The Substation turns 22 this September and we’re celebrating with SeptFest! SeptFest is our month-long birthday celebration of art, culture and community and this year’s festival features the anticipated sound, visual and performance art projects selected for the coveted Open Call platform, the 5th Singapore Indie Doc Fest, selected performances from the Kuo Pao Kun Festival, a book launch, birthday party, and more. The Substation is Singapore’s first independent, contemporary art centre and was founded by the visionary Kuo Pao Kun in 1990. It has been at the forefront of supporting critical, rigorous and experimental art in Singapore for the last 22 years.
Join us this September as we celebrate another milestone for The Substation, Singapore’s original home for the arts.
Remembering Kuo Pao Kun – An Open Call for Memories
The Substation Theatre
Monday 10 September, 12pm – Tuesday 11 September 2012, 12pm
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event
Kuo Pao Kun, founder and first Artistic Director of The Substation – A Home for the Arts, passed away on 10 September 2002. He left behind a legacy of iconic plays, influential thoughts, and this precious independent art space that has been a creative playground for many different artists and communities since it was first founded in 1990. This delicate and raw space holds hope and potential for engagement, sharing, and learning, through various modes of contemporary artistic community practice and discourse. It is within this space that diverse voices were found and heard, and continue to this day to make the critical processes of unlearning and relearning possible for emerging and practicing artists, as well as for a diverse range of communities and civil societies.
As part of The Substation’s SeptFest 2012, The Substation will open its theatre to the public from 12pm on Monday 10 September 2012, to 12pm Tuesday 11 September 2012, and is inviting everyone to visit at any time during this 24hour period and share memories of Kuo Pao Kun and of the home he built, through any form of artistic expression.
The artists who will be presenting on Monday through to Tuesday include Benjamin Ho, Verena Tay, Kai Lam, Peter Sau, Irfan Kasban, Kenneth Kwok, Chee Keng and Li Cassidy. We welcome visitors who would like to leave a message in Kuo Pao Kun’s memory or would like to contribute to the lineup of presentations. Please join us for this intimate sharing session!
These presentations will be open to public for free and will be documented for archival purposes. There will be light refreshments available.
Read more about SeptFest and the Kuo Pao Kun Festival below.
Details
Performance Open Call 2012 Presents
Pretty Things
By Patricia Toh
Curated by Natalie Hennedige
Friday 21 – Saturday 22 September 2012, 8pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $15 available from the box office, Contact 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org
This is an InHouse event 
Work-in-Progress presentation: The Substation Theatre, Monday 30 July, 7.30pm
Oh you pretty, pretty things.
Growing up and finding your place in the world was once a procedure, easy, and defined.
A far cry from the ambiguous journeys of today.
In times of tribal past, a boy braves the night in a sacred cave, and seizes the next day as a man.
A girl begins to bleed, and is isolated in a hut. Returning days later as a woman.
But what are our maturity rites of today?
This theatrical experience explores lost youth through tales of love, friendship, desire and their aftermath. Go with some not so innocent child-like characters on the journey of ”growing up”, and discover how their imaginative world reveals real lives and dark events.
The passage of youth is a time when our sense of what the world has to offer expands with concepts of love, hate, death and lust. Enter the private, fantasy world of these characters and revel in their secrets.
It’s time to grow up.
Read more about Open Call and SeptFest below.
Details
BluePrince
Thursday 27 – Saturday 29 September 2012, 8pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $20 / $15 (concession) available from the box office, contact 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org
This is an InHouse event
*Please note that the performance contains some mature content.
An artist is kept alone somewhere, dreaming of coffins and parking lots, a cat and even a prince. The electricity generated by such thoughts crackles and pulses in the maps of his mind. Then one day, he wakes up in an electrical substation. He decides to make it his home, and to invite others to share in his dreams. Do you remember this story?
