A very warm welcome to the Singapore Arts Festival 2012!
Over 16 extraordinary days, we invite you to encounter a stunning array of performances that we hope will be close to your heart.
The Singapore Arts Festival 2012 completes the trilogy we started two editions ago: Between You and Me (2010), I Want to Remember (2011), Our Lost Poems (2012).
Our Lost Poems will look at myths, legends, wandering thoughts, reflections, lost riddles and hidden stories. It is a discovery of tales and aspirations that need to be told and retold. Stories that inspire us, legends that have deep cultural roots and riddles that reveal the secrets of the world. This coming festival finds us at a crossroad, waiting to reaffirm our sense of place in time as we uncover refreshing facets of ourselves:
Something ancient. Something lost. Something hidden. Something new.
The 2012 Festival will also highlight the presence of puppetry. This is one of the most important mediums in the region, through which stories, legends, teachings, folklore and myths are communicated, and passed on, to generations to come.
This will begin in April with World of Stories, a special exhibition-performance featuring the work of students across 12 regional libraries. With this programme, we also cross into the space of rituals, religions and belief – the stuff of oral traditions, tales your grandmother used to tell you and lullabies with which your nanny sang you to sleep.
Other highlights include a stunning new commission, The Flight of the Jade Bird by Mark Chan, whose musical exploration ranges from classical opera to pop; End of the Road by No Theater and Young@Heart, a very special chorus of singers all aged 70 years and above; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a visual, epic staging by Stephen Earnhart of Haruki Murakami's fantastical novel of the same title; a new community-based Bridge Café Project featuring our seniors and youths, by Japanese choreographer Kim Itoh; Rite(s) of Spring by the Orchestra of the Music Makers who makes its debut at the 2012 Festival; and the Akram Khan Company's Vertical Road, a contemporary ensemble work that draws inspiration from Sufi tradition, as well as Persian poet and philosopher Rumi.
Our Kids Arts Village returns for a second edition anchored by a very unique architectural performance installation called Tangle where we invite kids young and old to get involved to build up the space.
The Festival Village also makes its sophomore appearance, this time featuring all free programmes and activities. From jazz, blues to hip hop, dikir barat (a musical form native to the Malay Peninsula) to an all-girl deejay bootcamp, film screenings to even a centaur appearance – be prepared to be blown away when you bring your kids, your grandma, your uncle, your best friends!
All the artists curated for the 2012 Festival draw from folklore and myths that span India, China, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sweden, Germany, Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and even present and future Singapore.
We would like to thank all our partners and sponsors whose continued belief in what we do has made this edition of the Festival possible. To all our artists over the three editions of the Festival, we give a shout-out, as you continue to invigorate us with your vision of the world. And of course to you, for coming and being part of the Singapore Arts Festival 2012.
Together, we shall listen to the stories that inspire us, ancient songs that move us in a magical experience and lost poems that help us find our way towards a hopeful future!
– Low Kee Hong (General Manager)
(Source: National Arts Council Programme)