CITIES FOR PEOPLE

CITIES FOR PEOPLE, a pilot edition of the annual NTU CCA Ideas Fest, expands artistic interventions and engages contemporary issues such as air, water, food, environment, and social interaction in connection to artistic and cultural fields, academic research, and design applications. CITIES FOR PEOPLE is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and academic community with grassroots initiatives.

The NTU CCA Ideas Fest is an invitation to share and engage in cooperative projects and collective experiences that critically reflect on current challenges in urban development and future habitats. It is a platform to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage thinking “out of the box.”

Coinciding with Singapore Art Week 2017 and the Singapore Biennale 2016, CITIES FOR PEOPLE unfolds in a diversity of formats and kicks off with a “procession” by Indonesian artist duo indieguerillas during Art After Dark at Gillman Barracks.

In January, the second part of the NTU CCA Ideas Fest will encompass a ten-day programme including:

A workshop by indieguerillas in collaboration with fashion designer Lulu Lutfi Labibi and music director Ari Wulu (all Indonesia) that considers ideas for upcycling, value and surplus

A two-day public dialogue led by artist and architect Marjetica Potrč (Slovenia/Germany), Professor for Social Design, Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK), Hamburg, that delves into contemporary urban and environmental issues, considering state of matters but also projecting solutions and desires for the future

A public installation and open-air dinner by artist Lucy Orta (United Kingdom/France), Professor and Chair of Art and the Environment, University of the Arts London; and artist Jorge Orta (Argentina/France) to provoke conversations on production, distribution, transportation of food, and their implications on culture and identity

A workshop and performance by artist Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States) on stilt walking traditions involving her long time collaborators, the Brooklyn Jumbies (United States), a community organisation dedicated to raising awareness of African/African-Caribbean cultures

Further workshops and projects by architect Sheila Kennedy (United States), Professor of the Practice of Architecture, MIT, Cambridge; former Artist-in-Residence Matthew Mazzotta (United States); and independent cultural and social enterprise Post Museum (Singapore), as well as urban farming initiatives and workshops by grassroots and community groups in Singapore such as Foodscape Collective and TANAH that will take place during the week

In addition to the aforementioned contributions, a three-day Summit will also include cultural theorist Regina Bittner (Germany), Head of Academy Department and Deputy Director, Bauhaus Dessau; architect and spatial theorist Yvonne P. Doderer (Germany), Professor for GenderMediaDesign, University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf; curator and author Lukas Feireiss (Germany); Sophie Goltz (Germany), Stadtkuratorin (city curator), Hamburg; architect Nikolaus Hirsch (Germany); and architecture historian Pai Hyungmin (South Korea), Co-Director, Imminent Commons, 1st Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 and Professor of Architecture, University of Seoul.

CITIES FOR PEOPLE, borrowed from Singapore architect William S. W. Lim‘s 1990 book of the same title is expanding some of the ideas Lim expounded, particularly in relation to tropical environments and recycling, but also his call for a humanistic architecture. The Ideas Fest is conceived by Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director and Professor at School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University. CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016/17 is co-curated by Khim Ong (Singapore), Deputy Director, Exhibitions, Residencies and Public Programmes, NTU CCA Singapore, and is and organised on the occasion of the exhibition Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts at Critical Spatial Practice.

Photo: Eandaru Kusumaatmadja and Raditya Bramantya. Copyright the artists. Courtesy Lulu Lutfi Labibi.