This performance interrogates the role of artists in society, and presents a meditative homage to the founder of The Substation, the late Kuo Pao Kun, a decade after his passing. BluePrince is presented by The Substation and The Blue Statesmen, an independent collective of theatre artists comprising Bryan Tan, Robin Loon and Casey Lim, and is performed by Oliver Chong. Written by Robin Loon, and conceived and directed by Bryan Tan
Read more about SeptFest and the Kuo Pao Kun Festival below.
Details
Growing Up: a multi-sensory play
Conceived by Zaki Razak in collaboration with Gene Sha Rudyn, Francis Poon and Ryf and friends
Friday 14 – Saturday 15 September 2012, 8pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $20 / $15 (concession) available from the box office, contact 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org
This is an InHouse event
“It is He who has created you (and made you grow), and made for you the faculties of hearing, seeing, feeling and understanding: little thanks it is ye give”. 67:23
A collective of artists from different disciplines, ranging from sound, visual, relational and new media art, will facilitate a series of workshops for artistic special needs youths which will culminate in a performance. The performance will be a multi-sensory display, a collaboration of life and artistic processes that represents the growth of individuals, seeking to understand each other’s lives better.
The Substation presents this production in partnership with
Click on for more information about the performance.
Details
The Substation Birthday Party
Sunday 16 September 2012, 2pm-4pm Sunday 30 September, 2pm – 4pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event
*Please note that this event has been postponed to 30 September and that the book launch has been delayed indefinitely. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Join us as we celebrate our 22nd year and the end of Septfest! Everyone is welcome to come along and join in our party as we mark the end of our month-long anniversary celebrations. Help make our party bigger and better by bringing along food and drink to the festivities!
We are sorry to announce that the launch of The Substation Fairytales will be delayed, but do keep coming back to our website for updates.
Read more about SeptFest below.
Details
Sound Art Open Call 2012 Presents
Wagon
By Joel Ong
Curated by Zulkifle Mahmod
Friday 31 August – Monday 10 September 2012, 12pm-9pm
The Substation Gallery
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event
Reception: Thursday 30 August, 7:30pm
Work-in-Progress Presentation: Saturday 14 July, 2pm at The Substation Theatre
For his work at The Substation in September 2012, sound artist Joel Ong will create an installation featuring an array of kinetic sound wagons that move about in the gallery. The wagon is not only a sound source but also actively receives input from its environment to subtly alter the acoustic environment. This installation allows sound and space to become gateways to multiple narratives by developing notions of space and identity while at the same time invoking and composing with the resonant frequencies of The Substation Gallery’s unique architecture. In so doing, the act of listening becomes less of a sidelined activity and more of a focused presence that demands its own time and space.
Read more about Open Call and SeptFest below.
Details
The 5th Singapore Indie Doc Fest
Presented by The Substation Moving Images
Thursday 6 – Sunday 9 September 2012
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $8 / $5 (concession) available from the box office, contact 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org
This is an InHouse event
Singapore’s first ever international documentary film festival returns! Featuring more compelling works, portrayals of real people and exciting personas. The Singapore Indie Doc Fest reflects the trials and tribulations of our time. Indie documentaries that say what they want.
Visit the festival site for the full lineup.
Visual Art Open Call 2012 Presents
Path.1
By Boedi Widjaja
Curated by Zarina Muhammad
Friday 14 – Thursday 27 September 2012, 12pm-9pm
The Substation Gallery
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event
Work-in-Progress Presentation: The Substation Theatre, Monday 23 July, 7.30pm
Reception: Thursday 27 September, 7:30pm
Live Art Sessions: Abstract Drawing of Visitors
Tuesday 18, Wednesday 19 and Friday 21 September, 6pm-9pm
Saturday 15 and 22 September, 5pm-7pm
Path is an ongoing series of works that presents the drawing act as live action and performance. Through examining and questioning personal ideas of spatial intervention, alienation and home, the project is indexed and episodic
(Path.1, 2, 3, …), suggesting a serialised narrative of the artist drawing a map of the city as he moves through it.
Details
The Substation would like to thank the following funders and sponsors for helping to realise SeptFest 2012.
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