A young, home grown, biennial photography festival has drawn the attention of the international photography community. With just two installments in its short history, in 2008 and 2010, the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) has attracted the participation of some of the photography world’s biggest names in its third installment.
The 3rd SIPF has seen this year the involvement of Magnum Photos, the world’s most prestigious photo agency co-‐founded by Henri Cartier-‐Bresson; renowned contemporary Chinese artist Wang Qingsong; and Italian photographer and artistic director of the Rapallo Contemporary Photography Show, Andrea Botto. As well as these prominent guests, the Festival’s core exhibition features 50 photographers from 25 countries around the world. They were selected from close to 9,000 images submitted in response to SIPF’s Open Call held from Nov 2011 to Apr 2012..
“This is a very exciting moment for the community of photographers in Singapore,” says Ms Gwen Lee, Director of the SIPF. “We are thrilled that so many photographers from around the world responded to our open call and that we have some of the world’s best photographers taking part in this year’s festival. I believe this is a sign that photographers the world over are starting to see SIPF as a key event they must take part in.”
– SIPF OPEN CALL SHOWCASE
In its continuous mission to discover emerging artists and original contemporary photographic works, the 3rd SIPF Open Call has received an incredible response from artists all over the world. It presents 414 spectacular works by emerging and established photographers, including refreshing new works from Cambodia, Japan, Mexico, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
THE BUDDHIST BUG PROJECT by Anida Yoeu Ali and Masahiro Sugano (Cambodia/Japan)
The Buddhist Bug is a fantastical saffron-coloured creature spanning the length of a 30-metre bridge, yet it can easily coil itself into an orange ball of loneliness. Rooted in an autobiographical exploration of identity, the Bug comes from the artist’s own spiritual turmoil between Islam and Buddhism. Set amongst everyday people in ordinary moments, the Bug provokes obvious questions of belonging. It reflects the artist’s personality and love for everyday culture, creating moments that transcend the ordinary.
ACTS OF FAITH by Fernando Montiel Klint (Mexico)
« We have become a society that atomises and isolates the individual. Dependence on technology has made us individualistic beings eager to consume, in search of a seemingly ethereal pleasure. Instead of recognising and getting to know one another in an organic way, we are supplanting human interaction with a virtual simulation of it, hence diminishing one’s search for inner and psychic freedom. What is the meaning of the word faith ? ».
IF THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT ME, I AM NOT AWARE OF IT by Joel Yuen (Singapore)
« In response to the complex relationship between the Internet and the user, my work is a form of social critique in line with Mark Poster’s theory about the second media age. The Internet is no longer a passive instrument but one, with which our social lives are intertwined. It cuts though time and space, transcending our ontological under-standing of reality. It allows me to change my image and identity, to tell blatant lies, to play, to reconstruct and create new visual realities. I adorned fantastical costumes and masks to perform for the camera as my alter ego ».
IMAGINING FLOOD by Miti Ruangkritya (Thailand)
A photographic study concerning the recent floods that have taken place in Bangkok (2011), the series aim to capture the foreboding and surreal nature of the event by presenting the flood in a dream-like and otherworldly manner. When news first arrived that Bangkok would be affected, concern naturally became widespread and all manner of preparations unfolded. But somehow the centre of city remained untouched, although the sense of threat lingered in people’s minds, as the city was encircled by waterlogged houses, streets and motorways.
SHAWI: MYSTERY WITH A NAME OF ITS OWN by Musuk Nolte Maldonado (Peru)
The Shawi people are one of the least studied groups despite being one of the largest in number living in the Amazon Rainforest. They have an ancient way of co-existence with the forest, by learning about its mystical powers guided by shamans. As they get in contact with more urban ways of life, they try to balance their traditions with modernity. Some of their practices may have been lost, but they have clung to essential features of their heritage, like the preservation of their original language, their hunting techniques and use of medicinal plants.
THE RELEVANCY OF RESTRICTED THINGS by Nge Lay (Myanmar)
Though seldom included in Southeast Asian surveys, art from Burma appears increasingly on the Southeastasian regional radar. Nge Lay, a young artist living in Yangon, contributed a new photographic sequence that superimposed her own history onto that of her country. Performing herself behind the mask of her unknown father, Nge Lay emphasises the importance of the paternal presence at the head of the family.
