Night Festival 2011

Night Festival 2011 @ The Substation
Friday 26 – Saturday 27 August 2011, 7pm-2am
The Substation Building
Admission: Free

This year the Night Festival takes its inspiration from the histories and cultures of the Black Sea, retelling stories of the cultural crossings and maritime journeys that have fed our own cultures and imaginations.

The Substation is presenting a diverse range of contemporary and experimental film, dance, performing arts and music programmes. Participate in The In-Between Food Court by Daniela Beltrani, watch local musicians and sound artists play in sessions curated by Bani Haykal, experience a two-part Capoeira performance and workshop, watch a series of films curated by Victric Thng, and see a number of performing arts pieces by various artists, curated by Ezzam Rahman.

Roving Performing Artists
Capoeira
Music
The In-Between Food Court
Film Screenings
Popin Workhop
Etiquette II
Colours Indicted

Roving Artists
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 7pm-1am
The Substation
Curated by Ezzam Rahman

Enjoy a unique experience of performance art as roving artists like Daniela Beltrani, Kai Lam, Marianne Yang, Farah Ong, Sophia Natasha Wei and Ezzam Rahman attempt to blend into the crowd at The Substation. Be surprised by their random acts of performance art, be it through unpredictable interactions with the audience or the sudden creation of a performance space anywhere on The Substation’s premises. Curated by Ezzam Rahman.

Ezzam Rahman is a practising multi-disciplinary artist and an accidental filmmaker. He recently completed his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fine Arts from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of Huddersfield. He was formally trained in LASALLE College of the Arts. As an artist, he has co-curated and participated in numerous local and regional group exhibitions, events and festivals. Though Ezzam was trained as a sculptor, he is most comfortable with installation art and performance art. His works vary, from the choice of medium and concepts to the strategies of presentation. He favours narrative structure due to its ability to convey his ideas to the audience, to inform as well as to provoke them.

Bom Divertimento With Capoeira
By Capoeira Argola de Ouro Singapore
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 7:30pm-8:30pm
The Substation Alley

Featuring an amazing group of capoeiristas who will demonstrate the fantastic moves of capoeira to the sound of instruments, claps and chanting. Members of public will be invited to join in the fun with these capoeiristas during a workshop conducted in the alley.

Outdoor Music
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August, 8pm-10pm
The Substation Balcony/Façade

The Outdoor music programme is an interactive sonic experience. Helmed by sound artists Mel Araneta and Harvey Vasquez, The Substation’s outdoor premises will be littered with their creations of circuit bending instruments. The artists will do solo performances at The Substation’s Balcony and invites the audience to participate with them in this large scale sonic experiment.

Indoor Music
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August, 10pm-1:30am
The Substation Theatre

Nest yourself in the comfort of The Substation’s Theatre and be immersed in two evenings of audio-visual performances by some of the most creative individuals in Singapore, performing everything from experimental sonic wizardry to highly imaginative fiction before bed.

Friday 26 August
10pm – Black Zenith
11pm – mux (with OHP artist Ila)

Saturday 27 August
10pm – Mohamad Riduan (with video artist Jun)
11pm – 3how

Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August, 10pm-1:30am
The Bibliorium

The Bibliorium changes the Theatre into a reading room where the audience can bring books and place themselves anywhere on the Theatre’s floor and read while listening to live music, composed or improvised. The Bibliorium is aimed at breathing depth into stories already written, transporting readers into a different reading experience all at once.

About the Musicians

3how is an atmosphere of words and music. 3how will be presenting Big Homer, a work-in- progress. 3how is Wilson Goh, Mel Araneta, John Banta, Bani Haykal, Amith Narayan, Stephen Black and Terence Lau. Come fly with us.

3how’s music and stories are ever changing. Past presentations have involved scuba divers, songs about recipes and a story about Mr. and Mrs. Raffles, with a soundtrack inspired by ZZ Top. Besides performing at last year’s Lit Up, 3how has opened for a production by Marla Bendini & Monty Cantsin and have recorded with the legendary Bonyari band.

