Termin
12.06.2013
19:00
Veranstaltungsort
Kater Holzig
Themenschwerpunkt
Intimate Moments - An Interdisciplinary Art Exchange Project
Intimate Moments envisions bringing to life a breathing exhibition and site-specific performances propelling creation of new works in Berlin in June 2013. Curated by Vanini Belarmino this interdisciplinary art exchange will join forces with Nomadics by Galerie Tristesse Deluxe. Intimate Moments will work closely with the five artists from Singapore, Chow Chee Yong, Urich Lau, Sherman Ong, Elizabeth De Roza and Andree Weschler together with German artist Nelja Stump.
Solo exhibitions and performance snippets will be organised from Singapore serving as “studies” for the collaborative exhibition. As it travels from Singapore to Berlin, Intimate Moments will transport the contained energy through the exchange process accompanied by activities ranging from performance series, intimate conversations, film screenings, artist talks and salons.
Intimate Moments aspires to bring the unsaid in an intimate space through an amalgamation of artistic expressions. This interdisciplinary exchange will serve as a platform for artistic confrontations and face-to-face encounter between the artists from Singapore and community of creative minds and audiences in Berlin. Intimate Moments seeks to obtain reciprocal revelations about details ignored in a hectic urban lifestyle and society that is constantly under construction. By employing an evolving collection of visual and performative stories, the artists and audiences will share the project space for interaction, giving a voice to contained emotions, thoughts, secrets and imagination.
Encouraging a range of artistic responses, artists whose practices greatly reflect on crossover between cultures, genres, and thematic and aesthetic approaches are consciously selected to brave a range of intersections. Intimate Moments will attempt to zoom into the usually secluded space between the artist and himself; artist and his work; and the artist and his environment. While bringing ready-made works from Singapore, Intimate Moments seeks to open itself up to a time-based work process whereby the artworks will embrace active contributions and reactions from the city being visited. With Nomadics by Galerie Tristess Deluxe as the host of Intimate Moments, the happenings will be situated in a specially designed shipping container by the Berlin Spree. This make shift project space will targeted at a popular hotspot in the Berlin cultural scene.
Intimate Moments is presented by Belarmino&Partners Singapore in cooperation with Tristesse Deluxe. It will be hosting a range of art happenings at Kater Holzig and Platoon Kunsthalle as a partner programme of the Asia-‐Pacific Weeks on 19-‐30 June 2013. This initiative received generous support from the Singapore International Foundation.
Key Objectives
• To offer a platform for artists to experiment, explore, discover and challenge their artistic boundaries beyond their comfort zone;
• To organise an interdisciplinary art exchange in Berlin in June 2013 expected to lead towards the realisation of a breathing exhibition and site-‐specific performance;
• To highlight the value of creative process and introduce a fresh way of thinking involving artists of diverse cultural backgrounds and practices;
The Process
For Berlin, all these five artists will be exposed not only to a standard exhibition and performance format but also to a time-‐based work process. This means that all of them will engage in a responsive artistic exercise involving their Berlin counterparts. They will bring they ready-‐made projects from Singapore and embracing opportunities on how their works can evolve over a two-‐week period at the project space with a variety of people reacting to it. Each one is expected to contribute to each other’s practice, creating layers of nucleus.
As an art initiative borne out of Singapore where outcomes and KPIs (key performance indicators) are of great value, Intimate Moments will respond to this need by magnifying moments of intimacy apparent in the artistic process of each of the artists involved. The artistic process, which is usually confined at the studio or rehearsal space, will be on spotlight in a makeshift exhibition and performance project space.
Creative Links
What surfaces from the combination of works selected for Intimate Moments are the collection of confessions and personal stories, the ephemerality of memories, confrontations between fiction and reality and vice-‐versa, as well as the physical and psychological milieu where intimacy is established.
Elizabeth de Roza & Shelly Quick of Theatre Strays’ “Paper Boat” installation embodies a collection of private stories taken from her performances in Singapore, Myanmar and Brazil. It invites the public of Berlin to add a fresh layer to the setting sail of memories by writing their confessions and letting them go in the process. The curator sees the continuing thread with Sherman Ong’s “Motherland” series reflecting on confessions of migrants in Singapore. “Paper Boat” and “Motherland” allude to the shared space and visitors having interchangeable roles as active performers and passive listeners. Whereas Elizabeth encourages people to speak up, assigning the space as the witness, Sherman calls on the audience to return the gesture of intimacy by lending an ear to with his subjects as they bare their souls in the confines of the sanctuary.
