Through a bold collaborative curatorial model that combines the expertise and specialised knowledge of 27 co-curators from across Southeast Asia, 52 artists have been identified by the co-curators.

By News Editor 16 May 2013

Singapore Biennale 2013
If the World Changed

26 October 2013 to 16 February 2014

As Singapore’s key international platform dedicated to fostering artist presentation and discourse in contemporary art, this year’s Biennale is focused on harnessing the energy of the Southeast Asia region to build a distinctive Asian identity for itself. Through a bold collaborative curatorial model that combines the expertise and specialised knowledge of 27 co-curators from across Southeast Asia, 52 artists have been identified by the co-curators.

The list comprises established as well as emerging artists primarily based in or with links to Southeast Asia, such as Albert Samreth and Svay Sareth from Cambodia; Eko Prawoto and Mahardika Yudha from Indonesia; Marisa Darasavath from Laos; Jainal Amambing, Chris Chong Chan Fui and Zulkifli Yusoff from Malaysia; Po Po from Myanmar; Leslie de Chavez and Siete Pesos from Philippines; Guo Yixiu, Lai Chee Kien and Suzann Victor from Singapore; Nipan Oranniwesna, Prateep Suthathongthai and Nopchai Ungkavatanapong from Thailand; Le Brothers and Oanh Phi Phi from Vietnam.

The list also includes President’s Young Talents Boo Junfeng and Liao Jiekai, who received the President’s Young Talents Credit Suisse Artist Commissioning Award to create new works for the Biennale; as well as Erica Lai, Hazel Lim, Tay Bee Aye and ZNC who were announced earlier for their proposals, which involve the participation of local students. Other artists from beyond the region include Francois Roche from France and Australia-based Ken and Julia Yonetani. The works proposed by this first batch of artists demonstrate the breadth of art styles and practices within the region, and reveal what audiences can expect at this year’s Biennale.

Change and Diversity

The artists were shortlisted for their proposals that resonate with the title of SB2013 – If The World Changed. An invitation to reflect, meditate and envision responses to our changing worlds and the worlds we want to live in, the title is manifested in the works, which comprise both existing works and new commissions, and span various mediums, including:

Installations such as Suzann Victor’s technically challenging Rainbow Circle (working title) that will create an indoor circular rainbow on a curtain of water in the Rotunda of the National Museum of Singapore; Eko Prawoto’s large outdoor installation Wormhole, its dramatic bamboo walls invite the public to enter and partake in an intimate and meditative encounter with nature amidst the busy urban cityscape of Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, and Guo Yixiu’s ingenious portraits composed by weaving raffia string on fences in the precinct (title to be confirmed);

Paintings including Ng Joon Kiat’s textural, yet delicate Lit Cities, which recreates maps of cities and question the identity of cities in an increasingly globalised world and Jainal Amambing’s My Longhouse Story, a series of paintings that depict the various aspects of living in longhouses in East Malaysia;

Photography works such as Sean Lee’s intimate The Garden, which documents the physical changes our bodies undergo as we age, meditating on the transience of human life, and Prateet Suthathongthai’s Stillness of Reflection: 2013 (working title), a site-specific work that plays with visual recognition and illusion, reconsidering the SAM courtyard space through photo collage;

Video works including the Le Brothers’ contemplative work Into the Sea, which tells the story of separation and unity and more;

Collaborative works co-created with local communities in the region, including the AX(iS) Art Project’s AX(iS): The Halsema Project (working title), a series of art activities held in collaboration with indigenous communities in Baguio City, to re-kindle an interest and involvement in art among rural settlers; Ahmad Abu Bakar’s Sampan (working title) and Shirley Soh’s Seeing from the Other, collaborative works with male and female inmates from Changi Prison respectively, to surface the issue of acceptance and forgiveness in society today and the hopes and dreams of the individual inmates for the future.

The complete list you find here