In the official Biennale website, the rationale behind the Singapore Biennale 2006 was said to be based on the strong belief of “marrying visual art with street culture.” With this idea, the organizers of the event tried to turn art into an integral part of everyday life.
This event is organized by National arts Council, in partnership with National Heritage Board. This event will feature works from over 38 countries and regions including Singapore and would be the first significant cultural event to bring contemporary visual art practices into the daily lives of Singaporeans. In the website, one of the ways the organizers are going to do this is by the choice of exhibition venue.
Some of the venues listed were the City Hall, Orchard Road, various religious venues and a typical government housing block to the newly built state-of-the-art university in the city. After looking at the list of venues, the first thing that came into my mind was tourism.
Singapore being a very small country with limited natural resources, the tourism is one of the largest industries we depend on. Just last year in 2005, the highest number recorded, close to 9 million tourists came through Singapore, with a 7% growth as compared to the year before. This record-breaking number of arrivals was attributed to several major events and conferences, for example, the 117th International Olympic Committee Session.
Along with this idea, there would be three major events in Singapore this year. Singapore will be playing host to the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group with the Biennale is the designated anchor cultural event. With the number of tourist coming in for these three events, an increase in numbers and revenue is expected.
Apart these three events, the exhibition venues are obvious promotion of the attraction and cultures of Singapore. From a newspaper article, Fumio Nanjo, Artistic Director, Singapore Biennale 2006, was quoted saying, "All these locations is where daily life is going on, and we insert art into these places so they will naturally see art." While the organizers say the venues are chosen to introduce contemporary art to the masses, it is also a good chance to bring tourists and Biennales visitors to not only places of interest, but also the heartlands.
Culture is also introduced as a good part of the venues are churches and temple. Included in the list are Christian, Jewish, Catholic churches, Hindu and Buddhist temple and a Mosque. This, I think, is to reflect the multi-cultural heritage of Singapore and how despite different ethnic and religious backgrounds, the country is still a cohesive society. Not only does the Biennale bring tourists to these places but it also makes use of the event’s publicity to show the rest of the world what we have and hopefully lure more tourists to Singapore in future.
Hence under the theme of BELIEF, the organizers are hoping that this cultural event “will be experienced across the unique cityscape of Singapore – one of Asia’s most extraordinary examples of cosmopolitan faiths, values and cultural heritage.”
This Biennale would bring the country onto international papers and potential tourists would be able to know more about the country. But I think the “performance” is not just staged for the rest of the world to see, it is also to show Singaporeans that we are progressing and giving the arts more emphasis.
The Biennale organizers also hopes to highlight “Singapore’s prominence as an international visual arts hub, not only providing new opportunities for Singapore artists, curators and arts businesses, but also as a key enabler of exchange and collaborations for the global arts community. The presence of SB2006 is also a significant opportunity for the Singaporean public to develop a stronger relationship with contemporary art.”
Although I am doubtful if masses would be more pay more attention to art after this event, until the Biennale’s opening in a week’s time, it is still too early to see if there is an increase in recognition of the local artist and Singapore’s prominence as an arts hub.