Arts/Film
3-Dimensional Art Exhibition
The Fountain Within
Fri 28 Nov - Sun 25 Jan | Full Day | Empress Place Precinct (Various Outdoor Spaces)
Free Admission
Free Admission
Programme Partner ::: Sculpture Square
Featuring ::: Sun Yu-Li (Singapore) • Kumari Nahappan (Singapore) • Manop Suwanpinta (Thailand) • Ramlan Abdullah (Malaysia) • Eko Prawoto (Indonesia)
What does it mean to be an Asian in the world today? How does an Asian derive or define his/her origins in the 21st century?
The Fountain Within features five artists from South East Asia who share their sources of inspiration behind their art practices. This display of outdoor-based sculpture and installation works reveal to the audience a variety of ideals that speaks volumes in parallel with their imposing physical forms.
The exposition adopts an exploratory stance upon the notion of ‘Origins’ and ‘Asian-ness’, poised in a world in constant natural, cultural and economical transformation. One’s basic beliefs and practices are perennially challenged by these global trends and thus this enterprise uncovers different trajectories of issues faced by the artists.
Symptomatic to their environment, each work informs of the concerns that underpins the impetus of these artists to seek equilibrium within themselves and their surroundings. We witness the peaks and troughs of their personal journeys that perhaps reflect the emergence of Asian culture today.
Featuring ::: Sun Yu-Li (Singapore) • Kumari Nahappan (Singapore) • Manop Suwanpinta (Thailand) • Ramlan Abdullah (Malaysia) • Eko Prawoto (Indonesia)
What does it mean to be an Asian in the world today? How does an Asian derive or define his/her origins in the 21st century?
The Fountain Within features five artists from South East Asia who share their sources of inspiration behind their art practices. This display of outdoor-based sculpture and installation works reveal to the audience a variety of ideals that speaks volumes in parallel with their imposing physical forms.
The exposition adopts an exploratory stance upon the notion of ‘Origins’ and ‘Asian-ness’, poised in a world in constant natural, cultural and economical transformation. One’s basic beliefs and practices are perennially challenged by these global trends and thus this enterprise uncovers different trajectories of issues faced by the artists.
Symptomatic to their environment, each work informs of the concerns that underpins the impetus of these artists to seek equilibrium within themselves and their surroundings. We witness the peaks and troughs of their personal journeys that perhaps reflect the emergence of Asian culture today.
Films
Cinema First
Fri 28 Nov - Sat 06 Dec | Various Timings | Screening Room & Front Lawn, The Arts House
Indoor Screening: SG$9, SG$7 (for students) | Outdoor Screening: Free Admission
Indoor Screening: SG$9, SG$7 (for students) | Outdoor Screening: Free Admission
Programme Partner ::: Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films
Cinema First is a selection of some of the best films and documentaries showcased over the past years since the beginning of the festival in 2005. Most of the films have travelled and participated in well-renowned film festivals and henceforth setting the path to great cinematography debuts. Through these films, they will share Asia using their own Asian voices, with some stunning and remarkable scenes.
INDOOR SCREENINGS
FILM: Weed
Fri 28 Nov | 10.00pm & Fri 5 Dec | 8.00pm
Produced by Wang Liren | 2007 | China | 99 mins | In Mandarin | PG with some coarse language
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Film
Category of Nomination & Nominee Name:
Best Actor (Male) - Mai Zi
Best Director - Wang Liren
Best Film - Wang Liren
Best Producer - Wang Liren
Best Screenplay / Script - Wang Liren
Mayi is a worker of a house moving company who falls in love with a prostitute Hudie. Mayi shades his real profession from Hudie to go out with her, but is ousted by Hudie’s ex-boyfriend Abin who is a wanted criminal. For revenge, Mayi informs the police to arrest Hudie and Abin. After the tumultuous experience, Mayi drowns himself in a swamp.
