‘ENCHANTMENT’: that’s the theme for SIFA 2017, and it couldn’t be more appropriate. Its function – as an antidote for an increasingly cynical world – brings with it ideas that begin at The OPEN, a ‘pre-festival’ that promises equal parts wit and laughter through lecture-performances, films and interactive performances. Here are five shows to catch.
Lizard on the Wall
Jul 1 & 2
Things are a little different in A Yellow Bird auteur K Rajagopal’s next project. In an interactive performance that’s set to be staged and filmed across three nights, the role of audience members shifts as each becomes both performer and observer. Based on Balli Kaur Jaswal’s celebrated novel, Inheritance, the staging follows the wedding banquet of Amrit – and the ugly turn of events that ensue as secrets come to light.
Location TBA. Sat 7-10.30pm; Sun 2-5.30pm.
Opening Draft
Jul 6
What does it mean to hold back in order to continue speaking? Singapore-based writer and artist Ho Rui An makes his return to SIFA in this hour-long performance, which examines the consequences of holding a draft of air between words – and what happens when one insists on the act of deferral.
Chamber, The Arts House. 8pm.
Spectres LIVE
Jul 6-8
By day, sound designer Zai Tang’s Spectres is an audio-visual installation that explores a dystopian future. But come night, the space transforms into Spectres LIVE, a journey of experimental music. Three local musicians take to the stage each evening, including Dharma, former guitarist of The Observatory, and Fuzz Lee, whose compositions are built based on glitchy electronics, quietude and drone.
72-13, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd. 8pm.
Sultan Ibrahim
Jul 7
A stuffed peacock, colour pencil drawings of bygone hotels and an ashtray stolen from an artist’s studio. These are some of Dubaian artist Lantian Xie’s past works, and a hint at what he has to offer as he speaks on the topics of precarity, temporality and mortality in the Arab Gulf.
Chamber, The Arts House. 8pm.
On the Threshold of Listening
Jul 8
What is it to hear, but not to listen? The death of listening is upon us, as the Singapore-, New York- and China-based artist Zou Zhao asserts. In her lecture, she discusses the pressing need to listen, and how it’s an exercise in persistence and effort. In doing so, she boldly turns the chamber into a rehearsal room for testing, practising and redistributing the task of representation.
Chamber, The Arts House. 8pm.
Registration for programmes is required at www.sifa.sg/theopen.