I am here, the time is now

Preceding this festival, there will be several investigations or preparations, which are events in themselves, called FACE-to-FACE.

“I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW” intends to journey from culture to art, from debilitation to dignity, from distance to self.

“I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW” - the main event in June 2009/10 - announces boldly an artistic programme celebrating a diverse Europe of today. As the title suggests it is very much about individual choices and ultimately about empowerment through recognising the power of the human being. The programme provocatively suggests that the individual makes the choice of aligning himself/herself with communities. The programme puts self-awareness into the public arena; the actuality of the self is marked in space and time. The live presence of the self and hence diversity is emphatically, proudly positioned. The understanding of the rich diversity in Europe today is not just from cultural difference but perhaps more deeply, it is from personal difference.

“I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW” is a performance/visual event which is a theatre of recognition and action, action which comes from acknowledging the responsibility each of us brings to the world of the future.

It puts a clear stake on the moment, the moment is now. We can change the world by the actions of the now.

I need to move beyond the politics of fear to claim myself. There is an urgency that requires each one of us to commit to the immediate environment, not only to ideology and history. A contemporary society is a society which is self reflexive and critical of itself. The site of the action is the self in this city, in this Europe of today which will yield the Europe of tomorrow.

HERE is not There.

Where is HERE as opposed to There? Can we rewrite HERE? Why do I need to fight for HERE? What is HERE?

What is NOW?


What is “I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW”?

A festival of performance and visual culture.

1. It will include commissioning new work from an invited group of grantees of the ECF. When appropriate, the past projects of these grantees could be also be invited. There will be other new artists apart from grantees.
2. Artistic direction will emerge from a consideration of artistic quality and its urgency in this geography, this time.
3. The festival urges the consideration of the specifics of the Europe of today especially in relation to its immeidiate neighbours.

Central to the curatorial process will be the gathering of a group of individuals from contemporary art practice, the FACE-to- FACE. These investigations will prepare the new time, the new site for “I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW”.


FACE-to-FACE – a series of preparations / platforms / investigations in 2008.

These events should be open to the public, as a lead up to “I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW”.

((set-7212-en.html||The first FACE TO FACE in Feb 2008 with selected grantees, is an exception, as it is only open for limited sessions to invited guests.))

Through the central use of an art marathon called Superintense. Superintense is a marathon of personal strategies of creativity in the urban context. From 11 am, all the artists will have an hour each to present their work, their practice to a public audience. A table, a projector, a microphone, a tribune in one space, or a second empty space for more direct interactions with an audience – the same conditions are given to each artist. They are invited to share their practice with the audience; past work, present work, future work. It can take the form of a talk, a lecture demonstration, a performance, slides, a video, a dj session, a workshop, a discussion. Without a break, all the artists relentlessly articulate their practice, communicating an insight to the myriad ways of thinking, making, living, destroying, rejuvenating. An actor, an audience, a shared space. Take a cigarette pause on the run.

This form has been used by Ong successfully in Vienna at the Tanzquartier in Museumsquartier in 2006 in a programme called Urban Fetishes. He adapted it for a shorter version with Goteborg Open Lab 2006. It is a form that he has employed since 2004 in Singapore and recently in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Concerning Feb 08, our introductory FACE-TO-FACE, it is hoped that the discussions around individual presentations will introduce a complexity including:

1. the personal strategies of creating artwork which extends beyond cultural specifics by delving into personal and group affinities, shared values of a community;
2. the institutions/individuals who are specifically located and who will provide precise insights into their contexts of art production;
3. transnational projects which include travelling events to many different cities;

FACE-TO-FACE participants will be connected to diverse communities; to secret histories; to individual processes, desires; to the urgencies of arts practice in today’s reality. In the spirit of organic interaction rather than enforced collaboration, participants will have time and space to discuss this amongst themselves through round tables. Engagement, communication, the sharing of personal strategies of working will be focussed on.

In the final “I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW”, it would be great if we can unpack this phrase, ECOLOGIES OF TOMORROW. I borrow the word ecologies to suggest ‘stable’ systems of osmosis between new Europe and its neighbours.

ONG Keng Sen
Artistic Director
“I AM HERE, THE TIME IS NOW”