The following is a brief preview - the full content of this page is available to premium users only.
Click here to subscribe...
The Singapore Biennale finally arrived after months of anticipation. As Singapore’s inaugural international-scale contemporary visual arts event, it expects to test itself against other similarly named events in the region, the Shanghai and Gwangju Biennales, with which it was also timed to coincide. With Fumio Nanjo as artistic director, the event took as its conceptual framework the idea of ‘Belief’, as a reflection on the deep-seated theses and assumptions held in believing, and the relevance of these to contemporary society and art practice. ‘Belief’, it is supposed, also lends itself well to connecting with an audience unused to such a range of contemporary art expressions. More a register of beliefs than a proposal for one overarching belief, the Biennale may be said to be also an attempt to divine a future for art in Singapore. Over the prophetic opening days, I scoured the main venues, seeking to absorb its many works, finding quite a few gems that would not leave one disappointed. From the ceremonious opening events held at the Padang and City Hall, a spectacle with works by Usman Haque and Jenny Holzer, to the private moments of aesthetic pleasure at the religious sites where one sought a personal renaissance of religion and art, the power of faith, one might be led to believe, may be found in the simple act of opening art unmediated to the public gaze.
The satisfaction found in the works presented by local and international artists is the context in which they were found, of works entwined with their spaces. The quote ‘we have art so that we may not perish by the truth’ attributed to Nietzsche, referencing the necessity of art and the... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline