IdeasCity Singapore in turbulent times

Image: Solar Cooker Workshop at The Land Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2020. Photo: Vere van Gool

The New Museum, among its many successful initiatives, has a collaborative platform that explores how art and culture are essential for the future and vitality of cities. That’s IdeasCity, a collaborative platform that unites designers, artists, technologists, and policymakers to exchange ideas for change. The second edition in Singapore in partnership with the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, aimed to examine the negating climate change and ints impact on Southeast Asia.

A busy week of February 15-22 was scheduled to include an array of satellite programs in the region, a residency program, and a seminar series centered on Solidarity with Nature. Amid the coronavirus outbreak and travel restrictions in the region, though a lot of the events were rescheduled and canceled, IdeasFest 2020 went on via live stream. Presentation and dialogues between local and international artists and community leaders on topics such as capitalism and the extreme self (Ho Rui An and Shumon Basar), ecofeminism and community (Marwa Arsanios) , performances (Radha), film screenings (ila) and more activities went online on February 22nd.