Singapore Arts Festival 2011

The Singapore Arts Festival 2011 will reconnect with you through memories, histories and places long forgotten. Told through sights and sounds, I Want to Remember engages in a past that redefines the way we look at the present even as we race toward the future.

 

Curatorial Threads

Dance Greats

Between 2009 and 2010, three of the most important dance makers passed on, sending shockwaves through the dance world. They are Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham and Kazuo Ohno. Their loss were acutely felt and as part of I want to remember, we have curated a series that remembers and pays tribute to their artistic contributions and their impact to the art world.  They have served as mentors, inspirations and friends to ayounger generation of artists and their essence lives on through them. The works in this series showcases the voices of this younger generation as they reflect on these dance legends.

 

Histories

In remembering, we also look at histories both public and private that inform our sense of self and identity. Ranging from events, periods and generations past, these productions serve as reference points as we navigate the future. Rather than being nostalgic, the reconnection to these histories informs the larger discourse about our sense of place in time and our relationship to a time forgotten.

 

Lost Languages and Memories

The condition of erasure and forgetting is something so familiar to the urban experience. The journey in wanting to remember has also led us to a series about excavating lost languages, memories and civilizations.  These are important as they reconnect us to our roots and to gaps in our past, especially when we don’t have any capacity to remember. Collectively, they contribute to the larger discussions about our heritage.

 

Personal Memories

The investigation on I want to remember also looks at the personal. Usually, constructs of histories overshadow stories and memories of individuals who may not be part of the larger consciousness within our communities. At the Festival this year, we give voice to these personal stories that need to be told and celebrate their contribution as they complete a much richer picture about who we are, where we have come from and where we will be going.

 

Sites.Sights.Sounds

Our exploration of the process of remembering is not complete without looking at visceral triggers that activate memory fragments deep within us. Through reconstruction and perhaps reinvention of forgotten places, sights and sounds, this series of works further layers the relationship we have with memories. From the intimate to the spectacular, they energize a physical response creating a lasting memory that extends long after this festival draws to a close.