CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17
Projects, Workshops, Events
13 – 22 January 2017
Public Summit
19 – 21 January 2017
Conference: The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia)
14, 25 – 26 November 2016
CITIES FOR PEOPLE is the pilot edition of the annual NTU CCA Ideas Fest, a platform to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage thinking “out of the box”. It is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and academic community with grassroots initiatives. This pilot edition expands artistic interventions and engages contemporary issues such as air, water, food, environment, and social interaction in connection to artistic and cultural fields, academic research, and design applications.
The 10-day programme, coinciding with Singapore Art Week 2017 and Art After Dark at Gillman Barracks, comprises a conglomerate of performances, public installations, participatory projects and social experiment, urban farming initiatives, public dialogues, and a variety of workshops. It cumulates in a three-day summit that brings together a prominent group of architects, theorists, researchers, curators, and community groups to discuss and exchange ideas about urbanism, modes of exchange, critical spatial practice, and to envision a future city. CITIES FOR PEOPLE offers a platform to contemplate the possibilities for our shared space, reformulate our demands accordingly, and project solutions and desires for the future.
CITIES FOR PEOPLE, borrowing the title from a book by eminent Singapore architect William S. W. Lim published in 1990, expands on some of the ideas Lim developed, particularly in relation to tropical environments and recycling, as well as his call for a humanistic architecture. Organised on the occasion of the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts at Critical Spatial Practice, this event is an invitation to share and engage in cooperative projects and collective experiences that critically reflect on current challenges in urban and social development.
Ideas Fest Concept: Ute Meta Bauer
Curators of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17
Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong
Public programmes
25 Nov 2016, Fri 01:00 PM - 06:00 PM
26 Nov 2016, Sat 09:30 AM - 06:00 PM
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The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore kicks off the three-part NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17 CITIES FOR PEOPLE with the conference The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia).
The conference extends what is presented spatially in the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice, and further engages with its key themes through cross dialogue and exchange between architects, artists, cultural producers and urban researchers. The conference will focus its discussions on (Southeast) Asia and its multiple modernities in relation to architecture, urban experimentation, planning, and development.
Responding to eminent architect William S. W. Lim’s provocation “Imagining the Unimaginable”, the conference commences with a keynote lecture by Professor Leon van Schaik, with a response by Dr Lilian Chee, on Monday, 14 November 2016. The keynote lecture is co-presented with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as part of the URA Speakers Series.
A two-day conference continues on 25 and 26 November with panels chaired by Asian Urban Lab and William S. W. Lim, Roger Nelson and Dr Etienne Turpin, and featuring presentations by 17 speakers who are active in the fields of architecture and urban studies.
The programme includes a tour of the exhibition by Shirley Surya, and hosts the Singapore premier of Christopher Rompré’s film The Man Who Built Cambodia.
Free admission, registration is required. For enquiries, please email NTUCCAIDEASFEST@ntu.edu.sg.
Keynote Lecture
Keynote Lecture in Honour of William S. W. Lim
Contesting Modernity in Asia: reaching towards a Non-West Modernist Past; reflections on the thinking of William Lim
By Professor Leon van Schaik (South Africa/Australia), Innovation Professor of Architecture, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia
Monday, 14 November 2016, 6.30 – 8.30pm
URA Function Hall, Level 5, The URA Centre, 45 Maxwell Road
“We are the creatures of our mental space, a space formed through our life experience.” In this lecture, Professor Leon van Schaik argues, as he has in his book Spatial Intelligence (2008), “that we have a responsibility to uncover and analyse how our histories in space have formed the intellectual and experiential assumptions that are the frame of our lives as professionals and as citizens”. Professor Van Schaik’s keynote lecture addresses the influence of William S. W. Lim over his career and manifold collaborative practices.
