Light to Night Festival returns from 10 to 19 January 2020 as a marquee event of Singapore Art Week. Besides enthralling with playful artistic interventions which take over the precinct, the fourth Festival edition also partners artists and creative talents to enrich visitors through interdisciplinary programmes, meaningful engagements and innovative ideas that invigorate and reimagine the Civic District.
Themed Invisible Cities, Light to Night Festival 2020 draws inspiration from the postmodern literature by Italian writer Italo Calvino, where Marco Polo describes a series of wondrous, surreal cities with an interplay of reality and imagination. This prompted us to reimagine the Civic District through creative collaboration and intervention to reclaim the once-colonial precinct to its present-day identity as a precinct which houses the artistic and historical gems of Singapore and the region. Some other themes that were surfaced such as alternative histories, fictional worlds, and our perception of a place also informed numerous interdisciplinary artworks subsequently.
In the same vein, four local writers – Desmond Kon, Kevin Martens Wong, Marc Nair, and Nuraliah Norasid – were commissioned to compose four sonnets that articulate their thoughtful meditations and imagination of the precinct and relationships we cultivate, while extending the conversation of the distinct history and personal stories of the Civic District. The poems with their multiple layers of narratives then guided the festival programming.
Light to Night Festival 2020, which uses play, innovation and ideas to bridge connections between the past and present, will deepen visitor engagement beyond exploring the sensory experiences. Festival-goers are invited to partake in discussions, behind-the-scenes dialogues and workshops with artists and subject specialists at the inaugural EN(LIGHT)EN forum and TEDxSingapore Salon, with the latter examining leading ideas and inspirations on why art matters now.
Venues: National Gallery Singapore, The Arts House, Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall, Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
When: 10 - 19 Jan 2020,
