Five Arts Centre turned 40 in 2024 with an eclectic programme of projects, workshops and events - led by collective members from different generations and in collaboration with friends and partners, old and new. Here are some highlights from our 2024.
Re-Connections & Re-Collections: developing capacities & renewing relationships
Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign at the end of 2023, we were able to upgrade the lighting, sound and technical systems in our GMBB KL studio space in early 2024. With an eye towards co-learning and capacity building, we organised several workshops to share tools and frameworks for navigating the complexities of artistic practice and cultural production. These included Vancouver-based dance artist Lee Su Feh's Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go workshop (February-March), Singapore-based theatre educator, researcher and dramaturg Charlene Rajendran's Engaging Dramaturgy for Contemporary Performance workshop (October), as well as the Southeast Asian Producers Workshop (July) initiated by June Tan. The latter brought together over 35 performing arts producers from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to exchange and reflect on their practice, and coincided with the Asian Producers Platform Camp in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
Lee Ren Xin embarked on Re-Public, a long-term practice-as-research project on collective embodiment in public spaces. Re-Public unfolded across 2024 over several phases and culminated in November via a series of public workshops, in-practice sessions, and artist talks - all of which invited members of the public to experience, participate and reflect on "broadening the code of the space" in downtown KL. In October, we presented a work-in-development showing of sketches of Tuah, a project by Mark Teh, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Syamsul Azhar and Wong Tay Sy investigating the different faces, phases, and facets of the legendary figure Hang Tuah. The performance will premiere in Kuala Lumpur in August 2025.
In our 40th year, we were very happy to present the work of our friends and collaborators in the GMBB studio
- renewing decades-long relationships, while also reflecting on the search for meaning in an ever-evolving
social and cultural landscape. In June 2024, we presented My Video Making Practice (MVMP), a unique mashup event
combining an artist talk, a screening, and a dialogue with invited guests by Gan Siong King - one of
Malaysia’s most original contemporary artists. In conjunction with MVMP, we also organised Gan's Old
Videos, a special one-off screening of the artist's Malaysian Artists at Work
series. In July, we presented the world premiere of Singaporean artist Ho Rui An's Figures of History and the Grounds of Intelligence, a lecture
performance using generative AI to interrogate the relationship between history and technology. In August, sans
collective staged a takeover of our studio in conjunction with the official launch of GMBB -
transforming our space with an immersive multimedia installation and jamming session.
In October
2024, two Five Arts Centre projects from the 1990s - Warbox,
Lalang, Killing Tools and Skin Trilogy - were featured in the exhibition, Boom Boom
Bang: Play & Parody in 1990s K.L. The exhibition at ILHAM Gallery is curated by Simon Soon,
Rahel Joseph, Azzad Diah, and Ridhwan Saidi, and runs until 9 March 2025. We ended the year with several
events tied to the work of Leow Puay Tin, one of Five Arts Centre's closest collaborators over
the past four decades and one of Southeast Asia's most original playwrights. We had full houses for the
entire run of her latest play Mortal Man: Two Monologues, as well as for Tokyo-based
dramaturg and translator Ken Takiguchi's talk on his work as a dramaturg, which drew from
his experience of collaborating with Puay Tin. Over the same weekend in December, we also launched Tikam-Tikam: Chance encounters with performance texts written &
curated by Leow Puay Tin - a beautiful publication designed by Jun Kit that brings together
six works from the playwright’s innovative method of combining storytelling with chance and randomness.
Advocacy & Outreach: working towards a more cohesive arts ecosystem
In 2024, we unveiled a new design for MY Art Memory Project (MAMP), an online resource digitally documenting the history of performing arts in Malaysia - spearheaded by our collaborators Kathy Rowland and Fasyali Fadzly, and produced by Ivy Josiah. Parallel with this, we embarked on a series of outreach events during the year to New Era University College, Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan, Sunway University, and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris - to share with scholars, lecturers and students about the research, learning and teaching possibilities of MAMP and Arts Education Archive Malaysia (AEAM). In August we also organised Interrogating Arts Archives, a conversation on the growth of independent arts and cultural archives, featuring Catriona Maddocks (Borneo Bengkel), Jac sm Kee (Malaysia Design Archive), Joe Kidd (The Ricecooker Archives), Fasyali Fadzly (MAMP) and Janet Pillai (AEAM).
