Zaki Razak & Norisham Osman - Performance-Lecture-Workshop IUGTE Conference

Zaki Razak graduated from LASALLE College of the Art with a Masters in Fine Arts and holds a Diploma in Visual Communication from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. An artist known for his installation-performances and collaborative approach towards art-making, Zaki’s practice involves investigations into human consciousness, the hermeneutics of art and its systems of circulation and reception. His interest in social languages and rituals also led him to create works that take advantage of everyday situations, subject them to wordplay and humour, and while implicating the audience through engaging their participation in the art-making process.

In the light of Singapore’s bicentennial year we aspire to share, promote and advocate the history of Singapore through a traditional dance. Besides the purpose of providing, imparting and performing an introductory presentation, we aim to deconstruct both the canons of history and dance in parallel with a similar concern – to present a ‘radical break’ from perceived national narratives.

We hope that our intended dialectical structure of ‘thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis’ together with the participation of the ‘other bodies’ would result into a spectrum of new possibilities and most ignificantly a better understanding of Singapore and its culture.

The presentation will be intermittently presented by Zaki Razak and Norisham Osman in sixty minutes. The premise of the presentation is to revise historical and cultural narratives and movements whilst seeking its conceptual essence. The structure and sequence of the presentation will be comprised of a lecture with some performative elements and to be concluded with a ‘movement’ workshop. All of these will be presented into a seemingly seamless presentation.

We will begin, for the first twenty minutes with an introduction and overview of the prosperous strategic shore, Singapore and Telok Blangah; and the most recognised traditional Malay dance in Nusantara or the Malay Archipelago, Zapin respectively. It will be followed by its deconstruction – breaking down its etymologies, legends and research methodologies. For the rest of the forty minutes, we will then form, share and practice the suspension of our discoveries, possibilities and imaginative structures with the ‘other bodies’ i.e. the audience. In essence this presentation is not about ‘looking at’ Singapore and its culture but ‘looking through’ them.

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Organized by IUGTE in collaboration with "ArtUniverse" and New International Performing Arts Institute