With Sherman crossing the border between documentary and fiction, having the stories performed by actors, Urich Lau offers a different take to “Retold Scenes-‐ Stories in the City”, where he unveils the lingering fiction breathing between his mind and environment. Urich induces tension in an enclosed room re-‐enacting fictitious scenes from movies like Pulp Fiction, Summer of Sam and Natural Born Killers. The work is appropriation of the reality he sees. As the foreign characters of Sherman seek refuge in the city-‐state, Urich’s contextualised fiction touches on the deeply rooted violence that thrive even in a perfectly manicured society.
Chow Chee Yong provides the breather on his artistic reflection on “Project 37” about the pains of witnessing the demolition of one of Singapore’s biggest landmarks, the National Stadium. A story told through his black and white photography, “Project 37,” looks at the nostalgia of breaking a relationship with a mass of space that hosted 37 years of memory of National Day Celebrations in Singapore.
Intimate Moments goes back from the shared communal and magnified space to the individual body in the video performance and installation of Andree Weschler. The videos demonstrate the obliteration of the body almost wishing to break away from the intimacy with oneself.
Planned Activities at a Glance
Day 1, 12 June
Intimate Moments, the Exhibition @ The Container, Featuring Chow Chee Yong, Urich Lau, Sherman Ong, Elizabeth de Roza, Shelly Quick and Andree Weschler in cooperation with Nomadics by Tristesse Deluxe Berlin, 12 June 2013 (Opening) through 30 June
Opening with Berliner Dj/Vjs and Performance
Day 2, 13 June
Intimate Moments: Private Conversation @ The Container, 13 June 2013, 11:00-‐15:00 (Only with the artist from Singapore and Nelja Stump) Introduction about the project: Intimate Moments from Singapore to Berlin (Vanini and Nelja), Each artist will share an intimate story about himself/herself A Discussion with Chow Chee Yong and Urich Lau, a talk by two Singaporean Artists focusing on “Cities in Transformation”, 13 June 2013, 17:30-‐18:30 (Public Event -‐ to be hosted by the Singapore Embassy to be confirmed)
Day 3, 14 June
Intimate Moments: A Date with a Berliner, each of the artists from Singapore will be paired with a local artist/curator from Berlin. This is an open plan activity. The artists will have to decide for themselves how they use to spend the day in relation to their interest in the city and their works, 14 June 2013, 11:00-‐17:00
Berlin based artist: Abraham Hurtado, Fabian Knecht, Truong Ngu, Nelja Stump, Lina Theodorou, (to be confirmed)
The Boat Tour, 14 June 2013, 18:00-‐22:00 ( All artist together on the boat)
Day 4, 15 June
The Hairy Virgin, Performance by Andree Weschler, walk through the city from East to West with Chow Chee Yong, 15 June 2013, 15:00-‐17:30 (Prenzlauerberg/Mitte -‐ Weinsberg Park, Hackerschemarkt, U8 from Rosenthaler to Jannowitzbrucke, walk to the Container)
“Flooding in the Time of Drought,” by Sherman Ong, Film Screening and Open Discussion at Platoon Kunsthalle, 15 June 2013, 19:00
Action-‐Research for Paper Boat, Elizabeth de Roza & Shelly Quick of Theatre Strays with Urich Lau, will be collecting confessions from the inhabitants of Berlin, 15-‐16 June 2013, (to collect the confessions around Platoon Kunsthalle)
Day 5, 16 June
Action-‐Research for Paper Boat, Elizabeth de Roza and Shelly Quick of Theatre Strays with Urich Lau, will be collecting confessions from the inhabitants of Berlin, 15-‐16 June 2013 (to collect the confessions around Kater Holzig)
Day 6, 17 June
Preparation for Paper Boat
Day 7, 18 June
Paper Boat, Performance-‐Installation @ The Container, Devised by Elizabeth de Roza & Shelly Quick of Theatre Strays with special participation of members of the Berlin public, 18 June 2013.
Organizer: Belarmino&Partners Singapore in cooperation with Tristesse Deluxe