Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Yıl: 6, Sayı: 64, Ocak 2018, s

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1 Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Yıl: 6, Sayı: 64, Ocak 2018, s Yayın Geliş Tarihi / Article Arrival Date Yayınlanma Tarihi / The Publication Date Dr. Mohammed BAKER Mohammed AL-ABBAS Ürdün Üniversitesi, Görsel Sanatlar Bölümü, Sanat ve Tasarim mohdbaker83@hotmail.com CONTEMPORARY MULTICULTURALISM INTO GLOBAL ART Abstract This article highlights an international biennale that took place in Singapore. The paper discusses the relationship between the Southeast Asian multicultural society and the theme of the first Singapore Biennale in 2006 which was "Belief". On the other hand it investigates the relationship between the philosophy of the biennale and the artworks which are exhibited in the context of the biennale. Singapore Biennale 2006 is a contemporary international art event that gives new insights for international artists, and the concept of this biennale is a model for other art scenes in other regions of the world. Art. Keywords: Singapore Bennale, Contemporery Art, Multiculturalism, Global Introduction Singapore Biennale started in 2006 and interacted significantly with the international art scene. A new cultural phenomenon in Singapore, that took place in different venues across the city. This contemporary event gave chance for people to know contemporary art from different regions. It is international multicultural event that took place in multicultural city, which is considered a part from a whole multicultural region. The region of Southeast Asia gave philosophical background for the biennale, for the multicultural practices that appear in most of its countries, especially Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The biennale transformed these Southeast Asian multicultural practices into the international contemporary art scene. It's an example where all artists from different cultural identities express with high individuality their art in harmony together. This biennale gave chance to artist to engage deeply with their own cultural identities, while expressing in high individuality critical

2 issues about believes, social realities, and their engagement in daily politics. Based on the philosophy of understanding others, this is cultural characteristic of the Southeast Asia region that influenced the international approach of the biennale. The study aims to explore the issues articulated by artists in international context, and how visual cultures create an impact in this context. The philosophy of Singapore biennale is significance because it took place in a multicultural civilization, which has a deep cultural identity, and in the same time interacts actively with the global culture. This intercultural context of the biennale made a rich environment to different artist to express their art in harmony, This study will present the factors that made Singapore biennale ready to adapt new arts from different cultures. Also the study will present the dynamics that made this space ready to accommodate diverse arts, expressing different point of views, concepts and cultures. The three major characteristics of Singapore culture are the diverse ethnic backgrounds of the society, the global exposure of the region and the national sustainable development of cultural knowledge in contemporary contexts. The last point illustrates the use of local cultural knowledge. For examples the art of Batik in Malaysia is practiced as a contemporary trend, where artists and designers use it to transform traditional knowledge to a contemporary experience. Contemporery Reflictins in Singapore Beinnale The first Singapore Biennale was held between 1st September and 12th November Its title was "belief" which was the main theme of the exhibition; it created an educational space for the dwellers of the city to interact with 198 artworks. The biennale exposed Singaporean society to different art experiences from different regions. One of the aims was to introduce people to contemporary arts; it was a meeting point between contemporary art and artists as well as society. This exhibition gathered local as well as international artists. And gave insights into every artist's culture, where the viewers read the artworks in the context of the artist's cultural values. Singapore Biennale is significant because it facilitated artists' individualities with diverse society; in the same time it provided an interactive space between the artists and the audience.at the same time, the Southeast Asian society is a multicultural to interact structure of different backgrounds; its plurality influenced the theme of the exhibition to bring something new to this society, and to develop this tolerant culture to adopt new trends of contemporary arts, it was integral part of this experience to explore more levels of communication between southeastern Asian culture and other cultures from other regions of the world, the international exposure of the region made it easier to adapt this number of international artist and made possible to integrate with each other on one side, and on the other to integrate with the city space.the first Singapore Biennale under the title "belief" was a chance for young artists from many countries to participate in this international event. However 60% of them were from Asian origin, also 60% were young artists under the age of 40 years, and those were mainly from Southeast Asia. Artists who participated in the exhibition were invited besides Southeast Asia from Africa, America, Europe, Oceania and the Middle East. Selecting works from the Southeast Asian region familiarized the local audience with the art event, while international visitors were able to see contemporary arts from Southeast Asia on international levels, and in the same time local visitors had the chance to investigate contemporary arts from different cultures, this opportunity is not usually to happen, and it meant to influence other international exhibitions in the world. 392

