Happening over a span of three months from 21 November 2015 to 17 January 2016, TITIAN BUDAYA will be held in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate 50 years of Singapore-Malaysia ties. Presented by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore (MCCY) and supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC), this cultural event showcases the creative talents of Singapore and Malaysia across a wide spectrum of art forms.
TITIAN BUDAYA will reach out to audiences in Malaysia to celebrate the shared cultural connections between Singapore and Malaysia by exploring cross-cultural expressions, and highlight shared cultural and entertainment traditions as well as icons familiar to both countries. It will feature an estimated 400 participants from creative communities in Singapore and Malaysia. The event underlines the spirit of partnership, collaboration and cooperation between the two countries.
The festivities will kick-off at Publika on 21-22 November 2015 with a weekend carnival entitled Next Door that will transform the mall into a cultural playground. A series of four events, Next Door’s opening feature will be Art Next Door, a contemporary art exhibition that will run till 13 December 2015. Specially selected art works by artists from Singapore and Malaysia are featured, providing glimpses into photography, video art and installation works of Singapore’s post-1965 generation and their Malaysian counterparts. The exhibition will be curated by Tang Fu Kuen.
You will also get your chance to try your creative hands at Bazaar Next Door. In partnership with Art for Grabs and Singapore Makers Association, there will be over 70 stalls that will delight Malaysians. The third event, Music Live Next Door will feature performances by Singapore’s top and emerging music groups. As for the fourth and final event, Cinema Next Door will include a live animation concert by the TO Ensembler, which will feature animation based on stories by five Singaporean writers and a collection of Singapore’s best short films.
There will be a one-night-only gala at Dewan Filharmonik that’s infused with the colours, flavours and rhythms of the region that gives full meaning to the spirit of building bridges across cultures, boundaries and art forms. TITIAN BUDAYA NIGHT will include jazz maestro Jeremy Monteiro and Singapore Idol Taufik Batisah will join Singapore Chinese Orchestra to perform the works of well-known Malaysian and Singaporean composers on 8 December 2015.
Dance enthusiasts are also in for a treat as TITIAN BUDAYA in collaboration with Damansara Performing Arts Centre and T.H.E. Dance Company will present on 19 to 20 December 2015. The company will perform a double-bill comprising a work by its Artistic Director Kuik Swee Boon, as well as the premiere of a new piece commissioned by Indonesian choreographer Jecko Siompo.
From 14 to 17 January 2017, the inaugural Singapore Film Festival will be the closing of TITIAN BUDAYA. It presents an anthology of post-independence Singaporean films starting with the revival of local cinema since the mid-90s, and showcases 10 breakthrough works by Singaporean filmmaking talents from first-generation directors such as Eric Khoo and Jack Neo, to a younger generation of filmmakers like Anthony Chen, Boo Junfeng, Liao Jie Kai, and Royston Tan. Screenings will take place at Golden Screen Cinemas at 1Utama and Pavilion.
TITIAN BUDAYA will be happening from 21 November 2015 to 17 January 2016 at various venues. For more information and updates, visit titianbudayasg.com.
