Singapore’s history will come to life in a different way with The Future of Our Pasts Festival (TFOOPFest), a month-long festival that explores lesser-known stories of communities and places of the past and present, reimagined through artistic mediums. Organised by Yale-NUS in conjunction with the Singapore Bicentennial, TFOOPFest will run from 16 February to 17 March 2019 at various locations around the city.
The festival will showcase eleven projects by students and recent graduates from different tertiary institutions in Singapore and abroad, who have been commissioned to investigate less explored micro-narratives of Singapore’s history, and present them via creative or artistic mediums such as music and art installations. Each project centres on different themes – space, architecture, communities, language, race, relationships, and the arts – to take audiences on an emotive and immersive journey through time.
Members of the public can explore the projects through performances, exhibitions, public installations, books, films, and a web documentary. Below is a snapshot of some of the projects:
Sarong Party, an immersive, music and mixed-media ‘party’ experience that explores Singapore’s relationship with its colonial past. Guests will be entertained in a party setting with music, poetry and art around our colonial history.
Boka di Stori, a graphic novel about the history, culture, and identity of the Kristang community in Singapore. It explores aspects of Portuguese-Eurasian culture, including food, songs, rituals, norms, and significant events in the community’s past.
ORchard: A Stroll Between Valleys, a public installation that shifts Orchard Road’s physicality to the foreground. Part architecture, part landscape, part playground, it employs water pipes and topography to give shoppers a glimpse of Orchard Road’s natural terrain and historical layers, bringing together history, site, and people in unexpected ways.
MEANTIME, a zine featuring love stories from Singapore’s pasts. It will employ a hybrid of documentary and fiction, featuring original writing, photos, and illustrations to bring to life the stories of older couples who met in Singapore, while exploring their associated historical events, circumstances and places.
TFOOPFest will also be organising other fringe activities open to members of the public throughout the festival period. In addition to panel discussions, workshops and walking tours, there will be curated film screenings at The Arts House and The Projector.
The Future of Our Pasts Festival (TFOOPFest)
16 February to 17 March 2019
Various locations around the city.
More information about the festival’s line-up will be made available on www.futureofourpasts.com and the festival’s Facebook and Instagram.