3 Singapore Beinnale as Global context for artists In the global context, the world is divided into regions, and the regions are divided into countries or local areas. Therefore we may arrange arts according to the region or the country where the artist is from. On the other hand there is an association between the world global context and the local elements that come at once to form the nations that interact together over an international scale. In Fumio Nanjo's introduction of the first Singapore Biennale catalogue (2006), there is an analogy between globalism and localism. In the first part he cites the ideas of Amartya Sen Wen about culture and development, when Amartya suggests that following the global free market policies is not the only option to develop a local market, this may lead for a consumer society rather than a productive society, instead he proposed to develop local economies by enhancing the local cultural values. The consideration of local culture and people's ethnic identities will create sustainable development. However this cultural approach will make balance between the global values and local values, also will affect the context of the artistic process of those artists who live in such communities. In the second part of Nanjo's analogy he compares between two contrasting points of views, the first one is Francis Fukuyama's when he proclaimed "the end of history" after the collapse of the Soviet Union declaring that the history is a conflict between two different world-views, which is in this case Socialism versus Capitalism. Right after that Nanjo gave another matching idea by Samuel Huntington the writer of "the clash of civilizations" in this book Huntington divides the world to seven different views according to the beliefs, culture, and social identities. And he suggests that the conflict between these views will be the greatest international problem we face in the future. In the context of the same analogy, away from the conflicting theories Nanjo shifts to the second point of view which he calls "the vision of the multitude", explaining the balance between globalized unification and the local variety in society. By giving example about the book "Empire" through which Antonio Negri and Michel Hardt illustrate their concept about the peaceful and multicultural globalization where different societies live together in harmony. 393 The Context of Multiculturalism The high demand of regional art is a result of the appreciation of its value. Apparently in the media, press, and exhibition reviews, where critics and curators and art collectors start looking for the most valuable art works, because such art works are good examples and representations of that region in particular, since most of those critics and curators look for art works that meet the standards of the global art scene on international scale, in other words competent art works that meet the contemporary standards and represent the spirit of the age, are more likely to stand out. The global audience has perceived art from Asia, African and the Middle East in the anthropological context. As a historical material without paying attention for the contemporary trends illustrated by the artists from there, it has been represented as a past civilization by the artists themselves; nevertheless the curators and museums had something to do with that as well. But now the artist started to express his social reality rather than the historical records of his civilization, by reflecting his daily experience in life, community and art (Karin Adrian von Rogues, 2009). The contemporary artist believes recently that each civilization is significant by its own. There-fore we can't judge or evaluate a civilization or a form of human creativity according to

4 another civilization's point of view, for each community has its own aesthetics, where different artist represent different sets of aesthetics. The world contains many regions; each of those has a diverse assembly of cultures. This fact made art critics look for the authentic art works that reflects the artist's own time of his social reality, and his motion through his artistic process, from the point of his inspirations or his "cognition" through the artwork creation, until the contact between the art work and the audience. The art work is not an object any more. It's not a representation of the physical appearance. The art work is a subject or a theme, where the artist and the artwork along with the audience interact together. The artwork is the context that represents the artist's own human reality, through which he reflects his expressions in a visual representations. In his article Hans Belting (2009) writes about the idea of global art, the article's title was "contemporary art as global art" through which he discusses the transformation of aesthetics and art criticism, in the following text: "Global art may be critical in political terms, but it is also critical in terms of art categories defined by inclusion or exclusion. New art often blurs any kinds of borders between mainstream art, on the one side, and popular art, on the other, and thus abolishes the old dualism between western art and ethnographic practice by using indigenous traditions as a reference, as Justo Pastor Mellado has shown for Chile and Paraguay. Seen from western point of view, global art represents a geopolitical or even "geo-aesthetic" brand, as Joaquin Barriendos explains in his contributions to his volume. It is symbolic capital whose value changes from one place to other, even if western revisionism tries to control its currency with its own exchange rates, difference, with the label of foreign culture, has become marketable and thus an entrance ticket for newcomers on the art market." (Belting, 2009, p.3). Local art from different regions of the world is more understandable because of the global art approach, which is based on the consideration of the indigenous knowledge, science and most importantly the aboriginal aesthetic. If we look at different civilizations across the world, we would find various aesthetical perceptions; accordingly the cognition of the artists across different cultures would be constructed spontaneously according to this aboriginal aesthetic. This variety in artistic cognition will feed the art with different data, which we need to give more attention to understand. 394 The Artist in the Context of the Singapore Biennale This study will go through the components of the artistic process, to investigate the intentions of the artist. How the artist explores the audience through his or her artwork by creating a certain theme, representing his or her social reality. Are the pictorial representations objects or subjects, and how the understanding of the audience meets the context of the artwork. While the study will investigate the mediums the artist used in his art work, and will analyze the visual language, furthermore the study will examine the context of the art work in the creation process, and the context of the artwork in the exhibition among curators, critic and audience. Approaching a multicultural dialogue, how the artist constructs the space and context to convey the message, using the social and cultural dimensions, and why the artistic experience become significant in the global art context How the artist uses the element of time to reflect the social context, and motion to represents the relation between the self and the context, the self here is the artist. And the context is the

