Sub+ Residencies

Since 2002, The Substation has held residencies for artists with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and exploration and critical dialogue in the artistic community. The Sub+ Residencies programme provides artists with dedicated time and space to develop their practice, emphasising process, research and experimentation. Activities are tailored to each artist's needs and interests, ensuring the richness and dynamism of their residency experience. This flexible approach promotes artistic exchange and cultural dialogue, reflecting The Substation's long-standing commitment to nurturing Singaporean and Southeast Asian artists and fostering new creations.

Bangkok, Thailand

Sub+ Residencies x Purple Tree Co
Residency period: 3-18 August 2025
Artist: Grace Kalaiselvi (Theatre, Singapore)

This edition of Sub+ Residencies is supported by Anthony Eu.

Theatre artist Grace Kalaiselvi will spend two weeks in Purple Tree Co's artist space, a restored cottage in the Sathorn district, Bangkok. The space was inspired by founder Teh Su Ching's vision of creating a healing sanctuary for creative practitioners.

In preparation for an upcoming performance, Grace will be working on the script "Kotti" (Madness) and a new script "A Peek Above the Line". During this residency, she also hopes to return to the physical practice of theatre by including the daily rituals of Tai Chi and Kalari Payat practice.

Grace Kalaiselvi: Grace Kalaiselvi is an independent theatre actor, director, educator and writer. An alumna of the Intercultural Theatre Institute, she works in both English and Tamil. Some of her works include "Paper Paravai" & “Amma's Sarees” for The Esplanade; Rasanai, 3FVU for T:>works for N.O.W Festival and “Angry Indian Woman - The Trial” for Singapore Writer's Festival. Her independent creations include the “Mother I” series and “Goddesses of Words” series. She has also acted in “The Silence of a Falling Tree” & “0600” for Singapore International Festival of Arts and a line could be crossed and you would slowly cease to be & Precise Purpose of Being Broken for M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. She also presented “Declutter Me!” as part of The Substation's SeptFest 2022: uproot | rootless.

Purple Tree Co: Purple Tree Co has been hosting residencies in Bangkok since 2020. As a company with presence in both Singapore and Bangkok, it is part of our mission to protect, nurture and encourage storytellers working in Southeast Asia.  The Purple Tree logo was inspired by a banana tree in the garden of the residency cottage, which serves as Su Ching’s writing sanctuary. She wishes to share this healing space with fellow creators.

Anjou, France

Sub+ Residency x Fondation la Roche Jacquelin
Residency period: 14 July - 3 August 2025
Artist: Yadanar Win (Multidisciplinary Artist, Myanmar)

In our second year partnering with Fondation la Roche Jacquelin, we hosted Yadanar Win from July to August. During her residency, Yadanar Win researched on new projects and concluded her time in France by sharing her process.

In October 2025, Yadanar’s works were showcased in Singapore by The Substation at Between Lands: Migration as Transformation.

Yadanar Win: Born in 1987 in Yangon, Myanmar, Yadanar Win is a multidisciplinary artist. Interested in international exchanges from an early age, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English, later joining Aye Ko’s New Zero artistic space, Yangon, in 2009. She is part of the cultural scene as an artist, but also as a cultural project coordinator. 

Detaching herself from traditional practices, she uses her body as a means of experimentation. Her performances promote peace, and interrogate politics and the condition of women in Myanmar. She has taken part in exhibitions (The Substation, Stealing Public Space, 2020) and performance festivals and events in Myanmar, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, and France. She is a member of l’Atelier des artistes en exil and lives in Marseille. 

Fondation la Roche Jacquelin of Southeast Asian Contemporary Art: The Fondation la Roche Jacquelin was established in 2007 by Singapore-based Iola Lenzi and Jean-Louis Morisot. The Foundation is a music and visual-art-based philanthropic initiative for promoting cultural and artistic exchange between Southeast Asia and Europe. Its mission includes the sponsorship of annual residencies for Southeast Asian artists and other cultural players at the Château de La Roche Jacquelin in the Anjou region of France’s Loire Valley, the building of a specialist library of Southeast Asian art and culture, and the creation of an oral history archive documenting regional cultural participants from the late twentieth century to the present.

