As we continue to live in the 21st century. we have become fully aware of how our Earth is groaning under our use and abuse. Perhaps we can begin to engage with the quality of life of all humanity, which is still clinging to the vestiges of this ravaged Earth. After the great tsunami of 2011, I had the good fortune to go with a group of artists, cultural managers and activists to Rikuzentakata in Japan, where I encountered the first “Home-for-All”. It was impressive to witness the revolt of Earth and also the human effort that is sustaining the whole process of recuperation, re-balance and hope. The O.P.E.N. has tagged this series of ideas What Remains After?.
Serving on the jury of the Prince Claus Awards always brings immense pleasure, as we honour the most deserving artists and cultural activists who are attempting to change the world by sharing urgent messages about our lives. Empires can still be moved by human empathy, which overflows into the powerful tool of social media, another very present feature of our 21st-century POST-Empire life.
As citizens of a larger world beyond the Nation, we experience the vivid realness of the world through the Internet. There is no doubt that Augmented Reality is here to stay. However, Citizenfour, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature this year, also brings us to the cautious edge of the neo-liberal systems in which we live. Are we really more free as we live in an age when money can buy us more, or are we increasingly under surveillance? This is a pertinent question, as power becomes amassed and aggregated in a centralised few behind the mirage of liberal facades, which are only holograms of liberty.
In The Saison Foundation’s two-year research programme into the concepts of Contemporary Dance and Archives, Ikuyo Kuroda - a choreographer who shot to fame in the 1990s - responded to the Archive Box of fellow pioneer Mikuni Yanaihara. She created a new Article 9 for a fictional Human Constitution that would prevent all nations in the world from sharing information about citizens that had been obtained via surveillance, so as to prohibit an over-management of the world by superpowers. Through The O.P.E.N.’s Reflections on Contemporary Dance and Archives, Singapore audiences can keep abreast of some of these latest developments in contemporary performance.
In our part of the world, Asians are often controlled and liberated through tradition. So it is necessary for The O.P.E.N., in line with our 2015 theme of POST-Empires, to engage with the idea of POST-Tradition. We see a very healthy POST-Tradition Creativity amongst Indian artists as they innovate within the context of their lively democracy. They remain engaged with the continuum between the contemporary and the customary, from visual arts to performance to the realm of digital technology. It is here that we return to the POST-Colonial, the ghost in the machine for much of the world. Projecting into the future, we propose a POST-Global approach in curating for performance arts with the question, "What happens to the world after Uniqlo and H&M?".
In 2014, The O.P.E.N. energised the artistic connection between Singapore and South Africa. For 2015, I felt it was important to open the artistic and imaginative conduit between South America and Singapore. Much of the histories and the relationships of this continent remain dormant in Singapore. What I re-discovered was the sustained contemporary energies of young artists. They are re-exploring what it means to live in POST-Dictator times. They energise their individualities by recasting the Archives not as a monumental singular national site of preservation, but as a flexible space where the popular, the personal and the imagined can develop new potential. This hopefully generates the future through individuals, rather than top-down power structures.
I have been asked about the O.P.E.N. tag, The Young & The Restless. Do you have to be young? This is not just about age, but rather a certain attitude towards life that questions the world around us and butts up against the established Empire. There is no doubt that The Empire preserves authority and it is ‘the young and the restless’ who continue to lobby for transformation. We see this in the small indie music scene in Singapore, which is worthy of our support!
The Restless are not held back by age, either; what they have is a relentless desire for a different life. Look at Jafar Panahi’s crazy attempt to resist censorship in Tehran, Iran - This Is Not A Film. History, Youth and Terrorism collide as we continue to march to the beat of nationalist revivalist tendencies in our world - the hot-off-the-press film A German Youth and Joshua Oppenheimer's films about the Indonesian genocide can generate many conversations. Be moved, too, by Pablo Larrain’s trilogy of films, especially the brilliant Post Mortem.
Please join us at The O.P.E.N. 2015 with empathy and with desire.
Finally, I would like to extend my personal thanks on behalf of SIFA to all who have made this edition of The O.PE.N. possible. Without your generous energies, none of this would have been possible. The Show Me The World Symposium arrives in Singapore from the imagination of Sigrid Gareis, independent curator extraordinaire, who is organising this ‘world’ effort; and Heinrich Bloemeke, Jakarta Goethe Institute Director. Not least, I record my thanks to Kathy Lai, CEO of the National Arts Council, together with Rebecca Li, for their dedicated efforts in supporting the Festival's request to bring The O.P.E.N. to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station to open up ever more avenues for fantasy, desire and imagination.
– Ong Keng Sen (Festival Director)
(Source: Arts House Limited Programme)