life arts | THE STRAITS TIMES | TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2020 | | TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2020 | THE STRAITS TIMES |

CHARGING UP THE SUBSTATION

Its new artistic

directors are celebrating the arts

venue’s 30th year

with a return to its

roots, and are also looking to ensure it

stays relevant

Ong Sor Fern Senior Culture Correspondent

The Substation is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a return to its roots. Its two new co-artistic directors Raka Maitra, 50, and Woon Tien Wei, 45, make this clear with their first programme outing next month titled Coming Home. Dr Woon says: “Let this year be about everybody, whose lives have been touched by The Substation, in some way to come home.” Hence the duo’s unofficial debutante party will include pro- grammes which hark back to The Substation’s heyday when it hosted multidisciplinary experiments, indie music jams and film screen- ings (see other story). It is a homecoming for Maitra and Dr Woon as well as both got their start at The Substation. Maitra, a classically trained dancer who founded her own con- temporary dance company Chowk, attributes her artistic career to her stint as associate artist at The Sub- station from 2007 to 2011: “When I came to Singapore in 2004, I did not fit in anywhere. I was not a tradi- tional dancer. And I was not a West- The Substation’s directors through the years: Kuo Pao ern contemporary dancer. I was try- Kun (photo 1), Thirunalan Sasitharan (photo 2), Audrey ing to develop a contemporary Wong and Lee Weng Choy (both in photo 3), Noor Effendy form from the traditional. The Sub- Ibrahim (photo 4), Alan Oei (photo 5) and Raka Maitra and station was the only place where I Woon Tien Wei (both right). PHOTOS: ST FILE, TIMOTHY DAVID could do my work.” Artist and academic Dr Woon, who co-founded art collectives p-10 and Heng Leun, 53, recalls how The Sub- short film series, which showcased that gentrification is an issue. “The The Sub hasn’t politics collide. This ‘why’ is even much as we could that the next artis- Post-Museum, came to the venue as station formed one pivotal vertice raw works by budding film-makers. artistic directors have to understand more important when arts have tic director was going to success- Opening season highlights a student with ideas of becoming an to the artistic foment on Fort Can- But the centre has struggled to the neighbourhood has changed and changed, what’s become a national instrument, how fully lead The Substation in its new artist. He recalls with dry self- ning, with the Drama Centre and redefine itself as the arts landscape they have to reach out to the neigh- changed is the we do it is another matter.” chapter, one fraught with profound deprecation: “Sasi gave me my first TheatreWorks’ Black Box making in Singapore changed dramatically. bourhood. It doesn’t signal the death Sasitharan still regards it as “the uncertainties in the larger social RETURNING group show. I don’t know why he up the other two ends. “You’d be Competing spaces such as The knell of The Substation.” rhetoric and policy epicentre of the contemporary in Sin- context, and one in which The Sub- The Substation’s opening act for its new season gave me a chance – it was quite bad.” watching something at Theatre On Arts House, Esplanade and Singa- But he does think there “has been a around the arts in gapore”. It is also, he points out, a con- station needed to find a renewed returns to experimental roots with this Thirunalan Sasitharan, now direc- A Hill, and then you come down to pore Art Museum opened, offering gradual erosion of trust about what versation starter for civil society, hav- sense of purpose, a renewed sense site-specific performance at the venue’s tor of the Intercultural Theatre The Substation and, along the way, better equipped spaces and more The Substation means to the commu- Singapore. ing hosted everything from a peace of relevance and revitalisation.” entrance. Choreographer and co-founder of the Institute, was The Substation’s artis- you meet someone who finished targeted programming for differ- nity”, and for it to find its place again, The historical rally protesting the Iraq War in 2003 This is going to be a challenge. The now-defunct Ecnad dance group Lim Chin Huat, tic director from 1996 to 2000. watching a show at Drama Centre. ent genres. “The Substation has to regain the to discussions about the death Substation’s budget has barely theatre veteran Tan Beng Tian, Nanyin-Liyuan After the Coming Home weekend, “The Substation was very interest- Audrey Wong, 51, co-artistic trust of the arts community”. importance and what penalty. increased over the years. It hovers opera singer Lin Shao Ling and visual- the arts community and arts lovers ing because it was the only one that director with Lee Weng Choy from The loss of the garden, which was needs to continue is “The Substation opened doors for between $1 million and $1.2 million a performance artist Eve Tan are collaborating on can look forward to the return of had different disciplines from 2000 to 2009, observes: “There’s a rented to Timbre in 2005, alienated these kinds of discussions to happen. year. The NAC funds between 30 this piece. The work will be further developed for SeptFest, The Substation’s month- music to visual arts. bit of a swipe right/left mentality the indie music community while that it’s a space for I don’t think currently any of the arts and 35 per cent, rental revenue cov- SeptFest, which returns this year in September as long anniversary festival, as well as and Pao Kun are like-minded, so Da especially with so much jostling for the cessation of film programmes the underground, venues is like The Substation in that ers between 35 and 50 per cent while a celebration of The Substation’s 30th new programmes such as the Asso- Wu would also appear at The Sub- one’s attention. In this noisy world, in 2016 disappointed the film way. They basically are conservative the rest depends on