SINGAPORE PAVILION PRESENTATION AT 58TH VENICE BIENNALE COMES HOME
8 October to 8 November 2020
Artist | Song-Ming Ang
Song-Ming Ang makes art focusing on how we relate to music individually and as a society, often examining the contexts in which music is produced, disseminated and consumed. Drawing from the everyday and popular culture, Ang’s multi-disciplinary art practice revolves around ‘thinking about music’ as he adopts different approaches to create objects and encounters in various formats.
Previous works by Ang include Backwards Bach (2013), for which Ang composed, performed and filmed a backwards version of the C Major Prelude from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach. Unsung Heroes (2015) features record shop owners and workers talking about and playing their favourite music in the setting of a listening party hosted by Ang, while The Book of Guilty Pleasures (2011) brings together 100 responses by artists, musicians and writers about their favourite embarrassing sounds. For Something Old, Something New (2015), Ang remade an intricate wooden music stand from the 19th century in glass, combining manual and industrial glass-making techniques.
Ang’s work has been presented at Camden Arts Centre (London, UK, 2015), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, DE, 2011), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, DE, 2012, 2013), Witte de With (Rotterdam, NL, 2014), Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hong Kong, CN, 2014), Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar, NL, 2017), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, AU, 2014), Suwon iPark Museum of Art (Suwon, KR, 2016), Festival of Live Art (Melbourne, AU, 2018), Kenpoku Art Festival (Ibaraki, JP, 2016), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, TR, 2015), Singapore Arts Festival (2011), the 3rd Singapore Biennale (2011), and Singapore Art Museum (2012, 2015). He holds an M.A. in Aural & Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University of London and a B.A. in English Literature from the National University of Singapore.
Apart from his individual art practice, Ang is also involved in long-term collaborative projects – Dusk to Dawn Choruses with Julien Grossmann and A Song to Change the World with Jason Maling – as platforms for experimentation and improvisation.
Curator | Michelle Ho
Michelle Ho is Gallery Director of the ADM Gallery at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University. She has over 10 years’ experience in curating Singapore, Southeast Asian and international contemporary art, including shows like In Praise of Shadows, The Art of Conflict: Video Works from the Asia Society Museum Collection (2017) and The Collectors Show: Weight of History (2013). She was also co-curator for Time of Others (2015 – 2016), a collaborative exhibition with Queensland Art Gallery (QAGOMA), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) and National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO), and was also co-curator of the Singapore Biennale 2013. Formerly a curator at the Singapore Art Museum, she has led the acquisition strategies of its contemporary art collection from 2013 - 2015, and was in charge of its Thailand collection.
Commissioner | Rosa Daniel (CEO, National Arts Council Singapore)
Mrs Rosa Daniel is the Deputy Secretary (Culture) in the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Arts Council Singapore (NAC). She was Chief Executive of the National Heritage Board from February 2013 to May 2017. Prior to joining the culture sector, Rosa held other senior appointments in the economic and social sectors.
In her capacity as DS Culture, Rosa oversees the policies and implementation work of the Ministry and its statutory boards, the National Heritage Board and the National Arts Council, on issues related to the arts and heritage. She also works with the companies under the Ministry, namely School of the Arts, National Gallery, Singapore Art Museum and the Esplanade.
As the Chief Executive of the NAC, Rosa oversees its work to champion the creation and appreciation of the arts through nurturing excellence and community outreach. She also works with key partners to profile Singapore internationally through the arts.
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
Title: Music for Everyone: Variations on a Theme
Dates: 11 May – 24 November 2019
Location: Singapore Pavilion, Arsenale – Sale d’Armi, Venice, Italy
Commissioner: Rosa Daniel, National Arts Council SIngapore (NAC)
Artist: Song-Ming Ang
Curator: Michelle Ho
Studio: Cornelia Herfurtner, Sang Eun Kim, Amelie Marei Löllmann, Tomoyuki Ueno
Film: BX Woo (Producer), Sarah Elizabeth Jeffery (Musical Director), Russell Morton (Cinematographer), Cliff Choy (Editor), Ross Adrian Williams (Sound Designer)
Design: Factory 1611
Project Manager:
Teo Swee Leng
With Support from: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Singapore (MCCY); School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU ADM)