M1 Singapore Fringe Festival
di // pubblicato il 22 Gennaio, 2012
Don Sante Babolin (born in 1936), Professor Emeritus of Philosopy at the Roman Gregorian University wrote: ” art is a sort of language phenomenon […] that always provokes a contemplative vocation in everyone who admires it […]. Art is revelation from men to men, in every kind of positive and negative potentiality.”
Therefore, art seems to be one beauty’s language and spiritual experience expression, as is faith’s mirror and its manifestation.
The investigation of the relationship between art and faith is not something that only belongs to the West and, above all, it is not something stuck in ancient paradigms, but so topical to become the main actor of events, exhibitions and performances organized by M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, from 15th to 26th February.
The Festival, curated by the Necessary Stage (a non-profit theatre company with charity status, their mission is to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches heart and mind), will gather a wide variety of art works never exhibited in Singapore, among which eight works will make their world premieres and four their Asian premieres.
As usual theatre, dance, music and visual art join together cuddling Singaporian and international artists.
Whit a changeable theme, the Festival try to explain the best of “the state of being contemporary” to local audience.
There will be four Festival HIghlights from Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma and Iraq.
Cane by local artist Loo Zihan consists of a reenactment of Brother Cane by Josef Ng.
The work seeks not only to commemorate and honour the memory of this performance, but also to explore the possibility of representing performance art, a form often perceived as ephemeral or transient. Loo Zihan says: ”In re-enacting Brother Cane, I am attempting to inhabit Josef’s experience in 1993. I am performing his actions, filtered through time, memory, eyewitness accounts, and nation. The audience will be complicit in the act of re-creation, with the knowledge of what is to come; their very act of viewing this performance gives me permission to proceed with this ritual”.
The British Van Huynh Company in collaboration with Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts will present [Black Square], a stunning piece of choreography that stirs up space to reveal new dimensions, taking the audience to the core of the experience.
The audience/performers relationship is at the core of the piece: they rely on each other, trust each other challenging and teasing. The performers need the faith of the audience to exist, faith in the human abilities to transcend the everyday life to make it meaningful.
Burma answer with The Triple Gem by Htein Lin. Throughout material means immaterial concepts such as impermanence will be represented. Monks’ robes are used to create a triptych of three rooms, each representing the triple gem of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in which Buddhists take refuge. The installation incorporates religious items, such as monks’ bowls and umbrellas, video and sound, as well as guided meditation.
The central placing of the Dharma in this triptych, reinforces the argument that this art of living is one of the most existing basic one and, if understood, can bring perfect harmony.
In this point of view Buddhism is not a religion involving the worship of an individual, but a philosophy whose truths are reached through meditation, and which can be pursued by people of any faith and religion.
Then, we have Iraq is flying by the Iraqi photographer Jamal Penjweny, who sum his works up: “The memories from our childhood still . When I was a child, I used to jump with my friends for joy and happiness, and I only dreamed of watching my home from a height for no reason. But for me, jumping was also like a dream. I wanted to fly through a highest jump to watch my house and the road from the sky and to see the entire city where I was born. Now, I can see my city and even all of Iraq from the tiny window of an airplane, but everything looks different […] With Iraq is Flying, I wish to give Iraq’s energetic people a chance to regain their dignity, to let them jump beyond the setting of their lives and show how we all carry a bit of the child still within us. I want all Iraq’s people to fly”.
The media tend to present Iraq as a tragic country and they just forget Iraqi people who are the nation essence. Through this artworks Jamal try to give a human face back to his nation, screening through human beings the common and public consideration of an uproared nation.
Coming back in Singapore after one year, Sean Tobin in collaboration with Jason Wee, try to explore with his contemporary performance Tongues struggle, conflict and nearness between faith and sexuality.
Art, faith and sexuality are all important components of privacy, communication and identity dimension; they are vital principles for our individual and collective existence and for this reason they need a space to dialogue, understand each others and become strength as well.
From a social perspective art and faith are often considered as opponents and afterwards dismissed; disguised as art practice they can only grow, change their shape and watch their peculiarity disappeared.
Teater Ekamatra is welcomed again with the trilogy Hantaran Buat Mangsa Lupa (Offerings for the Victims of Amnesia). Including three exhibitions inspired by the three main events linked to the Islam birth, Hantaran give a remark point on the coexistence of faith and theological and human questions connected to them.
There will be international events too. Dance performances and theatre plays will involve Mexican, Russian and Italian artists just to show the global cuddle this Festival wants to give abroad.
As far as it is concerned visual arts, a prominent role will have some exhibitions in which unfriendly emerge the faith variously expressed, just to demonstrate how is possible to communicate specific topics through pictorial, photographic and three-dimensional works.
For those who believe faith is something uniquely religious, Singapore Fringe Festival could be something blasphemous; but for those who think faith is something presents in the ordinary world and in the artistic unexpected plot line, this Festival will be a good chance to study the happy and old relationship between faith and art.