internationally travelled Cry Jailolo featured in the Darwin Festival and Adelaide’s OzAsia in 2016, in this year’s Sydney Festival and will appear shortly in Brisbane’s new Supercell Dance Festival and Melbourne’s Asia TOPA, a three-month celebration of Asian and South-East Asian performing arts. Also in the Sydney Festival was the premiere of Balabala,
Duration: 21 minutes Dance practitioners and educators Stephanie Burridge and Susan Sentler discuss Cloud Gate 2‘s A Triple Bill, including the interplay of music and choreography, references to Martha Graham’s aesthetics, and the many ways bodies can “carve the architecture of a space”. Cameo mentions of other dance groups and productions in this podcast review
Podcast 11: Cloud Gate 2, “A Triple Bill” Read More »
For the first time, this year’s edition will be held in the spring, where Eloy expects it to remain in coming years. The lineup is an intoxicating mix of local and regional films, with Western offerings sprinkled throughout, as well as a celebration of local music, arts and dance. Because of the range of films,
The Phnom Penh Post Guide to the Cambodia International Film Festival Read More »
This is the second of a two-part essay on origins and rise of biennales within the context of Malaysia’s aspirations for a world-class international visual art mega-exhibition. Read Part I here. Part II Increasing scholarly focus has been directed on the biennale trend over the past two decades, along with the rise in prominence of
To Biennale or Not To Biennale (Part II) Read More »
‘The Cave’, a converted bar and restaurant that is the venue for the performance of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, is small. Audiences sit on three sides, around five persons abreast, ever mindful that to stretch their legs would be to trespass into the performance area. How does one perform Ghosts in such a space, with its
Review: Theatre Company shelf’s “GHOSTS-COMPOSITION/IBSEN” Read More »
ExxonMobil Campus Concerts – Alfaaz, NUS University Cultural Centre, 1 March, 8pm Alfaaz (n.): Urdu for spoken word; the distinguishing factor that makes us undeniably human. Words shape us, unite us and yet at the same time, divide us. Much like humanity, language constantly evolves. The complexity and sense of poetry of years past have
27 Feb – 5 Mar 2017: Singapore Read More »
This is the first of a two-part essay on origins and rise of biennales within the context of Malaysia’s aspirations for a world-class international visual art mega-exhibition. Read Part II here. Part I News that Kuala Lumpur will stage its first biennale in November this year have been circulating amongst Malaysian art insiders since 2015.
To Biennale or Not To Biennale (Part I) Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Bali 20-26 February 2017 JAKARTA E-MOTIONS 2017, 26 February 2017, 2 & 7 PM, Teater Besar, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Gigi Art of Dance has risen in the last few years to become Jakarta’s beloved home for dance. This year, Gigi Art of Dance returns with their annual
20 – 26 February 2017: Indonesia Read More »
ExxonMobil Campus Conerts – Discovery: Stephycube, 16 Feb, 6pm, NUS Yusof Ishak House Singer-songwriter Steph likes to strum late into the night in the privacy of her room, where she mixes popular radio songs. Although her online repertoire consists mainly of acoustic tracks, her musical influences are mainly pop rock while her lyrics are inspired
13 – 19 February 2017: Singapore Read More »
Institution ° Preparations are ongoing. An assistant paints the white wall a bit whiter. Spelling mistakes in the text on the wall are corrected. The white cube divided into nine zones is ready for visitors. Everything looks smooth and polished: the space, the artworks, and the people. ¶ In Singapore the concept of being “gardened”
Zoned Out at the Singapore Biennale 2016 Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (1030 words, 15 minute read) Skin in SIN, a new burlesque group, made its debut at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (M1SFF) last month. Members of the group had spent several months learning the art of burlesque whilst developing their stage persona and performance, under the mentorship and training of Singaporean drag
Your underwear is showing: Foreign Bodies Read More »
Congratulations to Marcus Yee for winning AICA + ArtsEquator’s Inaugural Best Essay on the Singapore Biennale 2016 by an Emerging Art Writer Competition with this essay. By Marcus Yee, (3040 words, 30-minute read) “A map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth glancing at.” — Oscar Wilde [1] 1. Find escape
Six performance works stood out for their bold placement of the body center-stage: Softmachine Rianto, an Indonesian-Singaporean dance and video collaboration; Skin, a challenging work from Malaysia on human trafficking; Cambodia’s Phare Circus, in which performers perform the seemingly impossible; As If To Nothing, a Hong Kong dance piece on the mutability of memory; Twelfth