DOCUMENTARY: Family on the Sky Lake
Sat 29 Nov | 2.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 6.30pm
Produced by Hu Linping | 2007 | China | 90 mins | In Tibetan | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Documentary
Today's Tibet, many herdsmen's life has been changed, especially with the train getting into it. By recording the life of Siba and his family, this documentary is showing their life both in nomadic style and doing tourist business. As things develop further, how long can they stay on their primitive life to follow where the grass is?
FILM: Teeth of Love
Sat 29 Nov | 4.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 8.30pm
Produced by Zhuang Yuxin | 2007 | China | 114 mins | In Mandarin | PG
Asian Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Film
Category of Nomination & Nominee Name
Best Director - Zhuang Yuxin
Drawing a clear outline of a woman's love experiences, the film is a love epic of an average Chinese woman. Qian Yehong, a girl from Beijing follows the dramatic changes in China from 1977 to 1987. In this ten years, she has different identities in different times: a female gangster in the days of social turmoil, a student at medicine school, an unlucky female laborer and a wife in a plain marriage. However, what she has really experienced at the bottom of her heart is not the social changes, but the tangling relationships among love, pain and memory. After ten years being with three different men, she suddenly realises that pain is a shortcut to love.
FILM: Keeping Watch
Sun 30 Nov | 2.30pm & Fri 5 Dec | 10.00pm
Produced by James C. Liu | 2007 | Taiwan | 91 mins | In Mandarin | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007
“Everyday at 3 pm is the moment I begin to fall in love with you.” Ching is a girl whose tedious life surrounds her family-owned shop. One day Han shows up and claims to be her high school classmate. Ching’s everyday life starts to change because she has fallen for Han. Then one day, Han suddenly vanishes. Ching looks up for Han’s contact details in the school yearbook. When she meets Han’s parents, they reveal that Han passed away years ago. If Han were dead, then who is this person that has been coming to see Ching everyday and who is it that Ching has fallen in love with?
DOCUMENTARY: The Last Lumberjacks
Sun 30 Nov | 4.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 2.30pm
Produced by Yu Guangyi | 2007 | China | 90 mins | In Mandarin | PG (Some disturbing scenes)
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Documentary
The Last Lumberjacks documents the life of a group of loggers in Heilongjiang Province, China. It records the most basic state of being and desire of humans amidst ice and snow, and serves as a document of a disappearing mode of production as well as living in the process of civilisation's progress.
FILM: Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Sun 30 Nov | 6.30pm & Wed 3 Dec | 8.00pm
Produced by Aureaus Solito | 2005 | Phillipines | NC-16 (Content Not Suitable For Children Under 16)
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2005 Nominated Film
Just like the flower in the opening scenes, 12-year old Maxi is a beautiful accent in the gritty underworld on the outskirts of Manila where he lives. Living with his outlaw father and two older brothers, Maxi dutifully infuses everything he does for them with love. From cooking and sewing to braiding his brother's hair, Maxi fulfills the role of dalaga for his family, living as a young lady in the absence of femininity and their deceased mother.
We follow Maxi through his glowing and textured world of shopping, reenacting beauty pageants, and hanging out at a local DVD stand that screens movies for abundant audiences of transient children. But Maxi's emotions blossom late one night when he is rescued from neighborhood thugs by Victor, a kind rookie cop. Smitten with the handsome policeman, Maxi begins to feel pulled between the petty-thief family that he loves and the law and romance Victor embodies.
FILM: Owl & the Sparrow
Sat 29 Nov | 9.00pm | Front Lawn (Outdoor Screening) | Free Admission
Sat 6 Dec | 10.30pm | Screening Room | SG$9
Produced by Stephane Gauger | 2007 | USA | 97 mins | In Vietnamese | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007
A beautiful flight attendant looking for love. A lonely zookeeper hiding within his animal kingdom from a changing society. A little orphan girl selling roses on the streets who relies on the kindness of strangers to survive. It’s modern-day Saigon, where eight million people are just trying to keep up with the pace. In four days, the young runaway will play matchmaker to these lonely hearts in hopes of forming a surrogate family. The only thing that might stop her is city authorities and an overbearing uncle tracking her down in the big city.
