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2019

INXO INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY

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A Project of

INXO Arts & Culture (L) Foundation

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Supported by

Pejabat Ahli Parlimen Kluang

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Supported by

Komuniti Harapan Malaysia Kluang 2.0

INXO International Residency is an artists residency programme designed to connect local neighbourhood, in collaboration with local community. This multidisciplinary residency programme allows resident artists the freedom to explore potentials of their practice, aim to provide a platform for creativity to flourish, a common ground for people to connect, an enrich arts experiences for local folks. Artists are invited to create multidisciplinary works based on local elements during research period living in local area. The purpose is to promote and develop local elements into artistic creation, to strengthen collaborations and exchange between contemporary Malaysian artists and international artists, to explore potentials connecting people while experiencing local culture.

Expectations

Workshop

Each artist shall organize a workshop to interact, connect, and explore with the local community.

Final Showcase

Each artist will create and perform a new artwork based on the local elements during the residency period.

ARTISTS

LOCAL

LEE MOK YEE

Installation Artist, Malaysia

Lee Mok Yee born in Kluang, Malaysia. In 2010, he got his Diploma in Fine Art from Dasein Academy of Art and BA Fine Art from Middlesex University, London. His work always deals with the language of the materials which include the physical materials, conceptual materials and cultural context. Using the readymade objects, he attempts to interpret and reconstruct the characteristic and the utility of the objects and at the same time, reflecting his point of view on his own cultural and political background. His work involving a variety of mediums such as installation, sculpture, painting etc.

MAHEN BALA

Documentarian Photographer, Malaysia

Mahen Bala is a critically acclaimed Malaysian documentary photographer, filmmaker, and artist. His primary interest is in investing the human experience, and how memory shapes personal and communal constructs of history.

In 2017, he represented Malaysia on an expedition to Antarctica, which then resulted in a photography exhibition at the National Art Gallery. In 2018, he published ‘Postcards from the South’, a comprehensive documentation of memory and history of the Malaysian railways. His upcoming photographic exhibition, cēb bah hēp, explores the relationship of a small indigenous tribe and the Malaysian rainforest.

TEO WEY HERNG

Multidisciplinary Artist, Malaysia

Teo Wey Herng writes and makes art in Malaysia with a focus on the experiental and experimental. She is interested in the aesthetics of the minor, fragmentary, and the extraneous. She feels strongly about anti-capitalist feminism, picture books and small animals. Wey Herng is the text collaborator on Toccata Studio’s Project “2020”, and “I’m Here Where You Are”. She is also a co-founder of Toccapoly, an immersive arts program for children. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in English Literature at Universiti Malaya.

ARTISTS

INTERNATIONAL

KIM YUJIN

Theatre Director, Korea

Yujin Kim is a theatre director, writer, dancer and performer, based in Seoul. She studied English Literature (BA) and Theatre Studies (MA), and got trained in jazz dance, modern dance, contact improvisation, somatic methods and voice trainings with various artists. Interested in the aesthetics of post-dramatic theatre, she has collaborated with different groups of people and created performances including Native Speaker (2016) and Study of Butt Font (2018-ongoing). She was awarded with ARKO Young Arts Frontier 2015 and invited as International Forum Fellow of Theaterffen 2017. Her thematic focuses are language, identity, cross-culturalism, and artistic interests are community-based research, body-mind integration, and interdisciplinary research.

NG SZE MIN

Sound Artist, Singapore

Ng Sze Min is a sound artist interested in expanding documentary and participatory forms. She expresses text, concepts and experiences into audio works, participatory performances, and one-on-one live art shows which have been selections at the 15th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (USA), Poetry Festival (Singapore), George Paton Gallery (Melbourne, Australia). She is also the Creative Producer of Artwave Studio, a Singapore-based music studio dedicated to composition and sound design across film, theatre and literary works.

YUHEI ARA

Choreographer, Japan

His past work is based on our ordinary lives. Sometimes he doesn’t choose a theater for his production. He has danced at many places; for example, at a guest house’s roof, at public bath before open hours, and at his own house. He does not only dance. He also makes songs for theater and exhibition. He creates theater pieces with a story. And he collaborates with many artists such as sculptors, musicians.

WORKSHOP

Teo Wey Herng

My Poem is a Moving Thing

Connect a poem to the paper, to drawing and to the train! The train that connects my city to your town, to the next town, and to the next. My Poem is a Moving Thing is a poetry and bookmaking workshop where children can explore movement, sound, and imagery in poetry and art. Suitable for children between 5-8 years old, at maximum 30 pax. Conducted in Mandarin and English.

