Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice
Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice is an open-ended exhibition that serves as a laboratory of ideas, exploring the indeterminacy and changeability of urban living. Borrowing its title from eminent Singaporean architect William S.W. Lim’s book Incomplete Urbanism: A Critical Urban Strategy for Emerging Economies (2012), this multifaceted project takes Lim’s practice and the initiatives of the Asian Urban Lab that he started with colleagues in 2003, as a point of departure. It presents various researches into the spatial, cultural and social aspects of city life according to the publications Lim was involved with.
Acknowledging Lim’s contributions as a prolific urban theorist and catalyst of ideas, whose vision asks that we reconsider the traditions of Asian architecture for the “contemporary vernacular”, Incomplete Urbanism is a direct response to his critical ideas – a space is generated to encourage participation and agency.
Lim’s key ideas will be explored by commissioned projects from several contributors, including Dr Marc Glöde (Germany/Singapore), film curator, Visiting Scholar, School of Art, Design (ADM) and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore; Laura Miotto (Italy/Singapore), Associate Professor, NTU ADM; Shirley Surya (Indonesia/Hong Kong), Associate Curator for Design and Architecture, M+, Hong Kong and NTU CCA Singapore Visiting Research Fellows; Dr Etienne Turpin (Canada/Indonesia), Research Scientist, Urban Risk Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States; and Sissel Tolaas (Norway/Germany), smell researcher and artist.
Incomplete Urbanism seeks to present a dynamic space to engage urban issues, through discussions, debates, a programme on classic Singapore films, workshops and other collective efforts.
Curators, NTU CCA Singapore
Ute Meta Bauer, FoundingDirector
Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Exhibitions, Residencies and Public Programmes
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach and Education
Titled CITIES FOR PEOPLE, the pilot edition of the NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17 extends what is presented spatially in the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice and comprises a wide diversity of events. Artists, architects, designers, urban researchers and practitioners bring to life some of the ideas through collaborative experiences. Issues of sustainability, food, biodiversity, energy and water resources will be addressed in various parts of the Gillman Barracks arts precinct. A summit in January 2017 will take a broader look at spatial practices on the social, cultural, and political constructions of space.
The Impossibility Of Mapping (Urban Asia)
14, 25 – 26 November 2016
Projects, Workshops and Activities
13 – 22 January 2017
Summit
19 – 21 January 2017
Click here for more information about the NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17.
Public programmes
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Developed in collaboration with Kelly Reedy, a former lecturer at the National Institute of Education (NIE), this workshop aims to engage educators in contemporary art and artistic practices and highlights the educational aspects of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice. Also, features a special introduction by the contributors, Sissel Tolaas, Marc Glöde and co-curator, Khim Ong.
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In conversations takes as its point of departure, similar to the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism, William Lim’s latest collaborative model, the Asian Urban Lab. Together with the exhibition’s main contributors, Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore will discuss the various key ideas extended and responded by these contributors which look into spatial and cultural aspects of city life. Comparing the city to a laboratory, the conversation will address how urbanity is engineered, claimed, sensed and sensitised; and look into ways for imagining future habitats.
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The aim of Incomplete City Walks is to experience the city anew, outside of one’s routines under the guidance of Sissel Tolaas, who has been studying smells since the early 1990s. By a conscious use of the sense of smell, participants will navigate and explore various parts of Singapore rediscovering the city through a different perception.
12 Nov 2016, Sat 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM
12 Nov 2016, Sat 05:00 PM - 05:30 PM
2 Dec 2016, Fri 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM
6 Jan 2017, Fri 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM
13 Jan 2017, Fri 06:00 PM - 06:30 PM
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Tours of on-going exhibitions led by NTU CCA Singapore curators are held every first Friday of the month. To register, email NTUCCAeducation@ntu.edu.sg.
For more information on Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice, click here.
Image credit: Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice, 29 October 2016 – 29 January 2017, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, installation view. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
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Part of contemporary art practices in Singapore since the 1980s has been the exploration of the suppressed and less privileged, addressed by former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1999 as “heartlanders”, who live in the city-state’s public housing erected upon the tabula rasa of the razed plain in Singapore. Independent film from the 1990s in particular displayed uneasiness with the enclosure of Singapore’s nanny-state modernity, as it is often described. Some filmmakers notably took public housing to be a more enclosed space distinct from the swish commercial and business downtown. In attempting to map an urban space capable of yielding knowledge of non-elite people, filmmakers attempt to delineate the interiority of a major part of Singapore’s city space. This presentation will examine the similar and contrasting means by which some filmmakers present the city-state as a palimpsest of suppressed urban cultures.