Black Zenith is Brian O’Reilly & Darren Moore. The duo performs using analog modular synthesizers & moving images. They produce dense sonic textures that generate live visuals through the transformation of audio signals into images. Black Zenith draws as much influence from noise music & the electroacoustic music  tradition as they do from the foundations of abstract video art.

Mel Araneta is a painter, sculptor and sound artist who was born in 1973, in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental Philippines. He is the founding member of the Etniktronika, a group that employs circuit-bending procedures and ethnic instruments to produce their distinct sound. Many of their instruments are crafted from discarded objects usually found in nearby junk shops. His self-made instrument baptized as the “Uyabon” (meaning “girlfriend” in the Ilonggo dialect) resembles a half-body mannequin with a built-in toy keyboard and tampered circuitry. Etniktronika is also an active member of E.X.I.S.T. (Experimentation in Sound Art Tradition) and performs regularly at various art galleries and art events.

Mohamad Riduan is an artist who graduated from LaSalle College of the Arts in sculpture and has participated in festivals including the Singapore Night Festival (2010), Sparks 6 – What Day Is It Today (2008), tok Selampit Mellenium (Esplanade Jendela, 2004). He has performed gigs, dabbled in sound sculptures and performance sound art (at the Furor Space and Post Museum, 2008). He is also a freelance art worker, an artist-liaison during the ISEA, the International Symposium on Electronic Art 2008. For The Night Festival’s performance, he will be collaborating with visual artist, Jun.

mux is a collective formed by bani haykal, luqman hakim and siraaj anwar; out to experiment and devise new performances weaving sound design, music and text. mux’s approach to performance deals greatly with the coexistence of lateral storytelling and layered, yet minimal, sound and music compositions. The stories they tell incorporate the stream of consciousness technique, almost always resulting the text acquiring an ambient rather than a directional quality. For The Night Festival’s performance, mux will be collaborating with OHP artist, Ila.

The In-Between Food Court
By Daniela Beltrani
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 9pm-12am
The Substation Alley

The food court is the ubiquitous and typically Singaporean space, where a catalogued humanity meets with a convivial spirit. Food speaks a language, which can be understood by everybody, because it engages all our senses, just like art may do.

The idea behind this manufactured food court, in between traditions and arts, is layered with intentions and meanings, much like a Kueh Lapis. The artist’s presence in a “performative” mode alters the nature of the site into one where a potential audience superimposes a mere crowd.

Daniela Beltrani was classically educated in Italy,is a doctor in Law and has been a docent for the Singapore Art Museum since 2009. She gained a Master of Arts in Contemporary Asian Art Histories in 2011 from LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Since 2010 Daniela has curated three exhibitions and written articles for art publications. Her keen interest in performance art both as spectator and performer allows her to explore different levels of communication.

Film Screenings
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 10:30pm-12:30am
The Substation Façade
Curated by Migrant Voices

CONFLUENCE OF LANDS / MIGRANT VOICES (PRODUCER) / JENNY CHAN (DIRECTOR) / 17 MINS/ PG

In Singapore’s Little India, a small mini mart on Desker Road offers a moment of insight into the stories of migrant workers from different lands; who will never cross paths if not for the dual workings of mercantile job agents and constrictive government policies. Through a Bangladeshi man’s mini mart we witness the remarkable diversity of everyday life in this small corner of the world. The mini mart, like so many other places in the lives of the migrant workforce in Singapore, represents a literal ‘confluence of lands’, a coming together of the many different faces and spaces of our migrant histories, presents and futures.

DURAI & SARO / RUPTURE / PREMA MENON / 27 MINS / PG

Droves of men and women from neighbouring Asian countries make up this transient work force. They take up low-paying jobs; most men in the labour market, and women as domestic helpers. Many come looking to save their families from poverty. This invisible population contributes largely to the country’s stellar growth and ability to remain competitive in the global economy. Unfortunately, a growing number live on the fringes of Singapore’s society, receiving little or no payment from their employers. They face exploitation and suffer physical as well as mental abuse. Durai & Saro highlights the plight and loneliness of foreign workers in Singapore. The story revolves around the platonic relationship shared by Durai, an Indian construction worker and Saro, a Filipino domestic helper.