2024 Artists-in-Residence

Anjou, France

Sub+ Residency x Fondation la Roche Jacquelin
Residency period: July-September 2024
Artists: Nge Lay & Aung Ko (Visual Arts, Myanmar)

Our first residency with Fondation la Roche Jacquelin took place at the Château de La Roche Jacquelin, with a mix of 15th to 19th century architecture.

Visual artists Nge Lay (mentored by Iola Lenzi) and Aung Ko (mentored by Jean-Louis Morisot) spent their time researching for their new works, exploring locally-sourced materials and creating site-specific works developing leitmotivs of their respective practices including migrant experience, cultural displacement and translation. Their residencies demonstrated the programme's capacity to support artists working with complex social narratives while fostering international artistic dialogue. At the end of the residency, the artists presented their projects to local artists and general public hosted by Fondation la Roche Jacquelin.

In October 2025, their works were showcased in Singapore by The Substation at Between Lands: Migration as Transformation.

Nge Lay: Born in 1979, Nge Lay has a Bachelor Degree in economics and in fine arts from Yangon University of Culture. Nge Lay's work is centred on gender issues and freedom in her country. Nge Lay left Myanmar after the February 2021 Military Coup and today, having received refugee status from France, lives, studies and works in Paris. 

She expresses herself mainly through performance and installation art and photography. Together with her husband Aung Ko, Nge Lay has sponsored and funded community projects in her husband's hometown Thuye’dan Village 340 km from Yangon (main activities are forest exploitation and charcoal production): the 1st Thuye'dan Village Art Project took place in 2007 and included artist participants such as Aung Myint, Aung Way, Cho Iwin, Kyee Myint, Moe Satt, Sann Oo, Than Htay Maung, Tun Win Aung, Wah Nu. Subsequent editions of the Village Art Project took place in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013.

Nge Lay has participated in numerous solo and group shows internationally. She took part in If The World Changed at the Singapore Biennale 2013; the traveling group show (2013-2019) Concept Context Contestation: art and the collective in Southeast Asia (Bangkok; Hanoi; Jogjakarta; Yangon); the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) QAGOMA, Brisbane (2016); BAB Bangkok Art Biennale (2018); the Children's Biennale at the National Gallery Singapore (2019). She was shortlisted for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2020. 

Nge Lay’s work is in the collections of major public institutions, such as the Singapore Art Museum and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and QAGOMA, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of modern Art.

Aung Ko: Born in 1980, Aung Ko studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Culture, Yangon. He began his career as a painter but later embraced sculpture, installation art and video. Through these mediums, and by using natural, recycled or reused materials such as bamboo, Aung Ko observes and records traditional craft making, beliefs and practices which are threatened by modern life. Central to his concerns are political upheavals in Myanmar, as well as those caused by climate change. The landscapes of his native village and the traumas generated by the successive civil wars feed his practice. 

In a country where artistic creation is constrained by censorship, together with his life partner Nge Lay, Aung Ko founded the Thuye’dan Village Art Project in his native village in northern Myanmar. This art project encouraged collaboration with artists and villagers to create community-based artworks. In Myanmar and during his travels around the world, Aung Ko consistently and methodically films his daily environment, creating what he calls a diary of memories. Aung Ko left Myanmar after the February 2021 Military Coup. He has obtained refugee status and lives and works in Paris, France.

Aung Ko has participated in the Singapore Biennale 2008, 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale in 2009; Goethe Institutes’ 2012-2013 travelling exhibition Riverscapes IN FLUX in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Manila; the traveling group show (2013-2019) Concept Context Contestation: art and the collective in Southeast Asia (Bangkok; Hanoi; Jogjakarta; Yangon) an artist residency at the Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2015; the Children Biennale 2019, National Gallery Singapore; The Time is Yours, the art component of the Singapore Festival in Yangon in 2020.