Festival Directors’ Message

FOREWORD

Foreword

Art has the profound ability to reshape our understanding of the world and foster conversations that lead to positive change. In 2024, Light to Night Singapore—a marquee event of Singapore Art Week—marks its eighth year with the theme Reimagine. This year, we invite you to take a closer look at our relationships with the environment, technology, and each other. In a world where everything is in constant flux, art becomes a dynamic force, engaging audiences to realise, reconsider and reimagine what our future could look like.

Join us in exploring the exhibitions, installations, light projections and programmes presented by National Gallery Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, The Arts House, Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, Esplanade –Theatres on the Bay and Funan throughout the three weeks of the festival. Each artistic encounter becomes an opportunity to rediscover and reimagine the world around us in new and inspiring ways.

I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to the team at the National Gallery for their passionate and dedicated support of Light to Night Singapore. Special appreciation goes to the outstanding festival programmers, project manager and coordinators, including Dee Chia, Vygesh Mohan, Mohd Fazrullah, Nurulhuda Hamadi, Jean Hair, Marilyn Giam, Rachel Oh, Zacharie Kasman, Huan See and Lim Shengen.

We hope that you will enjoy yourselves at Light to Night Singapore 2024!

Reimagine. It’s not just a theme; it’s a catalyst, urging artists, creatives and audiences to reconsider how we perceive, express and connect with the world and one another.

This edition of Light to Night Singapore boasts a vibrant tapestry of artworks and programmes by diverse talents. Here, established artists intermingle with young and emerging artists from Singapore and Southeast Asia.

At Light to Night Singapore 2024, embrace the present and look towards the future. Illuminating our path towards a brighter tomorrow, Victor Tan’s Rapture embodies humankind’s unwavering faith and capacity for transcendence. Surrender yourself to the spontaneity of everyday reality with Teo Eng Seng’s Living the Life and challenge norms through collective play and multi-directional exchange in Lee Wen’s Ping Pong Go-Round. As you behold the monumental inflatable saga seeds by Kumari Nahappan and the spirited collaboration between Arahmaiani, Yogyakarta’s Wayang Merdeka and Milosh Luczynski, reflect on the enduring strength and resilience of nature, and the need for change and environmental mindfulness.

Not merely a visual spectacle, Light to Night Singapore 2024 is a gateway into both familiar and novel dimensions of life. Dive deep into your own body with Wishful Thinking, a multi-room ASMR installation by Whisperlodge, and see your own life mirrored in the lives of toys in their concealed utopia, Nikkei’s The Gachapartment Complex. Contemplate your cosmic existence with Ming Wong’s Wayang Spaceship and uncover the surreal and mind-bending aspects of human existence in Knuckles & Notch’s Winter Sonata, Summer Mookata. Take a closer look at the unspoken laws of social settings in Sarah Choo’s Symphony of Order and learn about local heritage with Sistrum’s contemporary reimagining of Chinese Opera in Embroidered Landscapes.

In this mesmerising playground of ideas, I encourage you to shed your inhibitions and discover infinite possibilities as you encounter the artists’ myriad imaginings, realised in the Festival’s programmes and facade projections.

See you at Light to Night Singapore 2024!