5 environment of the artist, through which the artistic process is taking place, to create the artwork. This element of motion represents the interaction between the artwork and the global audience in one hand, and the local audience in other hand. In the context of the exhibition, the organizing team chose seven worship places to be part of the display venues of the exhibition. Where artist installed their art works according to the worship place. Utilizing these spaces to be part of the exhibition came along with the main theme of the biennale belief, however the artists themselves were chosen to display their artworks according to there artistic style or their art projects which they submitted to the organizing committee, therefore the art project should represent the spirit of the place, in order to engage the audience with he artwork inside the worship place Figure 1. Cristina Lucas, 2004, My Struggle, Single channel video. 5 minutes. (Installation in Church of Saints Peter & Paul) Figure 2. Ebtisam Abdul Aziz, 2004, Ten Triangles, Mixed media installation. (installation in Sultan Mosque) 1 Theses seven worship places were the Armenian church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the church of Saint Peters & Paul, the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, the Maghain Aboth Synagogue, Masjid Sultan, Saint Joseph s church, the Sri Krishnan Temple and Sculpture Square.mmost of them were located around the waterloo street area and they represented a diverse range of faiths, including Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. (National Arts Council Singapore, 2006, p.49)

6 The use of religious sites is linked to the theme of the biennale; in the same time it is considered as a daring idea to use the worship place in art event. The people are familiar to go to that spaces and practise religious rituals and worship. But his time they went there to engage with both worship and art, his came after cultural orientation between the art work and the displaying space, in a way that artists themselves expressed their religious beliefs as a part of their cultural identity. One of the significant features of this city is the diverse range of faiths of its people, which made it easy to find religious sites that represent each of these religions; this is a character of the Southeast Asian multiculturalism. This diverse background of the city made it possible to make this experience, and to introduce art audience to a new contemporary art experience, where worship place and contemporary art engage in one place, this indicates the high acceptance of the audience to know about new creative point of views of different cultures or of the same culture. This is a chance to experience new ideas, artworks, spaces and cultures. Artists had the chance to practice their high individuality in front of responsive audience, who is adaptive for new ideas as well. However the exhibition played a role in educating people about contemporary arts, and developed the knowledge they have about visual arts. This exhibition is a meaningful in terms of integrating society with creativity and individual human expression; it emphasizes the value of art in the life of modern community. Conclusion The paper presents the influence of the Southeast Asian environment on Singapore Biennale, and how the multicultural practices in the society gave more diminutions and more values to the art event. Moreover it enhanced the significance of the exhibition when compared with other international biennales in other places of the world, because of the authentic characteristics of the Southeast Asian city. Where we can fine plural structure of cultural identities interact in one space. The vision of the biennale was to educate Singapore's society about contemporary arts, this is why the organizers of the exhibition toke the society's cultural structure into consideration. And how can they interact with this structures on local levels, this means to present Southeast Asian art that they are familiar with on one side, and on the other side how would the exhibition introduce new international art, new experiences and new ideas about contemporary arts to the audience, through a smooth dialogue between the international artist and the local viewer. This biennale is a model of the Global Art exhibition where artists express their arts according to their cultural point of view. They reflect their own social modernism, while they express the contemporary life trends. In the context of this exhibition the arts are recognized according to its significant culture, each work of art has its own authentic aesthetics. 396 REFERENCES Belting, H. & Buddensieg, A. (eds.) (2009). The Global Art World. Ostfildern. Bersson, Robert. (2003). Responding to Art: form, content, & context.usa: McGraw- Hill. Bertens, Hans (1995) the idea of the postmodern, Routledge: London & New York. D'Alleva, Anne.(2005). Methods & Theories of Art History. UK: Laurence King Publishing ltd.

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