Welcome to the 7th edition of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, with the theme Art & Education.
Despite the theme, there will be no rules, no uniforms and certainly no exams at the end of each show – well, just our usual feedback forms. Instead, Fringe 2011 promises a variety of ticketed and free performances, interactive events and artistic exchanges, covering music, dance, theatre and visual arts. And as always, there will be talk-back sessions with the artists after each Live Fringe performance.
We have 3 Fringe Highlights this year: Achinto Bhadra's Another Me: Transformations from Pain to Power is a poignant and empowering photographic exhibition featuring young women in Kolkata living in a shelter after being rescued from trafficking, rape or abandonment. Home-grown collective the little dröm store presents School of Hard Knocks, a collection of photographs of playgrounds from our childhood. These photographs will be displayed at bus stops and at the Esplanade Tunnel. Le Collectif Quartre Ailes' The R.W. Project is a stunning visual presentation of theatre, puppetry and acrobatics. Beautiful, breathtaking... not to be missed.
In line with the Festival's theme for 2011, the Fringe presents Back to School, a selection of works from Singaporean and international artists that deal with the concept of education in school, or that engage educators and students as part of their creative processes. Top on the list is Sean Tobin and Natalie Hennedige's What Did You Learn Today? Celebrated actors Neo Swee Lin and Lim Kay Siu play a variety of characters – teacher, student, parent, child and husband and wife – confronting the darkness and tenderness of teaching and learning. Japanese artist Maki Ueda will work with Singapore youths to create Aromascape of Singapore, an installation which captures smells of everyday life, both fragrant and foul. There're also Leung Chi Wo's Something About Education But Not Exactly... and UK-based artist Jemima Yong's Primary 1. Also look out for South Korean indie band Oldfish, who will be performing alongside Singapore's PMP, an audio-visual collective. The Necessary Stage also returns with Model Citizens, which saw a sold-out run in March 2010.
The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2011 invites you to question, challenge and reimagine Education. The works we have selected will engage communities [Felicia Low's Inclusively Yours], revisit history [Kanako Sasaki's Okinawa Ark, Nelson Chia's The Ma(r)king of Nanjing] and provide opportunities for artistic and education exchange. Write-ups of all the works, as well as links to artists' websites, can be found in this booklet.
Get more details and other information on the Fringe website: www.singaporefringe.com. Join us on Facebook and Twitter. You know we love hearing from you. Get ready. Get educated. Get involved.
(Source: The Necessary Stage Programme)