Paraboles 2.0 by Compagnie Off (France) and Victric Thng (Singapore)
I really enjoyed the Night Festival 2010.
Into its 3rd year now, I think this event is a key effort for the museums to bring them closer to the public. Curated by Ong Keng Sen and produced by TheatreWorks this year, it turned the Bras Basah district into a big festival. Four museums (National Museum, Singapore Arts Museum, 8Q and Peranakan Museum) have free admissions and opened till 2am!
While I ran into various friends from arts scene and each had his/her own opinion about individual performance item, I still find the atmosphere electrifying. Judging by the long queues at some performance items and the great mix of crowd (local, tourists, old, young), it had a great reach out.
World's slowest SMS billboard by Wit Pimkanchanapong (Thailand)
ZW and I started from Singapore Arts Museum. The first performance we saw was entitled ‘World’s Slowest SMS Billboard’ by Wit Pimkanchanapong (Thailand) – ‘… a tongue-in-cheek, interactive artwork where messages received are manually assembled by a team of humans on a giant billboard for all to read!’ (quoted from the programme booklet).
I thought the idea was witty and fun to watch.
We entered the Singapore Arts Museum and queues were every where. Many people were there to watch Diva Siva (The Island Divas, New Zealand) and Abusement Park (Vertical Submarine & Black Baroque Interventionists Singapore). The queues were so long that we decided to head for other locations.
As we walked past SMU campus towards National Museum, we passed by Mak Yong Performances (Riau islands), songs by Dick Lee, Muay Thai illustration and Graffiti Arts on Vans (Vietnam). The mix of the Riau islands’ traditional songs with Dick Lee’s broadway musical style songs gave a strange blend of soundscape to the location.
We managed to get into queue in National Museum for The Red Tree – a shadow play with string puppet show by Wandering Moon (Thailand). Unfortunately the performance stage was not a raised platform for an audience that were seated on the floor, which proved to be a real challenge for most audience sitting at the back. Based on what I managed to see, I prefer their shadow play to the puppet portion.
Singapore 1960
As there was still some time away from Paraboles 2.0 showtime, we went into exhibition entitled ‘Singapore 1960′, which showcase Singapore in the 60s with items like the typewriter used to develop the national pledge and the piano used to compose national anthem. But the one I liked the most was a wall full of display of the past pop icon.
Paraboles 2.0
Around 10pm we went to the outside of National Museum. Road had already been blocked from traffic to allow people crowding in front, getting ready for Paraboles 2.o. It did not disappoint. I liked Victric’s video projection as well as the music composition. There were 4 musicians performing live. The next day when I ran into Victric, he told me that the first version incorporated the music into the video projection. The live musician performance was only in this version. Victric’s video projections changed with the music. It reminded me of a scene from the movie Close Encounter Of The Third Kind.
That was first night (16Jul).
I returned on the second night (17Jul). There were still many queues. I decided then to park myself in front of the World’s Slowest SMS Billboard to observe how that work.
SMS
The crews involved in putting up the SMS had good energy. They constantly found ways to interact with people viewing their change of SMS. E.g. when they received and displayed a birthday wish SMS, they broke into a birthday song (for the recipient). My favourite one was when they displayed a SMS complimenting on a lady crew being ‘cute’, a few of the crews tried pull a hiding crew to be seen by the public … and just when we thought they wanted to show the lady crew referred by the SMS, they managed to pull the crew for us to view … and the crew was a macho guy. Humour.
I stayed there for 1.5 hours and saw the following SMS being displayed:-
1. Adrian Tan is really handsome!
2. Hey you! Yes you! Smile & wave
3. Let’s get buzzy tonight! Kidd 
4. Happy Bday hunkie! I luv u!
5. Hunny, I’m pregnant! – JuJu
6. Wilda ur bald head rocks!
7. Let’s get the boogie on people!
8. Fae! You gotta dance with the taxi boys now!
9. I want to hear you scream!
10. If you’re happy & you know it clap ur hands!
11. Wave ur hand Shake your ass Off with pants!
12. The girl on our second tier is cute!
13. Everybody I say hey you say ho!
14. Fat boy in black is so man!
15. Hey people! Let’s get high! Let’s get loud!
Not all SMS would be displayed. So I got the feeling that what got to be displayed were safe for (our) general consumption. Luckily fun messages were probably considered safe for consumption. And to the credit of the crews, I observe plenty of amused faces among the crowd.
No. 5 is my favourite. Which is yours?
