Singapore – on arts and festivals

During our stay we were lucky to see the city transform into the Singapore Flipside Arts Festival 2012 with many free performances scattered along Singapore’s most prominent spots. With a variety of events we decided to enjoy the show of Roda Mon at Marina Bay, the ultra modern waterfront promenade.

Two inventive and talented guys from Spain presented lively and hilarious acrobatics, comedy, musical violin & drum acts without words. It reminded me a bit of the pantomiming Australian ‘Umbilical Brothers’ with slightly more show accessories and slightly less imagination needed on the audience’s part, presenting an equally attractive show. I was laughing my pants off and was thankfully not picked for interaction on stage like at the NANTA show in Bangkok, this time picking my seat wisely at the very end of the open air amphi theatre. Predictably a non Asian but western looking female victim was picked – so it was a wise decision on my part :)

Open air concert before the show.	Acrobatics.

Pretty amazing.	Pretty funny.

Unexpectedly the waiters of the Festival Cafe suddenly stopped serving and started to dance to ‘we will rock you’.

Saw this cute fashion shooting in town.

Tomek’s performance at the Singapore Flyer exhibition.

Dasza’s performance at the Singapore Flyer exhibition.

Children’s hopscotch act.	Children’s jump act.

There are may sculptures that depict scenes from Singapore’s early days. This one is by Chong Fah Cheong and called ‘The first generation’. When the Clean Rivers project was launched in 1983, families, hawkers and bumboats were removed and there was no more swimming in polluted waters.

From established art performance to uprising artists. I have visited the Sota School of the Arts which has a fantastic campus site with galleries, exhibitions and theatres inviting the crowds and making contact with potential employers. It is also a nice place to seek shelter when tropical rains set in. [The weather is so humid in Singapore that my comfy leather shoes never fully dried and eventually got moldy so I had to leave them behind :( ]

Main hall inside the Sota.	Off to the Lasalle College of the Arts.

The displayed works by final year students at the Lasalle College of the Arts exhibition were equally impressive as their interior design. The school’s goal is ‘to mark the grand finale of an artistic education in creativity and imagination and the transformation of young talents to professional artists in the larger creative industries’ ecosystem.’ Noble agenda.

At the exhibition each graduate artist had his/her own postcard with the cover of a created short film and some personal infos, as well as business cards with contact details. Perfect marketing.

And the back of graduates’ postcards.

Singapore has an authoritarian and excellent educational system that attracts many international students. I was impressed how the government cares to bring job opportunity to each student, creating strong links to business and companies thereby making it easier for young startups. Such as presenting the works of graduated art students in a highly professional way to acclaim their academic knowledge and show their expert skills put into practice – ready to enter the workforce. The visual works I have seen can be regarded as successful transitions to the labour market. Not surprisingly, there are thousands of Malaysian students who cross to Singapore every morning in hope to receive a better education.

Exhibition of short animated films.	Each student presenting his/her work.

I found this inspiring sign with mansize letters at the Sota.

I will work on my blog faster.

I will get less distracted with everything around me.

Ergo. I will, work hard.

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