Conceptual outline for the Singapore Biennale 2006

Here is an excerpt of the conceptual outline from the  statement  from the artistic director, Fumio Nanjo of the 2006 Singapore Biennale.


1.    Singapore is situated near the equator, one degree north from it. Looking at the belt between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn, this equatorial belt reflects unique geo-political and cultural aspects - a hot and humid temperature, a richness in nature and resources as well as torrid dry zones, characteristic modes of occupying time and space and a multitude of diverse cultures and human movements.

2.    The location of this exhibition within this belt inspires us to re-think certain important issues. While being something that divides and marks, does the equator also make possible other ways of understanding global relations, economic inequalities, tempos of modernity and ways of producing knowledge, from what we can call an `in-between` perspectives.

3.    Singapore is an island. Streams and the sea surround it and one consequence of this is that much arrives on its beaches. This represents people, cultures, civilization and its mixtures. It thus also represents the position of Singapore - a possibility for Asia which maintains ideas of fragmentation and coexistence, flux and tradition, colors and emotion. In this multi-cultural and trans-cultural discourse, the dichotomy of modernist value systems lose their meanings and new possibilities can emerge.