SingartSingapore Biennale: A Window to the World
Singapore aims to be Asia’s premier art center. The Singapore Biennale is geared towards the goal of bringing Singaporean and the rest of South East Asian art to the world. Organized and spearheaded by the Singapore Art Museum, the event was first launched in 2006. Under the invitational platform, the exhibition attracts artists from around the world to participate and showcase their art alongside the best of Singapore and Asia.
The bi-annual art event aims to nurture and encourage Singaporean artists by bringing the art world into the country. This is also to enhance Singapore’s image as the premier art city of Asia, where everyone can live, work and play amidst a vibrant and sophisticated culture.
The Singapore Biennale is open to all interested artists around the world. To be able to join, they need to submit their works of art before the exhibit opens. All submitted and approved works will be properly curated by renowned art curators from Singapore and other countries. The piece has to address the event’s theme and should be relevant to contemporary art enthusiasts as well as seasoned art followers. All art pieces should be in specified form and measurements to ensure fairness among all artist exhibitors. Artworks will not be returned and will then be entered into the Biennale Archive to be kept by the Biennale Secretariat.
The first Singapore Biennale held in 2006 was able to showcase 195 artworks from artists representing 38 countries. The Biennale featured contemporary art of different types including paintings, drawings, photography, performances, new media, publishing, video, wall painting, sound and furniture designing. The art exhibition of 2006 was held in many key venues around the city, including seven religious sites, the City Hall, shopping malls, the National Library and in Singapore’s important museums.
Singapore Biennale: Moving Forward
The next installment to the international art event comes with a theme, If The World Changes, and will be focusing on the roles of Singapore, the South East and whole of Asia in the 21st century world changes. The fast upheavals coming from the industrial world of early 1900s, decades of massive world wars, fights for peace and the rapid rise and acceptance of the technologically enlightened world, have left artists with a lot of subjects. Asian artists most especially were exposed to different mediums of arts coming from the different cultural heritage of invading countries during the war years. The exhibition will aim to show the world how Singapore and Asia embraced the changes while retaining the best of the past.
The Singapore Biennale has no boundaries and only looks into art as its universal language. It welcomes and pays tribute to the artists of today’s world whose works helped make the world a better and more beautiful place to live.
