SIFA finds itself in a new arts landscape — will it cope?
These days, there has been plenty of talk about facelifts and new beginnings for Singapore’s finest cultural icons.
These days, there has been plenty of talk about facelifts and new beginnings for Singapore’s finest cultural icons.
For instance, the “grand dames” Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, as well as the National Stadium, have re-opened their doors. And both the Asian Civilisations Museum and National Museum of Singapore (NMS) are up for revamps later this year. You might as well throw into the mix the icon-in-the-making National Gallery Singapore, which unfolded plans well ahead of its opening next year.
This month, the spotlight will fall on another icon (albeit not a building) that is also in the midst of transformation. Opening on Aug 12 is the newly rechristened Singapore International Festival Of Arts (SIFA), the performing arts event that began way back in 1977, when the first Singapore Festival Of Arts opened.
In his preface to Making Visible The Invisible, the 2007 book that looks at the past decades of the festival, author and academic Venka Purushothaman described it as “the single most important artery of cultural production in Singapore”. Indeed, it was ground zero for much of the country’s performing (and visual) arts scene. Artistic careers were forged and new names — international and local — were introduced to generations of Singaporeans who were presumably fed the best of the best. The artistic and cultural growth (and the growing cosmopolitanism) of Singapore arguably owes a lot to the festival.
However, consider what SIFA is now in the context that it finds itself in this year — you’ll find it’s a new animal in a new environment.
First, it’s now run privately by Arts Festival Ltd. Under the artistic and business leadership of two arts stalwarts, TheatreWorks’ Ong Keng Sen and former NMS director Lee Chor Lin, it’s an independent entity with the arts fest’s former handlers, the National Arts Council (NAC), theoretically keeping an arm’s length away.
There’s a significant amount of tinkering that has been done as well, not least of which was the introduction of the recent The OPEN, a low-key pre-festival festival of sorts to “prepare” audiences for SIFA itself. During the festival run, there will also be a parallel SIFA Shares segment, where audiences can engage with fest artists to learn more about their works. And somewhat similar to the past editions of the then-Singapore Arts Festival, thematic arcs spanning three years hold the events together curatorially. All these point to a festival aiming for a sense of continuity and fluidity, a holistic, long-term approach instead of it being an annual events-as-exclamation marks on the arts calendar.
As a festival, it will also now be a protracted experience, spread out over six weekends — during some rather busy months. It’s curiously bookended by the National Day Parade and Formula 1 race, and in-between you’ll have another relatively new but extremely popular annual fixture, the Night Festival.
Gone are the days of the arts festival lording it over in June, its presence dwarfing every single event around that time. In a sense, it will now blend into Singapore’s already packed events calendar.
Gone too are the days when it was the only go-to performing arts event in town. Exciting, unique, “cutting-edge”, never-before-seen acts? Marquee ballet companies and orchestras? Huge visual spectacles? Whether it’s “mass” or “atas” shows, SIFA now simply jostles with other presenters.
And last year, we experienced a year without it, when the NAC called for a review after the 2012 edition. There was, of course, quite an uproar from the public and the arts community when the cancellation and review were announced, but all things considered, life continued in its absence.
So, it’s a new arts landscape that SIFA finds itself in. One where it’s quite possible to even consider what was unthinkable before: That SIFA may not be “the single most important artery of cultural production in Singapore” any more.
So what, then, are the challenges in store for SIFA?
The most consistent (or, rather, inconsistent) criticism that previously floated around had to do with its identity: It was “too cheem” one year, “too populist” the next. Previous directors, Goh Ching Lee and Low Kee Hong, attempted to achieve a sense of balance, leading to mixed results. Ong is known for artistically pushing the envelope (while Lee previously turned the Night Fest into an amazing crowd-drawer) — SIFA will undoubtedly have to deal with these questions as well.
And in connection to this, will SIFA’s new “format” — The OPEN, the dispersed weekends, the drawn-out “bigger picture”, so to speak — be something that people will bite? Or, fed by a constant stream of arts events in a hectic “next, please” environment, will all these fly over everyone’s heads as audiences simply go to “watch” a show?
We’ll find out once the curtains go up and SIFA steps on stage for the umpteenth time — and also for the first time.
The Singapore International Festival Of Arts runs from Aug 12 to Sept 21. For more information, visit http://www.sifa.sg. Tickets for shows available at SISTIC.