BURNING CHROME by Norihisa Hosaka (Japan)
« I had set out to take a picture that unites light, mass and time — the three elements that abound in Tokyo. When earthquake struck on March 11th 2011 and the ensuing tsunami caused a nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima. There was a sense of lost love for the enchanting city lights that were powered by the nuclear plants. The images became a memory of power wastage and a record of a new era of power reduction. Someday in the future, people might live in a quiet and still landscape, reminiscing of our brilliantly lit past ».
RECOLLECTION by Olivia Marty (France/Vietnam)
The artist superimposed layers of old photographic material (vintage photographs depicting intimate scenes of Vietnamese life from the 1930s to the early 1970s) projected on various urban sites and re-captured through the lens. Fusing different dimensions of time and space, revealing the hidden codes behind reality, these projections of the city act as an x-ray, revealing the lives of nameless men and women who, for a while, haunted the streets of Saigon and who have fallen into oblivion.
DOMINION by Wawi Navarroza (Philippines)
« After my studio in Manila was completely wrecked by a storm, my first impulse was to leave and head to the volcanoes (I’m from the Philippine Islands where there are lots of volcanoes) and later went to Hawaii, a place throbbing with the pulse of the volcanic. I photographed lava rock, white ash, black sand and sometimes, I intervened. It’s not clear if I made peace with the land by surrendering with a white cloth or if I covered it as if with a burial cloth ».
VISION OF TAIWAN by Wu Cheng Chang (Taiwan)
The series of images in Vision of Taiwan expresses the artist’s personal observations, inspired by the environments of Taiwan. The images expound the conflicting perception of aesthetics and environmental issues, insinuating at the absurdity and conflicts that exist behind the beautiful sceneries. The series offers a perspective on the relationship between human and its surrounding, expressing a level of pessimism towards the current state of Taiwan’s environment yet hopeful and expectant of a reformation.
– SPECIAL SHOWCASES
SILVERMINE by Thomas Sauvin (France/China)
Beijing Silvermine is a photographic portrait of the capital and the life of its inhabitants over the last thirty years. This vast archive of 35mm color film negatives, taken by ordinary and anonymous Chinese, unearths discarded souvenir snapshots, often amusing, banal or intriguing, sometimes awkward, yet above all, undeniably authentic. Thomas Sauvin collected all of the negatives from a recycling zone where they were destined for destruction. The birth of Beijing Silvermine in May of 2009 meant the end of this massacre of photographs, rescuing a multitude of memories from certain death. On display in Singapore is a selection of 300 photographs that brings audience back to the 80’s.
THE HISTORY OF MONUMENTS by Wang Qing Song (China)
Spanning 42 metres in length, The History of Monuments is a stunning interpretation of the history of mankind in a photo epic. Mobilising over 300 hundreds models, the renowned Chinese contemporary photographer Wang Qing Song built a studio with life size props over weeks to execute this laborious photography work. The artist is quite well known for his compelling works that convey an ironic vision of 21st century China’s encounter with global consumer culture.
– PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
As part of the Festival’s objective to nurture emerging photographic talents, the SIPF, in partnership with Magnum Photos, has launched the inaugural Magnum Mentorship Singapore. From Jul to Oct 2012, 23 photographers were mentored by Magnum photographers Mark Powell (UK), Jacob Aue Sobol (Denmark) and Stuart Franklin (UK). The participants and their mentors met in Singapore during the Festival for a final five-‐ day workshop from 9 to 13 Oct and an exhibition of the participants’ works at The Arts House from 14 to 20 Oct. This is the first programme as such in Asia for Magnum Photos. Indeed photography has taken an increasingly important place as the key media of contemporary art practice, and has transcended borders and cultures. The 2012 SIPF is an invitation to a visual and cross-‐cultural journey. The exhibition is a physical and mental construction of images offering multiple dialogues among works from all over the world, as well as providing a wide overview on general and contemporary matters. It is a platform for sharing visions of contemporary concerns and the world we live in.
Patricia Levasseur de la Motte
3rd Singapore International Photography Festival – Gains International Recognition
From October 5th to November 26 2012
Exhibition locations : ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Management University Gallery, The Substation, Societe Generale Gallery, The Photographic Society of Singapore at Selegie Arts Centre, and the Plaza, National Library Building
Curators: Alejandro Castellote (Spain), Patricia Levasseur de la Motte (France/Singapore), Zeng Han (China)
