Progression, Performance and Collaboration at Lit Up 2013
PUBLISHED July 12th, 2013 03:00 am | UPDATED January 20th, 2016 04:32 pm
From 19th to 21st July, Singapore will be playing host to the now well-established multi-disciplinary arts event: Lit up 2013. Originating in 2009 by Word Forward, this year sees the indie arts festival taking a bigger shift than previous years away from purely poetry and spoken word, and towards performance pieces and visual art.
The focus this year is also more introspective, with the aim of creating a dialogue and a springboard for local artists to collaborate and share their work with a fresh audience. In casting the net wider to include performance pieces, Lit Up promises to deliver an exciting mix of audial and visual offerings: performance art is perhaps the strongest element of Singapore’s creative history, and has been known to push both social and political boundaries.
This year’s theme of ‘Progression’ is also particularly poignant when considering Singapore’s ups and downs in recent years. The festival aims to challenge the concepts of citizenry, identity, and even perhaps how a developed nation can move forward within its economic and social infrastructure. Artists taking part will be tackling the theme in a range of diverse ways, ranging from the positive to the skeptical, and examining the changes needed to achieve progression.
The curated selection of work on show will be hosted across a number of spaces, with the performances focused at the Aliwal Arts Centre and featuring names such as Lee Wen, Marc Nair, Bani Haykal, Sharda Harrison and Joel Tan. The freedom to collaborate has resulted in some exciting artistic partnerships that you can catch over the next weekend, such as Lee Wen teaming up with Ng Yi-Sheng for a performance piece entitled ‘Un-Ending Literature of Singapore’ which will feature a durational reading of all forms of Singaporean literature. Alternatively you can see two all-female spoken word troupes from Singapore and Malaysia join together in ‘She Walks Like a Free Country’, a collection of performances that explore themes ranging from objectification and colonialism to feminine identity and birth rates.
The visual art programme also features collaborations, particularly under the umbrella of ‘Tête-à -tête’, which will showcase artists from different disciplinary fields joining together to challenge and compliment each other’s work – such as the partnership of sound artist Bani Haykal and photographer Geraldine Kang. This is particularly worth seeing, as it explores the possibilities for new meanings that can result from the unexpected merging of two disciplines and minds.
While we don’t want to give too much away, there are some serious gems to see at Lit Up 2013 – whether your taste is for photography, music or a performance piece examining a dystopic future where all domestic helpers are robots. Singapore is a city constantly shifting and changing as it moves forward, and Lit Up 2013 will be showcasing the best regional talents under a theme that will leave a lasting impression on Singapore’s visual culture for years to come.
The festival runs from 19th – 21st July at the Aliwal Arts Centre, 28 Aliwal St #03-03, S199918. Activities from 10am till late on all three nights with a closing party on the 21st. For a full program listing see here.
