All You Need To Know About The Singapore International Festival of Art (SIFA)
PUBLISHED April 10th, 2015 06:46 am | UPDATED June 12th, 2020 04:41 pm
No festival encapsulates Singapore’s thriving art scene better than Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). With more than 60 events and performances lined up over seven weekends, SIFA gives art lovers a chance to fully immerse themselves in the embracing arms of the festival. With the theme POST-empires, festival director Ong Keng Sen’s curation is challenging us to look at the past differently while encouraging us to chart our own path into the future.
Looking to engage the public before SIFA starts proper, The O.P.E.N (Open, Participate, Engage, Negotiate), takes places over 19 days in June 2015, entertaining audiences with a series of performances, talks, workshops, and augmented reality impressions.
Highlights of The O.P.E.N:
The Young & Restless
iNCH Chua
Singaporean singer-songwriter, iNCH Chua, will share her story and her music with audiences. Brazilian Dancer, Cristian Duarte, will redefine the components of dance in “The Hot One Hundred Choreographers” and “Biomashup”.
What Remains after the Empire
Award-winning Chinese photojournalist, Lu Guang, will present a photo exhibition of pollution-stricken China, while Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Toyo Ito, will share his experience on the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan in 2011, as well as his response, the “Home-For-All” project.
Augmented Reality
The futuristic tech of Augmented Reality will bring visitors down memory lane in the premises of Tanjong Pagar Railway station, while highly sought-after choreographer, Jayachandran Palazhy, will have digital and augmented reality tech incorporated into his performances.
Highlights of The Singapore Arts Festival:
Transformation
Kumar’s Living Together
Kumar and his band of comedians will bring the funny to the heartlands, namely Tampines, Jurong East, Upper Serangoon, and Marsiling, for a hilarious gathering with residents. Meanwhile, “Open Homes” is an unprecedented project which will see residents having staged theatre in their living rooms and opening up their homes to people.
Archive
Hotel by W!ld Rice
“Nanyang – The Musical” is inspired by Nanyang painters who found a home in Singapore after an extraordinary adventure to Bali whereas “Dance Marathon – Open with a Punk Spirit!” is a series of thought-provoking dance numbers with varying themes performed by international artistes. Also catch ‘Hotel’, an epic play by W!ld Rice on Singapore’s change from a British colony, to a Malaysian state, and finally, a sovereign nation.
POST-empire: Communism
Dementia
In “Dementia”, a world-famous psychiatric hospital in post-socialist Hungary is unable to survive the rise of capitalism. Dilapidated and on the verge of closing, the abandoned building leaves a handful of patients suffering from amnesia on the fourth floor. This play poses a soul-searching question: would you help them if you could?
POST-Capitalism
The Cemetery
In a story that many Singaporeans can relate to, “The Lesson” will see members of the public play roles as policy-makers, power-brokers, and property agents, with the narrative centred around a new MRT Station. Also be sure to catch “The Cemetery”. Held at Bukit Brown Cemetery, you’ll find that you will discover the dynamics of space, the notion of loss, and being lost.
The O.P.E.N is running from Tuesday, 16 June to Saturday, 4 July. For more information, please click here.
The Singapore Arts Festival is running from Thursday, 6 August to Saturday, 19 September. Early bird tickets are now on sale – for more information and tickets, please click here.
By Joel Conceicao
