Arts creatives from Borneo, UK to showcase works as part of literary fest in Penang

Adrian Jo Milang is among the four creative talents from East Malaysia to perform before a live audience on the closing night of GTLF 2022.

KUCHING (Nov 4): Art platform Borneo Bengkel is bringing together creatives from Borneo and the UK to present their works at Hin Bus Depot Gallery this Nov 23-27 in Penang, as part of this year’s George Town Literary Festival (GTLF).

Entitled ‘sem/bunyi’, the five-day interactive exhibition will feature selected works from Borneo Bengkel’s previous international projects, ‘Soundbank’ and ‘Lingua Franca’.

It is co-curated by Borneo Bengkel team members Sonia Luhong Wan and Catriona Maddocks.

“The exhibition features poetry and audio-visual (AV) installations produced by collaborators from across Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah and Kalimantan) and the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland and England).

“A play on the Malay words ‘sembunyi’ (to hide) and ‘bunyi’ (sound), ‘sem/bunyi’ tells of stories ‘hidden in plain sight’ – those that are often neglected from national narratives, or only discovered by curious observers.

“The exhibition invites visitors to explore and reflect on these AV documentations of identity, indigenous languages, as well as folk music and found sounds; and to create their own sonic journey by utilising screens and QR codes hidden within the space,” said Borneo Bengkel in a statement.

There will also be an exhibition tour, and on the closing night of GTLF 2022, four creative talents from East Malaysia will perform before a live audience.

The Sarawakians are Adrian Jo Milang, a practitioner of traditional Kayan oral art forms ‘parap’ and ‘takna’, and visual artist and poet Bethany Balan; while the Sabahan creatives and social activists are Nadira Ilana and Adi HJ.

Spoken word performer Bethany Balan, from Sarawak, will perform for the first time in Penang as part of the sem/bunyi exhibition.

“The works that we are presenting were produced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when despite national lockdowns, we managed to create these two really exciting collaborative projects: Soundbank, which gathered 16 international musicians to document and record music, folk songs and sounds from the world around them; and Lingua Franca, a spoken-word performance presenting the works by diverse, and often marginalised, poets from the UK and Malaysia.

“We’re really excited to have the chance to present these in-person for the first time ever, and also to see how visitors interact with them,” said Maddocks.

Adding on, Sonia said: “Both these projects came from the realisation that while we were all so separated from one another, the virtual world had given us so many opportunities to connect with people from afar.

“With such rich folk songs, cultural heritage and diverse voices in both Borneo and the UK, we wanted to utilise virtual technology to bring these creatives together in order to create conversations about race, gender, religion and identity.

“It’s a great experience to now translate all of that into a physical exhibition.”

These international collaborations were supported by British Council Malaysia’s ‘Connections Through Culture’ grant programme.

Experimental musician, Juan Arminandi from Kalimantan, builds his own experimental instruments.

Florence Lambert, who is head of arts and creative industries at the British Council in Malaysia, remarked: “We’re delighted to continue supporting the work of Borneo Bengkel and their international collaborators, as they are engaging in really important and necessary conversations of identity, belonging and cultural heritage.

“In partnering with GTLF, the work continues to evolve and reach new audiences, as well as present new opportunities for Bornean and British creatives to connect and create.”

Borneo Bengkel is a creative platform that explores issues of Bornean identity and culture through the eyes of craftsmakers, artists, social activists, academicians and performers.

It has produced a series of creative residencies, public talks, forums, workshops, art markets, and cultural performances over the past four years. Since 2021, Borneo Bengkel has gone beyond the Bornean borders to create international dialogues for cross-community exchange, skill-sharing and interdisciplinary dialogues.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3hcps6Q
via IFTTT