Lost & Found: Embodied Archive

‘Untitled’ (The opening bars of Variations Serieuses by Goh Choo San, rendered in Benesh Movement Notation by Janek Schergen), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, Mexico City. Photo by Paul Salveson)

When we think of an archive, an intuitive association that comes to mind might be a physical space teeming with material objects, records and documents. By incorporating physical manifestations into artworks, Lost & Found: Embodied Archive is the second pillar of Singapore Art Museum’s (SAM) multi-phase, multi-year curatorial study project, which allows curators and artists to experiment with new formats. Can traditional methods of documentation fully capture and preserve an artwork? How can performances or bodily experiences be “collected” or remembered? Expanding on this notion, the exhibition invites visitors to consider the body as a reservoir of memory, where artworks choreograph our encounters with them, activating us bodily as visitors.

From 25 October to 24 November 2024, visitors are invited to step between intersections of the body and memory to explore rituals of space, mind and humanity in a month-long exhibition at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Comprising nine artworks ranging from national collection pieces by Albert Yonathan Setyawan, Lee Wen and Gregory Halili, to loaned works by Tiyan Baker, Lee Kang Seung and Tuguldur Yodonjamts, and a new commission by Au Sow Yee & Chen Yow-Ruu (Her Lab Space), Lost & Found: Embodied Archive re-envisions the body as a convergence of the past and present while opening possibilities for new encounters and interpretations.

This curatorial project engages emerging and established contemporary artists to explore the importance of archival documentation and records through artistic practices and community collaboration and to delve deeper into the notion and significance of archives. Reimagining how the experience of physical encounters being embedded in artworks and art experiences, Lost & Found: Embodied Archive offers visitors the opportunity to explore new ways of understanding and engaging with contemporary art. Beyond static works, the exhibition embraces the process of becoming by making space for the live nature of performative works in its midst. Many artists involved have also conceptualised performances, workshops, and talks that run concurrently over the month, slowly unfurling as works are activated in turn, creating an intentional space for movement, rhythm, and reflection. Participate actively in Lost & Found: Embodied Archive and its accompanying programmes and deepen your engagement in the interplay between artistic practices, memory, and the notion of the archive.