Cinema First is a selection of some of the best films and documentaries showcased over the past years since the beginning of the festival in 2005. Most of the films have travelled and participated in well-renowned film festivals and henceforth setting the path to great cinematography debuts. Through these films, they will share Asia using their own Asian voices, with some stunning and remarkable scenes.
INDOOR SCREENINGS
FILM: Weed
Fri 28 Nov | 10.00pm & Fri 5 Dec | 8.00pm
Produced by Wang Liren | 2007 | China | 99 mins | In Mandarin | PG with some coarse language
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Film
Category of Nomination & Nominee Name:
Best Actor (Male) - Mai Zi
Best Director - Wang Liren
Best Film - Wang Liren
Best Producer - Wang Liren
Best Screenplay / Script - Wang Liren
Mayi is a worker of a house moving company who falls in love with a prostitute Hudie. Mayi shades his real profession from Hudie to go out with her, but is ousted by Hudie’s ex-boyfriend Abin who is a wanted criminal. For revenge, Mayi informs the police to arrest Hudie and Abin. After the tumultuous experience, Mayi drowns himself in a swamp.
DOCUMENTARY: Family on the Sky Lake
Sat 29 Nov | 2.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 6.30pm
Produced by Hu Linping | 2007 | China | 90 mins | In Tibetan | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Documentary
Today's Tibet, many herdsmen's life has been changed, especially with the train getting into it. By recording the life of Siba and his family, this documentary is showing their life both in nomadic style and doing tourist business. As things develop further, how long can they stay on their primitive life to follow where the grass is?
FILM: Teeth of Love
Sat 29 Nov | 4.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 8.30pm
Produced by Zhuang Yuxin | 2007 | China | 114 mins | In Mandarin | PG
Asian Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Film
Category of Nomination & Nominee Name
Best Director - Zhuang Yuxin
Drawing a clear outline of a woman's love experiences, the film is a love epic of an average Chinese woman. Qian Yehong, a girl from Beijing follows the dramatic changes in China from 1977 to 1987. In this ten years, she has different identities in different times: a female gangster in the days of social turmoil, a student at medicine school, an unlucky female laborer and a wife in a plain marriage. However, what she has really experienced at the bottom of her heart is not the social changes, but the tangling relationships among love, pain and memory. After ten years being with three different men, she suddenly realises that pain is a shortcut to love.
FILM: Keeping Watch
Sun 30 Nov | 2.30pm & Fri 5 Dec | 10.00pm
Produced by James C. Liu | 2007 | Taiwan | 91 mins | In Mandarin | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007
“Everyday at 3 pm is the moment I begin to fall in love with you.” Ching is a girl whose tedious life surrounds her family-owned shop. One day Han shows up and claims to be her high school classmate. Ching’s everyday life starts to change because she has fallen for Han. Then one day, Han suddenly vanishes. Ching looks up for Han’s contact details in the school yearbook. When she meets Han’s parents, they reveal that Han passed away years ago. If Han were dead, then who is this person that has been coming to see Ching everyday and who is it that Ching has fallen in love with?
DOCUMENTARY: The Last Lumberjacks
Sun 30 Nov | 4.30pm & Sat 6 Dec | 2.30pm
Produced by Yu Guangyi | 2007 | China | 90 mins | In Mandarin | PG (Some disturbing scenes)
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007 Nominated Documentary
The Last Lumberjacks documents the life of a group of loggers in Heilongjiang Province, China. It records the most basic state of being and desire of humans amidst ice and snow, and serves as a document of a disappearing mode of production as well as living in the process of civilisation's progress.
FILM: Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Sun 30 Nov | 6.30pm & Wed 3 Dec | 8.00pm
Produced by Aureaus Solito | 2005 | Phillipines | NC-16 (Content Not Suitable For Children Under 16)
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2005 Nominated Film
Just like the flower in the opening scenes, 12-year old Maxi is a beautiful accent in the gritty underworld on the outskirts of Manila where he lives. Living with his outlaw father and two older brothers, Maxi dutifully infuses everything he does for them with love. From cooking and sewing to braiding his brother's hair, Maxi fulfills the role of dalaga for his family, living as a young lady in the absence of femininity and their deceased mother.