6.30 – 7.00pm
Registration and Reception
7.00 – 8.30pm
Welcome Address
Larry Ng, Group Director, Architecture & Urban Design Excellence, URA; and Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Exhibitions, Residencies & Public Programmes (Singapore)
Introduction by Chairperson
Keynote Lecture by Professor Leon van Schaik
Response by Dr Lilian Chee (Singapore), Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore
Followed by a Q&A
Conference
Friday, 25 November 2016, 1.00 – 6.00pm
NTU CCA Singapore, The Single Screen and The Seminar Room,
Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, S109443
1.00pm
Registration
Tour of exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice by Shirley Surya (Indonesia/Hong Kong), contributor to the exhibition and Associate Curator for Design and Architecture, M+, Hong Kong
Panel I: Imagining the Unimaginable
Chairpersons: William S. W. Lim (Singapore), Chairman, and Tan Dan Feng (Singapore), Director, Asian Urban Lab, Singapore
2.00pm
Welcome address
Professor Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
Introduction by Chairperson
William S. W. Lim
2.30pm
Panel Presentations
Koon Wee (Singapore/Hong Kong), Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
Dr Eunice Seng (Singapore/Hong Kong), Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
Dr Sacha Kagan (Germany), Research Associate, Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organization, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany
Jeremy Chia (Singapore), Researcher, Asian Urban Lab and AA Asia, Singapore
4.30pm
Tea break
Tour of exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice by NTU CCA Singapore curator
5.30pm
Panel Discussion
Constance Singam (Singapore), author and civil society activist
Professor Kwok Kian Woon (Singapore), Associate Provost (Student Life), NTU, Singapore
Dr Sharon Siddique (Singapore), Director, Asian Urban Lab, Singapore; Visiting Professiorial Fellow, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design; and Adjunct Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Alvin Tan (Singapore), Founder and Artistic Director, The Necessary Stage, Singapore
Saturday, 26 November 2016, 9.30am – 6.00pm
NTU CCA Singapore, The Single Screen and The Seminar Room,
Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, S109443
9.30am
Registration
Panel II: Mid-century Modern: Forms and Spaces in Cities
Chairperson: Roger Nelson (Australia/Cambodia), independent curator and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
10.00am
Welcome address
by Professor Ute Meta Bauer
Introduction by Chairperson
Roger Nelson
Panel Presentations
Dr Chomchon Fusinpaiboon (Thailand), Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Pen Sereypagna (Cambodia), architect, artist, and Project Manager, The Vann Molyvann Project
Dr Thanavi Chotpradit (Thailand), Lecturer, Department of Art History, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Dr Simon Soon (Malaysia), Senior Lecturer, Visual Art Department, Cultural Centre, University of Malaya, Malaysia
12.30pm
Panel Discussion
1.00pm
Lunch
Screening of The Man Who Built Cambodia, Christopher Rompré, Cambodia, 2015, 35 min
Panel III: The Multiple Must Be Made
Chairperson: Dr Etienne Turpin (Canada/Indonesia), Research Scientist, Urban Risk Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, and Visiting Research Fellow, NTU CCA Singapore
2.30pm
Introduction Lecture by Dr Etienne Turpin
3.00pm
The Multiple Must Be Made
Panel Presentations
Giovanni Dessy Austriningrum (Indonesia), Head of Content Writer Division, Bandung City Watch, Bandung, Indonesia
Hong Phuc Dang (Vietnam), Founder, FOSSASIA, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Christina Leigh Geros (United States/Indonesia), Design Research Strategist, PetaBencana.id, Jakarta, Indonesia
Nashin Mahtani (Indonesia), Designer, PetaBencana.id, Jakarta, Indonesia
Click here to download the full schedule of the conference.
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Artists indieguerillas, Lulu Lutfi Labibi, and Ari Wulu will present some of their projects including Petruk Jadi Supermodel (Petruk Becomes Supermodel), the collaborative project between Lulu and indieguerillas that was featured at the opening of Artjog 2015, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Commissioned to create a performance for NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17, the group will introduce ideas of wastage and upcycling, key concepts for the commissioned performance which will take place on Friday, 13 January 2017. Following the performance, a workshop will take place on Saturday, 14 January 2017.
Through this workshop, the group seeks interest from the public to join them as performers / ‘models’ for the performance in January 2017.
20 Jan 2017, Fri 01:30 PM - 06:30 PM
21 Jan 2017, Sat 01:30 PM - 06:30 PM
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The three-day Public Summit brings together a prominent group of architects, theorists, researchers, curators, and community groups to share and discuss ideas about sustainability, food and energy sources, spatial practice, and social relations in the urban fabric. Programmed as a series of Structured Conversations, the Public Summit attempts to bridge artistic practices and academic research with bottom-up initiatives and explore various strategies and participatory approaches, projecting solutions and desires for future “cities for people”.