This Exhibition (de)Tour is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
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In 1995, eight per cent of all websites on the internet belonged to artists. Today, as the internet has grown to be the commercial structure we know, what is the room artists carve online? This talk will look at a number of specific artworks, which conflate the urban and digital space as well as on the hidden aspects of the internet’s infrastructure. In light of internet changes since 1995, Orit Gat will examine possibilities art opens up to make the internet a genuine public space of the commons.
This Exhibition (de)Tour is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
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The relation between architecture, urbanism, and the moving image has been always very close. While architects used filmic images continuously to critically reflect and promote their ideas, filmmakers have always experimented with forms that altered our ways of thinking and experiencing architecture or city environments. Dr David Teh and Dr Marc Glöde will reflect on the role of digital video in the wider sense of public spheres, the articulation of non-official histories and the public space, as well as discuss video as a vehicle of both “global” electronic enculturation, and of a modernity.
This Conversation is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
16 Dec 2016, Fri 07:30 PM - 10:00 PM
23 Dec 2016, Fri 07:30 PM - 10:00 PM
30 Dec 2016, Fri 07:30 PM - 10:00 PM
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Re-shaping the City of Singapore and creating its new appearance has not only an influence on how we experience the city on a direct everyday basis, it has also influenced the films and images that are produced in Singapore and in so far globally changed the visual idea of the city. These changes of the urban experience have been very prominent in classical narrative films from Singapore, which lead the focus of attention to interesting new social aspects of the new city. The series Meet me in the City will take a look at some of these film classics and provide the opportunity to re-encounter some of these landmark Singaporean films.
Mee Pok Man, Eric Khoo, Singapore, 1995, 98 min
Image credit: Eric Khoo, Mee Pok Man, Singapore, 1995, 98 min, film still. Courtesy Zhao Wei Films.
Based on a short story by late writer Damien Sin, Mee Pok Man follows a lonely mee pok seller as he pines for Bunny, a prostitute who dreams of a better life. An untimely accident brings them closer, building into a relationship that is at once tender, heart-wrenching and surreal at the same time. In 2015, the film was restored by the Asian Film Archive and presented at the 26th Singapore International Film Festival.
This film is rated M18. Audience will be required to verify age at the door. The screening of this film is supported by Asian Film Archives, Singapore.
12 Storeys, Eric Khoo, Singapore, 1997, 105 min
Image credit: Eric Khoo, 12 Storeys, Singapore, 1997, 105 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmaker.
The film depicts a day in a HDB block of residential flats in Singapore with all the action occurring within a 24-hour period. There are essentially three main storylines: Ah Gu, a middle-aged man brings home a pretty young wife from China, and struggles to cope with her overly high expectations. San San lives alone with only suicide on her mind. A meeting with the daughter of her mother’ s former employer, Rachel, acts as a trigger for an outpouring of sadness. With their parents away, upright but overbearing eldest brother Meng (Koh Boon Pin) takes the opportunity to lord it over his rebellious younger sister, Trixie (Lum May Yee) and little brother Tee (Roderick Lim). Meng’ s persistent interest in Trixie’ s personal life leads to first, an interrogation, then an argument, and ultimately something far more explosive.
The screening of this film is supported by Asian Film Archives, Singapore.
Eating Air, Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng, Singapore, 1999, 100 min
Image credit: Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng, Eating Air, 1999, 100 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmakers.
Ah Boy, the anti-hero, leads a gang of arcade-playing, motorcycle-riding, rooftop-gathering young cronies. The street-corner gangs are not sophisticated like organised criminals, but they have their own brand of honour. Petty fights are common, and so are motorcycle challenges. But when his best friend Ah Gu chances upon drugs and borrows from loan sharks, their friendship put to a test, as the challenges that they face become more and more dangerous.
Eating Air filmmakers Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng will be in attendance.
Singapore Dreaming, Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh, Singapore, 2006, 105 min
Image credit: Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh, Singapore Dreaming, Singapore, 2006, 105 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmakers.
Encompassing two generations of the middle-class Loh family, Singapore Dreaming tracks the family’s trials as its members chase their dreams. The son and the apple of his father’s eye, Seng, returns from his studies in USA to a devoted girlfriend and to family pressure of getting married and making a name for himself. His sister, Mei, married to an emasculated husband and expecting, has never been able to let go of the parental neglect she feels she has suffered. Their parents, Poh Huat and Siew Luan, have over the years fallen into a routine of banal preoccupations – nagging and domestic chores on her part; fantasies about amassing material possessions on his. When the patriarch wins the lottery, everyone rests their hopes on the windfall delivering them from their struggles. They soon discover that their dreams remain elusive and that the pleasures derived from material wealth are as transitory as the possessions themselves.
