Singapore Biennale 2008

The Singapore Biennale is an international contemporary mega visual arts exhibition. It will feature 50 renowned international and local artists, who hail from various artistic disciplinary backgrounds. Audiences will be able to feast their senses on the multitude of art works and installations around key venues in Singapore.

The selection of the venues within walking distance that are best able to present, engage and inform the experience of the artworks is one of the key considerations for the exhibition. In contrast to the multi-venue presentation of the exhibition in 2006, SB2008 will squarely focus on creating the journey of wonder through two large indoor spaces and a connecting outdoor area.

The historic City Hall, one of the key venues of the 2006 exhibition and South Beach, a cluster of Art Deco colonial buildings that is synonymous with the Singapore Volunteer Corps, bookend the entire exhibition. The ambience and environment of the two indoor locations are poles apart, providing very distinct colours to the experience and engagement of the artworks.

Linking the two indoor venues is the Marina Bay Area, a location that itself speaks of wonderous ambition as it gets ready to be the new hot spot come 2010, with the opening of the Integrated Resort, new Financial Centre and a heritage waterfront development. Featuring a number of large-scale interactive and engaging outdoor installations, the waterbody of the Marina Bay serves as a focal point in connecting these works as you journey from the recently opened Singapore Flyer to the Central Promontory Site.

The exhibitions open to the public from 11 September until 16 November 2008.

Wonder

"Wonder" is a feeling of surprise and admiration caused by something beautiful, unexpected or unfamiliar, and as a verb, it is not only to “feel curious” or “desire to know”, but also to "feel doubt" - Concise Oxford Dictionary, 11th Edition, pp1658, 1859.

Its conceptual scope issues a challenge to the contemporary world, a world that no longer questions choices, nor allows for events and things to touch us at a profound level. Through contemporary art, Wonder serves as a challenging premise that calls for us to be awed, but more importantly, to let people recognise this and allow themselves to be surprised and tantalised. Wonder becomes an education in humanity as it opens stimulating avenues of discussion, dialogue and healthy critiques on issues relevant to mankind.

Rhetorician Hélène Cixous writes that "going from illusion to illusion, one also comes to understand the world", and indeed, wonder becomes the medium through which we start to discover the answers to the hidden mysteries that our world holds.

Thus, it is through Wonder that we are asked to reach beyond the apparent and to delve deeper into a new revelation and understanding about our world. We are asked to look at things around us, with fresh eyes and new perspectives. And we are asked to ponder about our past, present and even our future, with a renewed sense of innocence.

Singapore Biennale 2008: Wonder

Künstler: Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Shirin Aliabadi, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Shigeru Ban, Hans Op de Beeck, Zadok Ben-David, Isak Berbic, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Daniel Buren, E Chen, Cheo Chai Hiang, Trinh Quoc Chien, Heman Chong, Lena Cobangbang, Soren Dahlgaard, Pham Ngoc Duong, Ei Thein Chaw, Leandro Erlich, Ryuro Fukuda , Rachel Goh, Rick Hadlow, Jeppe Hein, Nguyen Quang Huy, Jong Geun Han, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Deborah Kelly, Willie Koh, Hans-Peter Kuhn, Clare Langan, Dinh Q. Le, Jane Lee, Lee Yong Deok, Anthony McCall, Isaac Montoya, Farhad Moshiri, Fujiko Nakaya, Mariele Neudecker, Charly Nijensohn, Sherman Ong Beng Ann, Srinivas Prasad, Sergio Prego, Shubigi Rao, Layla Juma A. Rashid, Ki Bong Rhee, Faisal Samra, Suha Shoman, Richard Streitmatter-Tran, Kiran Subbaiah, Paolo William Tamburella, Truong Tan, Tang Ling Nah, Leonid Tishkov, Tromarama , Su-Mei Tse, Rizki R. Utama, Van Danh Le, Felice Varini , Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Joshua Yang, Yuan Goang-Ming, Sima Zureiket