Arts Festival looks to the future
With the tagline Brave New Worlds, this year’s NUS Arts Festival promises to set Kent Ridge Campus abuzz with electrifying performances and unexpected bursts of creativity from 10 to 25 March, incorporating elements of art, science, culture and the future.
“Each iteration of the NUS Arts Festival explores a theme that is important to the NUS community,” said Ms Sharon Tan, Director of NUS Centre For the Arts. “By challenging participants to envision their own Brave New Worlds, we open up the space for them to fuse the unknown with the endless possibilities of the human imagination.”
The excitement begins on 10 March at Alice Lee Plaza with Arts Out Loud, a rousing evening of electropop starring Japan’s Cobalt Bomb ⱭΩ, together with live artist Ai*Madonna and NUS Electronic Music Lab alumni Cosmic Armchair and Kids with Laptops.
Following the launch party, the festival will formally open on 17 March with Remember When…, a performance piece by NUS Dance Ensemble in partnership with NUS Architecture and NUS Geography. The piece explores how changes in Singapore’s urban landscape may affect the psyche of its people over time.
Theoretical physics and the arts are intertwined in Sambhavna 2.0 and The Quantum Music Project, both of which use creative expression to interpret the world of quantum physics.
Year 3 Social Work student Camille Zhao Yi plays the title character in Dear Miss Ye, a performance by NUS Chinese Drama (Photo: Back Alley Creations)
NUS Chinese Drama will perform Dear Miss Ye, which tells the story of four students visiting their teacher on the pretense of celebrating her birthday. Good intentions turn sour, however, as the real motive of the students — to locate and change their exam results — is laid bare in a tense clash of old and new systems of morality.
The festival will close with stalwart Singapore art rock group The Observatory and the Asian debut of their show Vibrational. This singular musical performance is a nod to the future as the band is joined by 30 NUS guitarists to create harmonies and beats that physically vibrate the air.
Festivalgoers can also look forward to a range of dance debuts, concerts, contemporary theatre, unusual Japanese films, panel discussions and more.
Visit nusartsfestival.com for more information and tickets.
By NUS Centre For the Arts