We also continued our work with ArtsEquator's Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database project. The project seeks to address the lack of reliable data on arts censorship in the region, which impedes local, regional and international advocacy to enact changes in legislation protecting the status of artists. In May 2024, findings from the database were presented at the Censorship of SEA Arts in Times of Crisis panel at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, organised with SEA Junction. The research fellows also gathered in Bangkok to plan further phases of this important initiative.
As always, Five Arts Centre remains committed to the mission of encouraging and supporting experimental creative work in Malaysia. Last year marked the 19th year of the Krishen Jit Fund, supported by Astro Kasih and Creador Foundation. Since its establishment in 2006, the Fund has supported 95 projects by artists and cultural practitioners working across Malaysia. The six recipients for 2024 were Cheryl Lisa Haddy, Hasbe Zuraini Abu Bakar, Haziqah Azemi, Jacky Yeap, Sharifah Aleysha, and Syarifah Nadhirah Syed Abdul Rahman.
Five Arts continues to serve as the secretariat and meeting space for the ReformARTsi coalition advocating for reform and policy changes in the arts. In 2024 ReformARTsi organised two arts stakeholder meetings in March and April, and an arts townhall in June - bringing together individual practitioners and representatives from Berani Kids' Club, CloudJoi, Creador Foundation, Freedom Film Network, ILHAM Gallery, IMAN Research, Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Negara, Kakiseni, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Maybank Foundation, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Education, PEN Malaysia, Think City, and Yayasan Sime Darby amongst others, to discuss pressing issues in the arts ecosystem.
Awards, Achievements & Appreciation
Several Five Arts Centre projects and members were recognised with awards in 2024. At the 19th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards in May, Lee Ren Xin received 'Best Choreographer in a Feature Length Work' and Chloe Yap Mun Ee was awarded 'Best Multimedia Design' in the Dance category for ANGGOTA 2: Re-Member. In the Theatre category, our co-production with Reka Art Space and 造心厂剧坊 / ZXC Theatre Troupe, MALAM TAKDIR received 'Best Music & Sound Design' (Johan Othman), 'Best Lighting Design' (Joie Koo), 'Best Ensemble/Group Performance' (Hilyati Ramli, Tan Jin Yin, Desmond Ngooi Chi Xian, Kabilan, Teoh Chee Lin and Wong Wei Hern) as well as 'Best of 2023'.
In December, Five Arts co-founder Marion D'Cruz was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Arts (Dance) from Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan - in recognition of her path-breaking career as a dancer, choreographer & educator. Earlier in the year, performance maker Mark Teh was one of 12 recipients of The Prince Claus Fund-British Council’s inaugural Moving Narratives Fellows Award. The award recognises artists who are focused on re-examining histories and cultivating emancipatory imaginations globally.
Finally, Five Arts Centre would like to thank all the artists, producers and cultural workers who contributed
to and worked on our projects, as well as everyone who witnessed and participated in our events and workshops
last year. We are also very grateful for the generosity of our partners Yayasan Sime Darby, Creador Foundation and Porticus for their support of Five
Arts' operational sustainability. Thank you!
----------
Happy New Year from all of us at
Five Arts Centre: Anne James, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Ivy N. Josiah, Janet Pillai, June Tan, Kubhaer T. Jethwani,
Lee Ren Xin, Mac Chan, Marion D’Cruz, Mark Teh, Ravi Navaratnam, Suhaila Merican, and Syamsul Azhar.
Ribuan terima kasih to our partners in 2024: Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan,
ArtsEquator, Asian Producers Platform, Astro Kasih, Bogus Merchandise, BOH Cameronian Arts Awards, Borneo
Bengkel, CloudJoi, Creador Foundation, Faculty of Music & Performing Arts, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan
Idris, GMBB, ILHAM Gallery, InSitu Arts Management Consultancy, The Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur, Kakiseni,
Kementerian Pelancongan, Seni dan Budaya Malaysia, Malaysia Design Archive, Maroon Art & Design,
MyCreative Ventures, New Era University College Drama & Visuals Department, Petaling Jaya Performing
Arts Centre, The Ricecooker Archives, sans collective, School of Arts, Sunway University, Sokong, Yayasan
Sime Darby, and all media and press.