Singapore Biennale 2013: If the World Changed

Wormhole, Eko Prawoto

The Singapore Biennale 2013 is coming to an end.  This year, many curators were involved in the presentation of art work and the focus seemed to be on South East Asian artists.   A few months back, I visited the exhibits at Singapore Art Museum.  While there were many works being displayed, they did not catch my attention.

I was at the National Museum of Singapore recently and the above art work, Wormhole by Eko Prawoto, was at the front of the Museum.  I happened to catch a performance was staged there.


 The performers then proceeded to another art work, a reconstruction of a village house (forgot the name of art work).

While I could not really appreciate this edition's art work, I found joy in attending an in conjunction exhibition held at the National Museum of Singapore.  A Changed World, Singapore Art 1950s- 1970s gave a good overview of Singapore art, covering key Singaporean visual artists over few generations.   Besides pioneer artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng, Liu Kang, Yeh Chi Wei, we were introduced to the next generation artists such as Lim Tze Peng, Ng Eng Teng, Anthony Poon and Chua Mia Tee.   This exhibition was an excellent introduction to Singapore visual art.  Hopefully it exhibition could be remounted or better still, made it as a permanent exhibition.

While I may not enjoy this bienalle mainly for the lack of a memorable work, I still look forward to the next edition in 2015.