Voyage Night Festival 2011 Preview

25 August 2011, Singapore – We attended the preview last night of the Voyage Night Festival ahead of its launch this Friday 26 August 2011.   This year’s Night Festival will be held across a few venues at the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, SAM at 8Q, Peranakan Museum, The Substation, Singapore Management University Campus Green, Stamford Green and Stamford Road.  Held over two weekends, 26 to 27 August and 2 to 3 September,  there’s bound to be something for everyone.

In it’s fourth year, this year’s festival is curated by Ms. Goh Ching Lee who was the Festival director of Singapore Arts Festival from 2000 to 2009 and the Executive and Artistic Director of Culturelink.  You can read more about the festival from our previous article here.

Here’s the schedule for this weekend to help you plan 2 nights of fun.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

Here’s what we checked out at the preview last night.

A Dozen of Those
Lim Shing Ee, Curated by Tay Swee Lin
26 Aug – 18 Dec | Rotunda, Level 1, National Museum of Singapore

When you step into the National Museum of Singapore, you’ll be welcomed by twelve bright red helium balloons which are individually held down by faceless brown figurines sitting on an equally mundane and ordinary looking brown boulder.  This installation represents the artist’s dilemma as a female Singapore artist living in Japan with her Japanese husband and two young sons.   She struggles to balance the choices concerning her identity, loyalty, nationality and sense of belonging.   A Dozen of Those aptly describes the feeling of displacement and dislocation of those who uproot themselves from familiar environments.

SOUNDWALK
26 – 27 Aug | 7pm, 9pm and 12.15am | Exhibition Gallery 1, Basement National Museum of Singapore

Let Soundwalk, a New York based international sound collective awe you with a visual and audio experience.  With surreal projections on the walls complimented by the sound mixing by 3 musicians (Simone Merli, Kamran Sadeghi and Dug Winningham) at their turntables, Soundwalk will present three works Ulysses Syndrome, Rub’ al Khali – The Empty Quarter and The Passenger.

BLACK SEA FIRE
The Shin | 27 & 27 Aug | 945pm | Stage A, Singapore Management University Campus Green

Nine musicians make up The Shin which means “coming home” in the Georgian language.  This instrumental theatre is the sound of Georgia’s musical encounter with the world.  With Vocals, Music and Dance, The Shin’s music is a mix of Georgian style vocal pyrotechnics and instrumental virtuosity with jazz, scat, funk and fusion, flamenco.

The Shape of A Dream
Cake Theatrical Productions
26 – 27 Aug | 8pm @ SMU U Square & 945pm Stamford Green

This theatrical production tells a story of pilgrims on a journey of a lifetime.  A colourful spectacle of music and performance,  explorers, emperors, pirates, sailors, prisoners and island natives, with fantastical creatures such as mermaids and monsters, interact in highly symbolic, dramatic, entertaining and visually engaging pockets of human and superhuman activity.

Three groups of pilgrims depart for their destination from different points of the Night Festival grounds.  Their journey leads to a final encounter both real and surreal in a journey across all boundaries.

Corazon de Angeles in Paradise (Heart of Angels)
Theater Tol | 26 – 27 Aug | 1030pm | National Museum of Singapore, Stamford Green and Stamford Road

Helming from Belgium, Heart of Angels is made up of sculptors, musicians, dancers and actors.  Corazon de Angeles in Paradise is this year’s night festival highlight.  The performance celebrates the matrimony of a groom and bride from two different cultures symbolising universal cultural unity.

The next three items are from Night Lights 2011. Night Lights is part of the Voyage Night Festival 2011 and a showcase of spectacular light installations from France.

CURIOSITIES
26 Aug – 3 Sep | Courtyard, SAM

Architect Alain Benini has created a nest of luminous jellyfish that rise up from the fountains and float over the SAM courtyard in a curious ballet of tentacles. Juxtaposed against a cloudy sky, be mesmerized and be sure to just enjoy the whole experience when you are there.  Alain designs light installations for building facades and night festivals around the world.

The Cloud (Le Nuage)
26 Aug – 3 Sep | Queen Street Wing, SAM

Watch this colourful projection of an electrical cloud assuming a life of its own on a silent facade.

Parking Mad (Le Parking en folie)

26 – 27 Aug | Front Lawn Singapore Art Museum
2 – 3 Sept | Front Lawn, National Museum of Singapore

Benedetto Buffalino’s installation of parked Volvo cars gone wild, lights flashing from windows and frenzied conversations with one another, sometimes in synchronized patterns gives inanimate street objects a life of their own.

Click here for more photos.

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