TIME: 18 August, 10:30am | VENUE:Eng Choon Association, Kluang

Yuhei Ara

Dancing like Walking

What is the difference of dance and ordinary movement? We usually do not care about our own walking style or standing posture, but I think we can find out through dance. Let's search the feeling from our body!

Time:18 August, 3pm | Venue:Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim, Kluang

Mahen Bala

The Past is a Distant Place

Oral history is a fascinating way of investigating history by using memory. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about researching and preparing for interviews, how to ask questions and listen properly, as well as how to process, present and archive oral history.

Time:23 August, 10am | Venue:No. 16, Jalan Ismail, Kluang

Ng Sze Min

Writing with Sounds

Calling all residents in Kluang who enjoy writing (in any language) to join Sze Min in writing about Kluang! Through a guided workshop, Sze Min will lead you through a series of activities in the way we think about the town through what we hear. Everyone will take home a poem of their own and selected poems will get to be sung as a song at Pesta Kluang! Please be in walking shoes and comfortable clothing as we will be doing a short walk as part of the workshop.

Time:23 August, 3pm | Venue:Kluang Days

Lee Mok Yee

Installation Art Sharing

Lee Mok Yee, Installation Artist from Kuala Lumpur, will introduce the source of installation art and how to appreciate contemporary arts from the perspective of different materials to the public through this sharing session.

Time:24 August, 10am | Venue:Eng Choon Association, Kluang

Kim Yujin

Being Open & Connected

Calling all residents (18y+) in Kluang who want to have some moments of being relaxed, open and connected! In this workshop, Yujin will guide you to go beneath the social and cultural level of expressions to explore your own voice and movement. A series of activities will offer a chance to wake up your sensations, be open and interactive to whatever comes to you! Please be in comfortable shoes and attire as we will breathe, walk, and move our bodies. All workshop participants will be invited to perform at the final showcase at Gunung Lambak on 30th, 31st of August and 1st of September. Those who are able to perform for all three days are preferentially welcomed.

Time:24 August, 10am & 3pm | Venue:Kluang Days

FINAL SHOWCASE

Time & Venue

30th & 31st Augus
10am – 5pm

Time & Venue

1st September
9am – 12pm

Venue

Gunung Lambak
Free Admission

Lee Mok Yee
Being and Time

Being and Time is an installation comprising of 40 tower sculptures. This artwork is created with wood and its bark as primary material. Collected and sourced from the pallet factory, the wood pieces vary in wood type, colour and texture. Wood bark that is cut mechanically carries two temporal traces: first, the tree's long years of growth, and the other, a 5-second severing trail of the machine. There exists then the organic imprint of nature-the rough bark; and the crisp line of a 90° angle, a mechanical interruption. This forms the representation of an artistic reaction to the visual facets of town life in Kluang. (the mingling of the old and new buildings, the restoration of old structures etc.) This artwork also records three distinctive actions: one, the natural growth of a tree; next, the act of cutting for commercial use; and thirdly, the transformative act of the artist in creation. These actions correspond with the artist's wishes for city developments in Malaysia, that it may continue in holistic growth: naturally, economically and culturally.

Teo Wey Herng
So Goes It, My Poem

This text installation explores structure and fluidity via six poems inspired by Kluang and intercity travel. Paper is moldable and moves freely in between dimensions; it can be folded and connected to build structures, and here it serves also as a vehicle for text. The poems are presented in broken lines allowing them to be recast into new and many-pronged poetry that moves and travels to and fro the paper structures. The audience is invited to interact with and shape the installation by connecting the lines of poetry and reimagining new paths for the poems to meet and meld.

Kim Yujin
Random Harmony

No scripts, no predetermined movements, but full of awareness and interactions. With awakened senses, performers just listen, receive, and respond to the others and the surroundings of Gunung Lambak, creating random harmony. This showcase is performed by local residents in Kluang who participated in the interactive workshop ‘Being Open and Connected’ by Kim Yujin. Audiences are invited to come and move around, and be a part of this liveness. You don’t have to plan anything, because our body knows.

Yuhei Ara
Far From Here

I will be performing a solo piece using bamboo. Everything is always changing. Era is changing, people who are with you are changing, many rules are changing. You are also changing. Even if it looks like nothing is happening, during my performance, you are still changing a little bit.

Mahen Bala
What happened to Pulau Kluang (?)

This photo essay is an experiment in writing a fictional history of Kluang when it was once an island. Through two sets of photographs (YESTERDAY and TODAY), viewers are taken through a journey to the past and present, exploring memories of two days in August 1945 when a ‘Great Wind’ blew most of Pulau Kluang away.

Ng Sze Min
Story of the Coffee Town

If there was a song for Kluang what would it sound like? Written in collaboration with workshop participants, come hear a song about Kluang!

Program Highlights