Free admission, registration is required. For enquiries, please email NTUCCAIDEASFEST@ntu.edu.sg.
Thursday, 19 January 2017
3.00pm
Registration
Tour of exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice by Khim Ong (Singapore), Deputy Director, Exhibitions, Residencies, and Public Programme, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore)
4.00 – 6.30pm
Welcome Address
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
Structured Conversation #1: Food, Air, Water
This session opens up the debate surrounding sustainability in relation to food sources, water resources, and air quality. As elements that possess fundamental significance for all life, how has urban development and technology impacted and intervened into these resources? Can sustainability be achieved only with improved technology? Is sustainability sustainable? (William S. W. Lim) How can we better understand and work with regenerative processes of nature to create a more informed way of living for all?
Host: Paul Teng (Singapore), Professor and Adjunct Senior Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU
With Joshua Comaroff (United States/Singapore), Assistant Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design and Design Consultant, Lekker; Eugene Heng (Singapore), Founder and Chairman, Waterways Watch Society; Conrad H. Philipp (Germany/Singapore), Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre; and Marjetica Potrč (Germany), Professor for Social Design, University of Fine Arts (HFBK), Hamburg
Respondent: Cecilia Tortajada (Mexico and Spain/Singapore), Senior Research Fellow, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS)
Friday, 20 January 2017
1.30pm Registration
2.00 – 4.00pm
Welcome Address
Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong
Structured Conversation #2: Modalities of Exchange
Dedicated to examining various modes of exchange beyond pure economic terms, speakers will share their experiences working across cultures and diverse communities, introducing strategies for bridging differences. How are we able to create shared knowledge and resource, and intervene into various social and cultural patterns? Can the shared spaces we create allow us to achieve an alternative economy based on social debate, giving, and sharing that can be managed by citizens rather than global finance?
Host: Sophie Goltz (Germany/Singapore), Assistant Professor, NTU ADM / CCA Singapore
With Qinyi Lim (Singapore), independent curator; Matthew Mazzotta (United States), artist; and Woon Tien Wei (Singapore), Post-Museum
Respondent: Yvonne P. Doderer (Germany), Professor for Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf
4.15 – 6.30pm
Structured Conversation #3: Critical Spatial Practice
This session explores the social, cultural, and political production of space in relation to urban intervention and the possibilities for individual acts and bottom-up initiatives versus top-down planning. What is the critical mode of spatial practice today? What ideas and options do we have for future urban habitats?
Host: Ute Meta Bauer
With Nikolaus Hirsch (Germany), architect; Hyungmin Pai (South Korea), Director, 1st Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 and Professor of Architecture, University of Seoul; and Apolonija Šušteršič (Slovenia/Sweden and Norway), artist, architect and Professor, Art & Public Space, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
Respondent: Regina Bittner (Germany), Head of Academy Department and Deputy Director, Bauhaus Dessau
Saturday, 21 January 2017
1.30pm Registration
2.00 – 4.00pm
Welcome Address
Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong
Structured Conversation #4: Performing the City
How can artistic practices activate communities, give voice to, and provoke different experiences of our built environment? How do artistic interventions stimulate processes of reflexivity? What are the shared methodologies that allow us to intervene into the social, cultural, and political through performative gestures that animate an alternative understanding and experience of everyday living?
Host: Anca Rujoiu (Romania/Singapore), curator and Manager, Publications, NTU CCA Singapore
With Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States), artist; Lucy Orta (United Kingdom/France), artist and Professor and Chair of Art and the Environment, University of the Arts London; and Sissel Tolaas (Norway/Germany), artist and smell researcher
Respondents: Sophie Goltz; and Charmaine Toh (Singapore), Curator, National Gallery Singapore
4.15 – 6.30pm
Structured Conversation #5: Who Owns the City
This session explores the social, cultural, and political production of space in relation to urban intervention and the possibilities for individual acts and bottom-up initiatives versus top-down planning. What is the critical mode of spatial practice today? What ideas and options do we have for future urban habitats?
Host: Calvin Chua (Singapore), Adjunct Assistant Professor, Architecture and Sustainable Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design
With Regina Bittner; Yvonne P. Doderer; Lukas Feireiss (Germany), curator and author; and Marjetica Potrč
Respondent: Wong Chen-Hsi (Singapore), Assistant Professor, NTU ADM, Singapore
Part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17.
Click here to download the full schedule of the Public Summit.