Bani Haykal Interview: Pushing boundaries at Lit Up 2012
PUBLISHED July 20th, 2012 04:50 pm | UPDATED March 28th, 2016 05:39 pm
Space, Memory and Architecture – What do these concepts mean to you? Do you define your spaces by physical boundaries or intangible constructs? Perhaps memories are what create the space for you to rest upon in the architecture of your mind?
Regular readers will already know that this year’s Lit Up Festival invites you join in the various forms of exploration into these concepts. Established writers, performers and artists converge during the 8 days in multi- and cross-disciplinary approaches to the written word, featuring experiences where the audience may not just exist as witnesses, but be actual participants in creation.
This multitude of approaches brings forth this year’s theme, ‘Occupied Art’, where the idea is that art should always be an inherent part of living in whatever form of existence. Indeed, the written word is not only limited to books, poetry, and speech, but in ways that we may not even expect in our daily lives. One of the artists from Lit Up Festival we had the fortune to speak to is Bani Hykal, who calls himself the ‘misanthrope unorthodox’.
If you have not heard of him yet, it is time that you do – Bani has been constantly pushing boundaries and challenging definitions in his art practice, from being in the much loved local band b-quartet (currently on hiatus), as an Associate Artist in the Associate Artist Research Programme with The Substation, in collaborations with artists from multiple disciplines including T.H.E Dance Company, and more recently, as a new member of The Observatory.
Conversation with Bani is earnest, honest, and illuminating. He is empathic and sincere in both listening and responding, and speaking to him over coffee (sugarcane juice for him) in the kopitiam opposite Goodman Arts Centre was more of a sharing of perspectives and ideas rather than an interview. This keenness to experience and internalize all that he encounters is prevalent in his artistic endeavours that incorporate influences from multiple disciplines, more recently expressed in performative settings that he calls ‘live’ art.
How do you feel about being part of Lit Up Festival 2012?
What I particularly appreciate about Lit Up is how it’s curated and structured. The openness that the good people at Word Forward (Marc + Savinder) have towards literary arts is wonderful because they present the idea that the written word exists, either from a literal or abstract manner, on every facet and platform of creative work. Being part of Lit Up allows me to present a body of work which branches out to other fields of artistic expression encapsulated within a performance, or one which simply explores the use of time.
What do you feel about this year’s concepts of Space, Memory, and Architecture?
Seeing that it’s a response to Telok Ayer Performing Arts Center’s closure sometime next year, I feel that it’s apt as homage to the history that the space has cultivated over the years. But I also believe that it acts as an important message about the rapid developments that modern society experiences. For instance, presently the words “space, memory, and architecture” have places not just on the physical plane, but the virtual plane as well, something that would not have existed prior to the 20th century.
Digital advancements aside, in Singapore we are experiencing changes in various landscapes that deals with the concepts above; cultural, social and physical above others. Hopefully Lit Up would trigger everyone, from the artists to the audience, to introspect about, not just the changes, but things which remain unchanged or could remain unaffected by any external force other than oneself.
For his performance in Lit Up, Bani Haykal brings us his new body of work, ‘Instructions to build a collapsible universe (minus the annoying people)’. The combination of the spoken word, sound, visuals and body movements in this performance will create a space for and within the audience in an exploration that is both collective and individualistic.
What can the audience expect from “Instructions to build a collapsible universe (minus the annoying people)”?
I feel that the audience should not come with any expectations other than to experience a performance about the individual and one’s pursuit for freedom. This body of work will be performed by audio-visual collective OFFCUFF, a multi-disciplinary performance group I’m part of which consists of 2 visual artists (Ila {OHP projections} + Jun {video projections}) and 2 sound artists (Mohamad Riduan {sound sculptor}).
This project is part of a larger body of work I am presently completing with The Substation under the Associate Artist Research Programme.
How does ‘live’ art help expressing what you want to share with the audience?
To me, the form that live art encompasses helps to open up more possibilities in presenting performative works, which are interdisciplinary in Nature. I think the term is just more appropriate. By subscribing to a wide playing field, i feel that new or alternative vocabularies can be formed amongst practitioners and with that perhaps a different experience in pushing an idea or concept forward.
Come with an open mind, Bani says, and we agree – be part of a created space, leave with a memory, and put another brick into the architecture of your mind.
Catch Bani Haykal and OFFCUFF in ‘Instructions to build a collapsible universe (minus the annoying people)’ on 29th July, Sunday, at 6.00pm. For mo information see the Lit Up website here. To check out OFFCUFF’s previous works watch them here and here.
