a place where none will harm us
12 & 13 JULY 2024
About
A PLACE WHERE NONE WILL HARM US is a project exploring sanctuary in relation to notions of depression: a project that interrogates the complex and sometimes tenuous relationship between the self and art-making. Beginning by questioning the abjectly banal notion of art as a form of solace, healing, or self-rehabilitation, the work ponders the inverse and embraces its implications.
Building upon existing sonic research and approaches that consider bodily transgression, catharsis, and self-harm as points of departure, and merging these with new, analogous explorations in sound and visuals, a place… manifests as mixed-media tableaux developed during a residency period in 136 GOETHE LAB. These will be presented alongside a curated selection of concert works that explore notions of friction, fragility, suffering, and harm.
Public Events
12 & 13 JULY
Performance and Artist Open Dialogue
12 & 13 July, Friday & Saturday, 8pm
Visit here to register
The Artists
Bertram Wee is a composer and pianist whose work is concerned with the notion of corporeality and its related conceits. He has had work performed and/or have performed at events such as Ultraschall Berlin, MaerzMusik Berlin, Classical:NEXT, Gaudeamus Festival, hcmf//, BBC Proms (London), Wien Modern, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Musik 21 (Hannover), inTRANSIT Festival (London), Bloomsbury Festival (London), London Ear Festival, sounds like THIS (Leeds), Asian Composers League Festival and Conference, WMC Kerkrade, Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium, Thailand International Composers Festival and the Singapore International Festival of Arts. In 2022 he was Artist-in-Residence at the Esplanade (Singapore) as part of its inaugural Contemporary Performing Arts Research Residency. He performs with the bl duo, as well as with the Singaporean new music collective weird aftertaste.
Lynette Yeo is a musician who advocates for the music of today. Active as a collaborative pianist in a variety of different capacities, she has performed at events such as the Leeds Lieder Festival, Singapore Piano Extravaganza and the Singapore Festival of the Arts. Notably, she performs both with new music collective weird aftertaste, as well as with composer-pianist Bertram Wee as the bl duo, a project with a stylistically diverse repertoire that spans work by genre-defining stalwarts of contemporary art music to that of recent musical innovators. Recent performances with the duo have included performances at new-music forums of international repute: Maerzmusik (Berlin), Classical:NEXT (Berlin), Sounds like THIS (Leeds) and hcmf// (Huddersfield). She was the winner of the Contemporary Music Prize in 2016 at the Royal College of Music (London).
Singaporean pianist Low Jinhong is a performer and educator that engages in unconventional repertoire and exciting collaborations. A graduate of the Royal College of Music (London), he attained his Master of Music in Performance under the guidance of Andrew Zolinsky and the late Niel Immelmann. Prior to his studies abroad, Jinhong was a Ngee Ann Kongsi Scholar studying with Nicholas Ong at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Some of his accolades include 1st Prize at the 2018 Lucien Wang Piano Competition and Best Accompanist in the 2020 Joan Chisell Schumann Vocal Competition. As an avid accompanist, Jinhong performs regularly with instrumental and vocal students from NAFA. He is also the resident pianist at the Singapore Symphony Children Chorus. As a member of local new music ensemble weird aftertaste, his fascination with technology provided him an opportunity to dabble in electronics and live sound. His continued interest in the vocal medium has brought him into choral settings and can sometimes be seen singing in local community choirs.
Christoven Tan is a contemporary artist with a passion for constant redefinition of contemporary viola performance and the artist, himself. Christoven relies heavily on engaging contemporary practice and methodologies within western classical music of today and is constantly looking to program new works or ideas. It is his mission to give voice to an unheard narrative and expand the human desire to listen. He performs with the Singaporean new music collective weird aftertaste.
Michellina Chan is a distinguished Singaporean saxophonist, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator. Passionate about commissioning new works for the classical saxophone and redefining concert experiences through interdisciplinary collaborations, she continually pushes the boundaries of what the instrument can do. Michellina performs regularly with weird aftertaste, an artist-driven new music collective dedicated to growing an inclusive, enthusiastic community of new-music lovers in Singapore. As an active performer and educator at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Michellina has graced numerous international music festivals with her performances. Celebrated for her pioneering spirit, she holds the distinction of being the first female Selmer Paris Artist in Southeast Asia.
weird aftertaste is an artist-driven new music collective that aspires to being a sustainable platform for today’s best contemporary concert work. as advocates for the experimental, risky and non-commercial in sound, since its inception in september 2021 the group has performed work not just by genre-defining stalwarts of new music, but also the work of young musical innovators both locally and abroad. democratic in conception, the group eschews the vision of a single artistic director for the unbridled collective energies of its component artists.
IG @weirdaftertastemusic
The Space
136 GOETHE LAB is a new project space at the Goethe-Institut Singapore. Housed in the former library and reading room, the space is intended as a response to the need for physical spaces for the arts, and an ongoing conversation with the public and arts community in Singapore.
A PLACE WHERE NONE WILL HARM US is supported as part of the open call for 136 GOETHE LAB, which invited applicants to activate the space with a group proposal.