We follow Maxi through his glowing and textured world of shopping, reenacting beauty pageants, and hanging out at a local DVD stand that screens movies for abundant audiences of transient children. But Maxi's emotions blossom late one night when he is rescued from neighborhood thugs by Victor, a kind rookie cop. Smitten with the handsome policeman, Maxi begins to feel pulled between the petty-thief family that he loves and the law and romance Victor embodies.
FILM: Owl & the Sparrow
Sat 29 Nov | 9.00pm | Front Lawn (Outdoor Screening) | Free Admission
Sat 6 Dec | 10.30pm | Screening Room | SG$9
Produced by Stephane Gauger | 2007 | USA | 97 mins | In Vietnamese | PG
Asia Pacific Festival of 1st Films 2007
A beautiful flight attendant looking for love. A lonely zookeeper hiding within his animal kingdom from a changing society. A little orphan girl selling roses on the streets who relies on the kindness of strangers to survive. It’s modern-day Saigon, where eight million people are just trying to keep up with the pace. In four days, the young runaway will play matchmaker to these lonely hearts in hopes of forming a surrogate family. The only thing that might stop her is city authorities and an overbearing uncle tracking her down in the big city.
Food Art Exhibition
Sensuous Food, Emotional Taste
Fri 28 Nov - Sat 06 Dec | 10.00am - 8.00pm | Gallery, The Arts House
Free Admission
Free Admission
Featuring ::: Ayako Suwa (Japan)
Serving up sensuality with food combinations, evoking and indulging in the most pleasurable tastes but above all - her experimental mixtures are true visual delights. Ayako Suwa introduces the idea of food as an ultimate material to "deliver the concept to a stomach" and stimulate not only the taste but also the five senses, and to provoke an appetite. Sensuous Food, Emotional Taste is a delicate selection of her photography works, capturing the aesthetics of the creations to the point of savoury. The works were recently showcased at the Design Gallery of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
Serving up sensuality with food combinations, evoking and indulging in the most pleasurable tastes but above all - her experimental mixtures are true visual delights. Ayako Suwa introduces the idea of food as an ultimate material to "deliver the concept to a stomach" and stimulate not only the taste but also the five senses, and to provoke an appetite. Sensuous Food, Emotional Taste is a delicate selection of her photography works, capturing the aesthetics of the creations to the point of savoury. The works were recently showcased at the Design Gallery of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
Dance
Iruka: Are You Here?
Thu 04 Dec - Fri 05 Dec | 8.00pm - 9.00pm | Play Den, The Arts House
SG$30, SG$25 (for students and senior citizens)
SG$30, SG$25 (for students and senior citizens)
Featuring ::: Kota Yamazaki (Japan)
One of Asia’s leading contemporary dancers from Japan takes you on a journey between opposing elements and thoughts: ying and yang, negative and positive, stillness and movement. Characterised by deliberate movements that are sleek and elegant, yet quick and percussive, developing a choreography that is integrated with raw energy, strength and speed, Yamazaki’s works have been distinctive in creating a style-blending contemporary, classical ballet and Asian-influenced dance forms.
For Asia on the Edge, Yamazaki’s Iruka philosophical question asking “Are you here? “, questions contemporary civilisation and attempts in challenging our daily notion of our existence – our physical and meta-physical selves. The Choreography will involve Butoh, which is also the origin of Japanese contemporary dance.
One of Asia’s leading contemporary dancers from Japan takes you on a journey between opposing elements and thoughts: ying and yang, negative and positive, stillness and movement. Characterised by deliberate movements that are sleek and elegant, yet quick and percussive, developing a choreography that is integrated with raw energy, strength and speed, Yamazaki’s works have been distinctive in creating a style-blending contemporary, classical ballet and Asian-influenced dance forms.
For Asia on the Edge, Yamazaki’s Iruka philosophical question asking “Are you here? “, questions contemporary civilisation and attempts in challenging our daily notion of our existence – our physical and meta-physical selves. The Choreography will involve Butoh, which is also the origin of Japanese contemporary dance.