Beyond Art · Storytelling

Programme statement

Who is best placed to tell a story that belongs to you alone?

Human beings are always trying to escape the prison of time, stretching or compressing it so that life may burst into brilliant flame within its cracks. As we move beyond the period in which the pandemic was overtly present, we reflect on the changes it has wrought in our lives and return, apprehensively and uneasily, to a time when its presence is less visible. We begin to realise that epidemics have never disappeared from human social life: whether overt or latent, they change how we perceive and engage with the world. When the pandemic is overtly present, people become more vulnerable and sensitive—artists especially so. If life itself is a gift from some mysterious force, and time merely a phenomenon, with past, present and future forming no linear structure, then time is not experienced equally by every individual. Through artistic creation and interaction, our time acquires an elastic force.

When a life is itself the work and living becomes the substance of art, every event in that life becomes irreplaceable, and all its elements become part of the work. These include earning a living, the emotional experiences we encounter, and events that happen unexpectedly or that we bring about deliberately. Whatever story you have lived, any work grounded in “truth + sincerity” can, through our institutional platform, open further emotional exchanges and connections with friends.

In each instalment, we will present one artist’s unique story—also a solo exhibition.

Even if the audience is already out of date!