Supergarden, Curating the Singapore Architecture Pavilion at the 11th Venice Biennale | with Peter Sim & Lilian Chee

Model of 2494, FARM & Kwodrent

Date: 16 February 2012, Thursday
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: NUS Museum

Admission free. To register email museum@nus.edu.sg or call 6516 8817 / 8429

As objects, buildings are often appropriated to embody national or statist identities. They are large, permanent, and habitually iconic.  They can be displayed like trophies. However, this kind of objectification undermines the complex processes and evolving nature of architecture as an increasingly cross disciplinary practice as opposed to an autonomous one.  In this respect, exhibiting architecture to reflect a national imagination is always tricky thing.  Traditionally this would be achieved through architectural models and drawings but such means may recount only one side of a more colourful, complicated and multifaceted story.

FARM, with Lilian Chee, were appointed as lead curator and designer of the Singapore Pavilion at the 11th Venice International Architecture Biennale 2008.  The pavilion, SUPERGARDEN, presented design culture in Singapore at a moment when architecture is actively redefining its aesthetic, professional and intellectual boundaries in relation to other design fields. 

Speakers
Peter Sim is a Director at FARM. Following his graduation from the National University of Singapore in 1997, he worked in Singapore and London for several years. In 2007, Peter joined FARM, an award-winning cross disciplinary design practice. Since 2005, FARM has worked on community projects which promote the arts. It organises national public art competitions and events. It arranges free quarterly talks by designers and artists. In 2007, FARM established its cross disciplinary design arm. In collaboration with artists and designers, it works on a diverse range of projects. These include architecture & interior design, product design & merchandising, graphic design & branding, art installation & sculpture, exhibition design & curatorial work. FARM was awarded the President’s Design Award in 2010 for its interactive installation “The Tree”. Besides developing his practice as an architect, Peter is also a Design Tutor at the School of Architecture at the National University of Singapore.

Lilian Chee is a writer, theorist and designer. Trained at the Bartlett and the National University of Singapore, where she is currently Assistant Professor, Lilian’s research focuses on domesticity. Her publications include ‘An Architecture of Twenty Words’, in Negotiating Domesticity (2005); 'A Web in the Garden', in Pattern, Haecceity Papers (2007), ‘Living with Freud’, in AD Atmosphere (2008), ‘Performing Domesticity: Ma Qingyun’s Father’s House’, in Home and Space, Haecceity Papers (2009) and ‘Under the Billiard Table’ in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (forthcoming 2011). She also serves as Regional Editor for the Journal of Architecture. Lilian is currently working on a project exploring representations of Asian domesticity in architecture, art and film.