The screening of this film is supported by Asian Film Archives, Singapore.
This Screening is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
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This walk is developed to explore how a city can be, if experienced outside of one’s routines. When we change environment, the new conditions affect the senses. Through light, sound and scent, our awareness of space changes dramatically. Composer and sound researcher Dr PerMagnus Lindborg will focus on the perception of sound and its design in complex environments and how this extends to all our senses.
Register to receive details at NTUCCAexhibitions@ntu.edu.sg
This Incomplete City Walk is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
10 Dec 2016, Sat 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM
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Image credit: Liu Chuang, Untitled (Festival), 2011, 5 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmaker.
Untitled (Festival), Liu Chuang, China, 2011, 5 min
Untitled (Festival) is set in an urban context, documenting a journey of an invidividual through a city filled with rubble and debris. It begins with the individual picking up a sheet of paper, lighting it up on fire and then throwing it to the ground. The act becomes repetitive, a commentary to the normalcy of accepting the conditions imposed on them without protest.
Autumn Moon, Clara Law, Hong Kong, 1992, 108 min
Weary of work, Tokio comes to Hong Kong looking for good food. He meets a 15 year-old girl called Wai. Her parents are in Canada dealing with immigration matters, as well as buying a house and sending her brother off to university. Wai is left behind in Hong Kong with her 80 year-old grandmother and her cat. Tokio finds himself more interested in the grandmother’s cooking. Wai, on the other hand is secretly in love with a boy in her school but is reluctant to show her passion, for fear that she is unable to handle the situation when she has to emigrate.
After Reality, Zhou Tao, China, 2013, 14 min
After Reality was filmed mostly in Guangzhou, China and in some parts of Paris, France, in abandoned urban or rural surroundings. By creating alternating images throughout the editing process, Zhou Tao intends to create a third space where the gaze rests on the biodiversity of these escheated areas, as to the human body that performs on it. The “reality” of an urban life is conditioned by the cause of urban planning, where ideologically, everything is under human control. After-reality exposes the beauty of the luxuriant subtropical vegetation, an alienation from the cities, creating a feel of wonder that is beyond narration.
Image credit: May Fung, She Said Why Me, 1989, 8 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmaker.
She Said Why Me, May Fung, Hong Kong 1989, 8 min
A woman travels, blindfolded, from an ancient countryside temple to a bustling city. Her surroundings change, but her sense of unease lingers. The film takes the female perspective to combine the past and present, expressing a sense of anxiety that permeated Hong Kong during that particular moment in time.
Jungle of Desire, Wong Ping, Hong Kong, 2016, 6 min 50 sec
An impotent husband, an unsatisfied wife and a megalomaniac policeman. A perfect ecosystem in the concrete jungle. A jungle where you can be at grip with lust and no moral laws.
A surprise film (145 min) will be screened
Image credit: Cao Fei, Haze and Fog, 2013, 47 min, film still. Courtesy the filmmaker.
Haze and Fog, Cao Fei, China, 2013, 47 min
Haze and Fog is a new type of zombie movie filmed in modern China. The film explores the ways of the collective consciousness of people living in the time of “magical metropolises”. It is a term Cao Fei describes as emerging from seemingly tedious, mundane, day-to-day life where a magical reality is created through struggles at the tipping point between the visible and the invisible.
What Time Is It There?, Tsai Ming Liang, Taiwan, 2001, 116 min
After the death of his father, Shiao Kang begins to fear darkness. He locks himself in his room and sleeps with the lights on. He believes that his father’s ghost is still around.
In the day, he sells watches on the crossover bridge of the Taipei Train Station. A woman by the name of Shiang–Chyi, who is about to travel abroad, comes to him to buy a watch. She takes a liking on Shiao Kang’s own watch and is adamant on buying it. According to traditional beliefs, within the period of seven weeks of mourning, a property should never being transferred as it would bring bad luck to the receiver. The story unfolds between the two individuals as their realities start to shift, alternating their experiences with one another.
This Screening is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
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How is the city used to create works? What is the interest of musicians and composers as well as artists in city sounds and how do they use field recordings? From dissecting, measuring the affect, colour, and intensity of sound, through composing and expressing state of minds or just for pure joy, what inspires such work? Composers and musicians Julia Mihaly and Felix Leuschner, known as CLUBbleu, will discuss with musician and sound researcher Dr PerMagnus Lindborg how they catch the most characteristic and unique urban sounds and how do they use their field recordings.
The Conversation will be followed by CLUBbleu’s latest CD launch.
