Ato Malinda, Looking at Art; Looking at Africa; Looking at Art, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.

The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) announced the third cycle (April 2016 – 2017) of its Residencies Programme with 19 artists and collectives from Singapore, Asia, and for the first time Africa and South America. The NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Programme is one of three key pillars of the institution, alongside an Exhibitions and a Research & Education programme.

The NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Programme is a studio-based programme dedicated to facilitating knowledge and research for and by established and emerging artists from Singapore and abroad. The programme serves as a forum for cultural and artistic exchange in Southeast Asia, augmented with public events ranging from open studio sessions, lectures, live performances, and special projects in The Lab , NTU CCA Singapore’s space for curatorial experimentation.

Over 30 art professionals nominated close to 100 artists worldwide, of which 19 artists were selected for the next cycle. The artists are: Julian “Togar” ABRAHAM (Indonesia), Kray CHEN (Singapore), Chris CHONG Chan Fui (Malaysia), Heman CHONG (Singapore), CHOY Ka Fai (Singapore), Siren JUNG (South Korea), Zac LANGDON POLE (New Zealand), LOO Zihan (Singapore), Zul MAHMOD (Singapore), Ato MALINDA (Kenya/The Netherlands), Alice MICELI (Brazil), NGUYEN Phan Thao (Vietnam), NGUYEN UuDam (Vietnam), Souilya PHOUMIVONG (Laos), Arin RUNJUNG (Thailand), ShimuraBros (Japan), SVAY Sareth (Cambodia), Tamara WEBER (United States) and Jason WEE (Singapore).

Amongst the selected artists, Ato Malinda from Kenya plans to work with Singaporean women to develop a collection of ceramic objects of quotidian use. To spend time in a culturally rich region such as Southeast Asia is key to Malinda’s practice, expanding on her research dedicated to the otology of the female experience and the hybridity of African cultural identity.

Singaporean artist and writer Heman Chong will be collaborating with local artists, curators and writers to envision a non-profit-temporary-fictional-artist-run space during his six-month residency. Chong will use his studio to initiate the project, interrogating the many functions of the production of narratives in our everyday lives.

Cambodian artist Svay Sareth hopes to engage with the network of art scholars, resources and institutions in Singapore, while connecting and contextualising Singapore-Cambodia histories to develop site-specific projects. He says, “In Cambodia, we don’t get to see art beyond what we make, so I like that I am in Singapore where we can see exhibitions especially by Asian artists.”

One of the more notable developments of the Residencies Programme is former Artist-in-Residence Koh Nguang How’s Singapore Art Archive Project (SAAP@CCA) who transformed his studio space into a public resource centre with a wealth of recordings, slides, books and original photographs documenting Singapore’s art scene from as early as the 1920s. The SAAP@CCA attracted over 8,000 visitors during his residency and the project is currently presented at the Asian Cultural Complex in Gwangju, Korea.

NTU CCA Singapore Curator, Residencies, Vera Mey shares,

“The Residencies Programme has developed in a very short time as a critical platform in which artists from Singapore, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world are able to converse and meet, as well as devote a significant period of time towards fieldwork here. Our research-based residency has allowed for interesting experimentation in a unique cultural context at an exciting moment of transition.”