The Making of an Institution

Established in 2013, the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) embodies the complexity of a contemporary art institution in times of knowledge economy and global art. The role of a contemporary art institution should not be limited to the presentation of art. It feeds off and nurtures the cultural ecosystem it belongs to through a complex series of actions that often reside in the realm of the immaterial. The Centre’s inaugural programme Free Jazz addressed the foundational question “What can this institution be?” highlighting the skill of improvisation and free play. Three years later, different questions are to be raised: what could the role of the NTU CCA Singapore be for the years to come within a fast changing local, regional, and global cultural landscape? What are the criteria to evaluate its achievements and impact?

The Making of an Institution captures different moments in the development of the Centre connecting artistic projects, discursive manifestations, and the institutional apparatus in a seamless display. It looks back into its young past in order to shape its future. Challenging the format of an exhibition, The Making of an Institution creates a communal space where projects and research explorations by the Centre’s Artists-, Curators-in-Residence, and Research Fellows coexist with ongoing series of talks, screenings, performances, and workshops. The project engages the Centre’s main pillars—Exhibitions, Residencies, Research and Academic Education—bringing to a close the overarching curatorial narrative Place.Labour.Capital. that served as a framework for its activities since 2013.

In revisiting its own process of institutional building, NTU CCA Singapore appropriates the format and language of a “public report.” While a report is conventionally employed to deliver an official written narrative, the Centre’s report unfolds in the exhibition space through the languages of the performative, the discursive, and the archival.

The Making of an Institution is divided into four sections borrowed from the structure of a report: “Reason to Exist: The Director’s Review”; “Ownership, Development, and Aspirations; Artistic Research”; “Communication and Mediation.” The first section, “Reason to Exist: The Director’s Review” maps out a network of institutions, like NTU CCA Singapore, that place research at the core of their identity. Each guest director will closely examine the vision, mission, and operative model of her respective organisation in a series of talks aimed at deepening our understanding of the changing role of contemporary cultural institutions. “Ownership, Development, and Aspirations” is a public panel with the NTU CCA Singapore’s International Advisory Board that stresses the importance of feedback and exchange among peers especially in the development phase of an institution. The section dedicated to “Artistic Research” frames the material and immaterial aspects that constitute contemporary art practices. It takes over the Centre’s physical “Spaces of the Curatorial – The Exhibition Hall, The Single Screen, The Lab, and The Vitrine”—juxtaposing artworks and research projects by NTU CCA Singapore’s Artists-, Curators-in-Residence, and Research Fellows alongside various formats of public programming. Finally, “Communication and Mediation” explores the production of an institution’s identity through visual communication and spatial practices. Through workshops and presentations, artists, architects, and designers will discuss how they create diverse visual and spatial identities for art institutions.

Among the contributors are several former and current Artists-in-Residence, Curators-in-Residence, Research Fellows and other invited participants: åbäke, Hamra Abbas, Rodolfo Andaur, Diana C. Betancourt, Dinu Bodiciu, Kray Chen, Chris Chong Chan Fui, Heman Chong and Renée Staal, Weixin Chong, Choy Ka Fai, Ann Demeester, Rosemary Forde, Marc Glöde, Yuko Hasegawa, Bani Haykal, Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, Maria Hlavajova, Ho Rui An, James Jack, siren eun young jung, Christoph Knoth, Koh Nguang How, Bastien von Lehsten, Li Ran, Loo Zihan, Zulkifle Mahmod, Ato Malinda, Wilfried Malvezzi, Alice Miceli, Laura Miotto, Regina Möller, Arjuna Neuman, UuDam Tran Nguyen, Nikos Papastergiadis, Jegan Vincent de Paul, Emily Pethick, Thao-Nguyen Phan, Souliya Phoumivong, Ana Prvački, Arin Rungjang, anGie seah, Jeremy Sharma, SHIMURAbros, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Erika Tan, Guo-Liang Tan, Tan Pin Pin, Philip Tinari, John Tirman, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor, Bo Wang, Farah Wardani, Tamara Weber, Jason Wee, and Otty Widasari.

The Making of an Institution is curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies, and Anca Rujoiu, Manager, Publications.

The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is a national research centre of Nanyang Technological University and is supported by a grant from the Economic Development Board, Singapore.

Graphic Design: Novamondo