This Conversation is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
14 Jan 2017, Sat 04:00 PM - 07:30 PM
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03-FLATS, Lei Yuan Bin, concept and research by Dr Lilian Chee, National University of Singapore and 13 Little Pictures. Singapore, 2014, 90 min
Image credit: Lei Yuan Bin and Dr Lilian Chee, 03-FLATS, Singapore, 2014, 90 min. Courtesy the filmmakers.
Singapore’s public housing programme—an inclusive space that prioritises families and intergenerational living—is arguably the most successful in the world. Amidst this backdrop, 03-FLATS follows the domestic experiences of three single women who are at different stages of their lives. Looking from within each flat, the architectural essay film moves between the women’s distinctively lived interiors and the ordered public spaces beyond. It records how domestic resilience might resist the ennui of mass housing, turning housing into home. 03-FLATS is a key filmic output of a research initiative led by Dr Lilian Chee (Department of Architecture, NUS). Chee conceptualised the project and made the architectural essay film in collaboration with award-winning Singaporean director and filmmaker Lei Yuan Bin (13 Little Pictures). The film probes how domesticity—a critical component wherein home is produced—may be viscerally represented and experientially encountered.
03-FLATS has screened in 12 cities worldwide. It was in chosen to compete at the Busan International Film Festival (2014) and won the best ASEAN documentary at the Salaya International Documentary Film Festival (2015). It was recently featured in the Singapore Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (2016).
The screening of this film is supported by Asian Film Archives, Singapore.
Building Dreams – In search of Singapore Architecture, Singapore, 2002 – 2004, 198 min
Image credit: Building Dreams – In search of Singapore Architecture, an 8-part series directed by various filmmakers, produced by XTREME Media Pte Ltd, 2002 – 2004. Courtesy XTREME Media Pte Ltd.
Building Dreams is an eight-part documentary that explores the development of Singapore’s built heritage. The series features key architects and planners who have played an important role in the shaping of Singapore’s present cityscape.
Episode 1: Dawn of a New Era, directed by Tan Pin Pin, 25 min
Episode 2: Reinventing the Skyline, directed by Tan Pin Pin, 23 min
Episode 3: The Living Landscape, directed by Tania Sng, 24 min
Episode 4: Reflections on the Urbanscape, directed by Gek Li San, 24 min
Episode 5: Living in the Tropics, directed by Yee Chang Kang, 25 min
Episode 6: Spaces of Memory, directed by Tan Pin Pin, 26 min
Episode 7: Constructions of Identity, directed by Juan Foo, 26 min
Episode 8: Future Landscapes, directed by Gek Li San, 26 min
The screening of this film is supported by XTREME Media Pte Ltd. For more information, visit www.xtreme.com.sg or www.facebook.com/xtrememediaasia
This Screening is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.
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13 – 22 January 2017
Projects, Workshops, Events,
part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17
Programme schedule
Performance: Datang Untuk Kembali (Arriving to Return) by indieguerillas, Lulu Lutfi Labibi, and Ari Wulu
6.30 – 8.00pm
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Workshop: Art-Food-Sustainability by Lucy + Jorge Orta in collaboration with Foodscape Collective
10.00am – 5.00pm
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Talk: Transcommunality: Collaboration Beyond Borders by Laura Anderson Barbata
12.30 – 1.30pm
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Participatory Project: World Cafe: Air, Land, and Water by Marjetica Potrč
10.00am – 6.00pm
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Workshop: Transcommunality: Collaboration Beyond Borders by Laura Anderson Barbata and the Brooklyn Jumbies
2.00 – 4.30pm
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Rehearsal by Post-Museum
Friday, 20 January, 6.00pm – Sunday, 22 January, 6.00pm
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Participatory Project: 70 x 7 The Meal, act XL (40) by Lucy + Jorge Orta in collaboration with Chef Misso Russell Keith from Open Farm Community
7.30 – 10.00pm
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Performance: Ocean Blue(s) by Laura Anderson Barbata and the Brooklyn Jumbies, with local stilt dancers
7.30 – 9.00pm
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Workshop: Keyword Laboratory: “Socio-botanic” by Xu Tan
11.00am – 1.00pm
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13 – 22 January 2017
The Harvesting: An Urban Farming Initiative,
part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17
Programme schedule
Workshop: Farming: Basics of Organic Growing by Edible Garden City
2.30 – 3.30pm
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Screening: Growing Cities: A film about urban farming in America, Dan Susman, United States, 2013, 97 min
7.00 – 8.30pm
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Workshop: Composting Made Easy by Michelle Lai, TANAH
4.30 – 6.00pm
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Workshop: Pixel Walk by Foodscape Collective and Victoria Marshall
2.00 – 5.00pm
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This Lecture Performance is part of the public programme of Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Critical Spatial Practice.