OzAsia Festival: Celebrating Asian Dance and Theatre Down Under Read More »
Malaysian-Hong Kong action thriller “Mrs K” has been set as the opening film of the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The festival, which runs March 3-12, will close with the world premiere of teen music drama “Parks” by Osaka-born director Seta Natsuki. Tags: Malaysian Film
Malaysian Ho Yuhang’s ‘Mrs K’ to Open Osaka Asian Festival (via Variety) Read More »
Makati’s Central Business District (CBD) becomes a stage for the arts in February as it transforms into a living, breathing and more relatable art gallery. In a country whose attention is held captive by recurring problems and whose eyes are focused on finding ways to put food on the table and get through the day,
Art Fair PH transforms Makati CBD into art gallery Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1200 words, 20-minute read) There are so many performance modes packed into the approximately 70 minutes of FIGHT! PALAST #membersonly – confessional monologue, workshops, live fighting, interactive sketches – that it is difficult to classify. Performance makers have been using this form of super-hybridity for a while now, but it still takes
3 #Millennials Read “Fight Club”. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next! Read More »
Deruma by Azpirasi & Dian Dancers, 26 – 27 Jan at Esplanade Theatre Studio Presented as part of Esplanade Theatre’s Pentas series, which is its second annual programme of Malay arts, apart from Pesta Raya. Deruma follows the local folktale of Si Tanggang. It’s a story about filial piety and gratitude told through Malay dance and traditional
23 – 29 Jan 2017: Singapore Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta from 22 – 29 January JAKARTA Islamic Art Public Lecture, Komunitas Salihara Black Box Theatre, 24 Jan, 7:00 PM Komunitas Salihara, supported by Institut Francaise Indonesia, presents an Islamic Art public lecture featuring Yannick Lintz, Director of Islamic Art Department at Louvre Museum, Paris. The lecture will explore two
23 – 29 Jan 2017: Indonesia Read More »
Seng Yu Jin: Our roundtable comprises students from the MA in Asian Art Histories programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, and we are looking at the Singapore Biennale 2016 – An Atlas of Mirrors, henceforth SB2016, as a case study of the “curatorial complex”. If I may start with a summary of ideas about
The Curatorial Complex: A Roundtable on the Singapore Biennale Read More »
We’re barely into the new year, but the dedicated art lover is, no doubt, already exhausted from the recently concluded M1 Singapore Fringe Festival and Singapore Art Week. Pace yourselves, as there are more festivals across Southeast Asia over the next month. January M1 Fringe Festival: Art & Skin, Singapore : 4 – 15 January 2017
Southeast Asia in Arts Festivals: Jan – Feb 2017 Read More »
Tags: The Nation World Film Festival of Bangkok
The Nation’s preview of World Film Festival of Bangkok (Jan 23 – Feb 1) Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1200 words, 12-minute read) 2016 has seen a few biennales taking place in Southeast Asia. While we didn’t manage to attend each and every one of them, we’ve been reading all we could find about them. Here is a round-up of what we’ve come across. 1. Visayas Island Visual Artists Exhibition and Conference
An Atlas of Biennales: International Art Festivals in Asia Pacific 2016 Read More »
By Wei Er Xun, Finalist, Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition* (2700 words, 30-minute read) Introduction The stakes of exhibitions have always been high. Before the advent of the cinema, television and other mass media, large-scale exhibitions and world expos were primary sites for cultural exchange. As Maria Lind explains in a text
Singapore Biennale 2016: A/political Performance – Atlas of Mirrors in Context Read More »
By Elaine Chiew, Finalist, Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition (2996 words, 30-minute read) Much of our ideas about maps today are reduced to their function: their ability to tell us where we are and how to get somewhere. However, maps as art inquire what a map is rather than what it does.
Singapore Biennale 2016: The Myth, the Mirror and the Map Read More »
By Eunice Lacaste, Finalist, The Best Essay by an Emerging Art Writer Competition* Introduction Entering the Singapore Art Museum[1] during the media preview of the Singapore Biennale 2016[2], we could barely disregard the museum staff installing wall text decals. Other artworks were still being shifted around. Some of the art viewers did not mind this.
Singapore Biennale 2016: The Performative Curator Read More »
Meta’s Top Picks in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bali from 19 – 25 December Meta is a freelance arts administrator and a traveling yogi. She spent 16 years of her life as an art practitioner and the last few years as an arts administrator. Her first love in the arts is dance. She left her heart
19 – 25 Dec 2016: Indonesia Read More »