fund-raising. anniversary. ciate Artists scheme, a year-long pro- station with Zai Kuning, Amanda it’s possible that art which requires community. the margins, where art conformist spaces.” Maitra and Dr Woon seem to be When: April 17 and 18, 7.30pm gramme for artists to develop works, Heng and Vincent Leow.” you to pause, reflect and examine While The Substation seems to and politics collide. One of the reasons The Substation in lockstep about the way ahead, and Moving Traditions, an incubator Kok, who worked there as a pro- the world or yourself gets lost.” have lost ground, literally and has always been “the edge of the having plunged into conversations RE-VERB-VIBE for traditionally trained performers gramme executive from 1992 to In the past decade, The metaphorically, over the years, arts avant garde”, as Sasitharan charac- with the arts community, reinstat- Street culture has always been welcome at to experiment with new forms. mid-1993, adds: “Those years work- Substation’s artistic directors have veterans think the centre still terises it, is its policy of hiring artists/ ing much beloved programmes The Substation and the Theatre will host this These latter programmes reflect ing there, meeting these artists, have found it difficult to cope with the serves a vital function. practitioners as artistic directors. He such as music and film, and empha- performance which brings together sound the new artistic directors’ firm belief been instrumental in my growth as competition. Wong, now head, School of Cre- points out that other arts venues are sising The Substation’s role as facili- collective Nada’s Rizman Putra and ALAN OEI, The Substation’s artistic director in the centre’s role in feeding the an art-maker, to think about it in a Noor Effendy Ibrahim, 47, who ative Industries & Programme “run essentially from an arts manage- tator and incubator. Safuan Johari with street dancers Syazwan, ’’from 2015 to last year scene. Maitra says: “All art, all more open way, about having con- was artistic director from 2010 to Leader, MA Arts and Cultural Leader- ment perspective”. Alvin Tan, 56, founder and artis- Fazil, Shauna and Karishma. They will be looking artists are welcome here. This incu- versations with people from differ- 2015, says: “We struggled so much ship at Lasalle College of the Arts, Mr K.C. Chew, 62, chairman of The tic director of The Necessary Stage, at Singapore’s club culture. bator needs to be kept alive.” ent disciplines and cultures.” to reverse the depleting visitorship says: “We still lack spaces that foster Substation’s board, says: “It is not the says: “The Substation represents When: April 17, 8pm The Substation was founded by Sasitharan, 62, observes that at – ranging from audiences and acci- the acts of creation, and The Substa- board that leads The Substation, it everything multidisciplinary and theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun as an that point in Singapore’s arts devel- dental traffic to even artists and tion was always a place which cham- has always been and will remain the interdisciplinary. It has hosted the MOVING TRADITIONS interdisciplinary space in 1990. The opment, “there was a huge pent-up arts practitioners. Relevance and pioned the process of making art.” leadership of the artistic directors – twin impulses of art-making and This is The Substation’s new incubation venue’s opening predates the for- demand for that kind of space”. competition from other more Alan Oei, 43, The Substation’s guided, supported and protected by civil society, and fuelled socially programme for performers and artists rooted in mation of the then Ministry of Infor- Besides nurturing pioneering vis- equipped and ready venues and spa- artistic director from 2015 to last a strong and engaged board.” engaged art-making processes for traditional practice, but experimenting with mation and the Arts that November ual artists such as Tang, Zai and ces are key contributing factors.” year, observes: “The Sub hasn’t One of the reasons the board as long as I can recall. contemporary forms. A triple bill will showcase and the National Arts Council Heng, The Substation also hosted The senior lecturer in the Fine Art changed, what’s changed is the decided on appointing two rather “It has survived in one way or an- works by three performers trained at the (NAC) in September 1991. gigs by seminal Singapore bands Programme, School of Art & Design, rhetoric and policy around the arts than one artistic director is because other despite facing pressure and Intercultural Theatre Institute. Taiwan-born, Its establishment coincided with such as The Oddfellows and Con- Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, adds in Singapore. The historical impor- “two heads are better than one”, obstacles. We will be poorer if it van- Singapore-based Lina Yu explores the idea of a boom in Singapore’s arts scene, cave Scream at its beloved garden that the gentrification of Armenian tance and what needs to continue is and the challenges of charting the ishes from the art-making ecology.” home in The Ecosystem while Zelda Tatiana Ng’s which it helped nurture. and introduced guerilla film-mak- Street was another hurdle. that it’s a space for the under- venue’s path in a new decade. Untitled Woman #2 tackles the meaning of love. Drama Box’s artistic director Kok ing workshops as well as a regular Sasitharan, however, disagrees ground, the margins, where art and “We wanted to make sure as [email protected] Ramith Ramesh will present a traditional Indian theatre form in a new way in Kutiyattam. When: April 18, 8pm

HERE Film returns to The Substation with a screening of artist ’s 2009 work, which screened at the 41st Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a man who, after the sudden death of his wife, stops speaking and is incarcerated in a hospital. When: April 19, 3pm

BOOK IT / COMING HOME WHERE: The Substation, 45 Armenian Street WHEN: April 17 to 19, various times ADMISSION: Free. Donations welcome INFO: str.sg/JNuv