FOREIGN DREAMS / ELGIN HO (PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR) / 7 MINS / PG

Foreign Dreams is about a letter written home by an Indian construction worker. The film was awarded the Silver Crow bar at the prestigious Singapore Student Creative Awards 2002 and has been screened in film festivals around the world.

PROMISES IN DECEMBER / ELGIN HO (PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR) / 16 MINS / PG

Promises In December surrounds two main characters. One is an Indonesian domestic helper and another a Singaporean taxi driver. Individually from different backgrounds, they share similar expectations through their struggle and search for ideals of life in Singapore. On a December day, their lives interweave, abruptly revealing the sacrifices each of them must face.

MIGRANT DREAMS & HUMAN TRADE (DOCUMENTARY) / LIANAIN FILMS (PRODUCER) / 40 MINS

Each year, tens of thousands of migrant workers travel to Singapore hoping for a better life. Most of them pay large fees to agents who promise them work as labourers in construction and shipping industries. When the economy was booming, those promises were largely fulfilled. But as a global recession takes hold, horror stories are emerging.

About Migrant Voices

Migrant Voices was founded on 15 April 2006 and grew out of the realisation that many migrant workers turn to the arts as a release from their personal and work stresses.

Migrant workers leave behind families and deep kinship ties to work here, in order to provide a better life for their loved ones. Migrant Voices works with work permit holders, such as domestic workers and construction workers, who cook for our families, care for our elderly, clean our streets and build our homes. By bringing these different migrant workers together, we hope to share an insight into their lives, through the arts and to show that we are more than just economic tools in this country. Being human is about more than just making money. It is about having mutual respect for each other, realising we all have something to share and celebrating Singapore’s multiculturalism as our culture.

Popin Workshop
By Betty Susiarjo
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 8pm onwards
The Substation Gallery

Contemporary craft collective POPIN addresses the undeniable anxiety that women undergo, feeling the need to ensure that the female hormonal cycle remains both verbally and physically hidden. Inviting audiences to participate in the creation of a sewn-installation made from materials derived from feminine hygiene products, members of the public are drawn into conversations about female body cycles, while sitting around the table and contributing to the organic growth of an artwork.

Etiquette II
Curated by Tania De Rozario and Zarina Muhammad
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 12pm-12am
The Substation Gallery

Documented surgery set to music, photographic setups of family tension, secrets whispered in a back room. Showcasing the work of 12 artists and contemporary craft collective POPIN, expect the poignant and poetic as well as the creative and critical with this multidisciplinary exhibition that features established names such as The Substation’s Associate Artist Hazel Lim and internationally exhibited Lynn Lu together with emerging talents such as photographer Geraldine Kang. Curated by Tania De Rozario and Zarina Muhammad.

Colours Indicted Workshop
By Hazel Lim
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August 2011, 8pm onwards
The Substation Random Room
Capacity for Each Workshop Session: 15 people

Join Hazel Lim in uncovering new structures of understanding encoded within colours, narratives, periodic tables and paper folding. The artist will be giving a talk accompanied by an interactive workshop, which asks you to participate in an investigation into the links between text, phonics, image and origami.

The notions of displacement, construction of narratives, maps and imaginary landscapes, in particular those relating to Singapore, are concerns that are often addressed in Hazel Lim’s works. Her latest work called Color Indicted is a research that delves into the structures of narratives and questions the framework of representations. Articulated through alchemy, colour theory, text and paper folding, Hazel works extensively with participants in workshops as part of the on-going process of this research.

Besides being an art educator and practitioner, Hazel has experiences in other aspects of art such as gallery management and writing for artistic publications. She had taken part in group exhibitions showcased in Singapore, Ireland, Netherlands and Vietnam; and had also participated in international artists exchange programs such as the ASEF Creative Camp 2003 in Paris, Artists’ Workshop in Vietnam, Documenta: International Workshop for Art Academies, 2007 in Germany and Connected:09 in Austria in 2009. Hazel is an Associate Artist with The Substation where she held her first solo exhibition, Secret Windows, in 2004.