T

ourists coming to Singapore in mid March may be confused as they search in vain for the statue of the Merlion.

But those in the know will be aware that Singapore’s foremost mascot has been transformed into a temporary hotel room for Singapore’s third Biennale.

Not that Singapore is short of accommodation, far from it.

The statue has gone amiss because Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, one of the participants of the biennale, used it to create a one-room hotel called Hotel Merlion. Over half of the 63 participants have been commissioned to create artworks on site, and Tatzu Nishi is one of them.

Atlhough Singapore’s mascot of old may not need the extra attention anymore, it cannot be denied that its transformation into public art will make the everyday more interesting, infusing new life into it and introducing people to artists like Tatzu Nishi.

Visitors can make reservations to spend the night there, as of April 2011.

New life will also come to the Old Kallang Airport, an old military airbase during World War II, where eight artists will be showing their works. Works showcased there have been commissioned from Portugese-born, Berlin-based artist Leonor Antunes, Singapore artist Genevieve Chua, British-born, Berlin-based Phil Collins, Michael Elmgreen from Denmark and Ingar Dragset from Norway who live and work in London and Berlin.

Other venues with biennale works include the Singapore Art Museum and 8Q, The National Museum of Singapore and Marina Bay.

Commissioning works that must be created in Singapore seems to be a good strategy to let local and foreign artists familiarize themselves with Singapore’s life and culture. It also gives the public a chance to come close to art and art making, as well as increase their appreciation of art.

Such is one of the main objectives of Matthew Ngui, the biennale’s first Singaporean art director, also an artist and curator of note.

“The greatest challenge I have as the artistic director is ultimately bringing expertise and good people [including the artists] to work together so that the biennale is rigorous, thoughtful and in as many ways, appealing to the art [world] and general public,” Mathew says.

“How do we look at artists’ processes in this day and age when every single entity is different and the same simultaneously, and present them coherently? This is the question the curatorial team comprising Trevor Smith, Russell Storer and myself had to grapple with,” he went on.

For Tan Boon Hui, the director of Singapore Art Museum who is organizing the biennale with the support of the National Arts Council, the challenge lay in keeping the art event “distinctly international” and at the same time “very Asian”.

In an era that has been dubbed The Asian Century, it comes as no surprise that the third edition of the Singapore Biennale has taken an “Open House” approach, inviting 63 artists from 30 countries to participate in the event, with over half of the artists from Asia.

The term “Open House” stems from the Singaporean tradition of opening one’s doors to visitors on Chinese New Year, Hari Raya (Lebaran in Indonesia) and Deepavali.

It is interesting to note only one group of artists from Indonesia was invited, Ruang Rupa.

Ade Darmawan and his Ruang Rupa team are in the process of documenting their fictional and sometimes slightly surreal revelations about Singapore.

Another notable feature of this biennale is that the participants are conspicuously marked by their gender. There are only 20 female participants, less than 30 percent of the total number of artists invited.

A very interesting fringe event is the SPOL project. SPOL is an acronym for Self-Portrait, Our Landscape, which involves over 3,000 school students encouraged to create their self portrait without drawing what they look like.

Basic animation techniques and sound are used to gradually present all their self portraits, which morph into one another to create a landscape of collective identities. The animation, which will run for almost 24 hours, can be seen at Kallang Airport.

An exhibition on Southeast Asian Art will also be held at same time as the Singapore biennale. “Home, History and Nation, Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia” is a collaboration between the Singapore Art Museum and independent curator Iola Lenzi. Critically positioning Southeast Asian Art in the broader context of contemporary art, the show covers two decades of art history including works made by 50 artists from six Southeast Asian countries.

As D-date is fast approaching, a few of the artists are still fervently adding finishing touches to their works.

Third Singapore Biennale 2011

Open House
March 13 to May 15
SAM and 8Q, National Museum of
Singapore, Old Kallang Airport,
Marina Bay

Free shuttle buses and guided tours
will be available from March 19 onwards.