Path. 6, Unpacking my Library 。书城by Boedi Widjaja

Singapore

3 Oct 2014 – 4 Jan 2015

Path. 6, Unpacking my Library 。书城by Boedi WidjajaSingapore

“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”

— Walter Benjamin, Unpacking my Library

Path. 6, Unpacking My Library 。书城 is part of Boedi Widjaja’s ongoing Path. series where he looks into issues of home, memory and identity in the context of a porous, global Asian city. Path. is at once personal and social, factual and imaginative.

The first part of the exhibition title is drawn from Walter Benjamin’s essay of the same name. Benjamin wrote in praise of collectors’ adoration of books. Bookending the title is 书城, Chinese for “City of Books”, and also the nickname of Bras Basah Complex in Singapore. The exhibition is a result of Widjaja’s reconsideration of his personal library through the gaze of Benjamin’s “collector”. Every book contains more than one story – that of the authored text written on its pages, and those embedded within the personal memories triggered by the book… memories of the whiff of freshly-printed books, the familiar grounds of a beloved bookstore, the hunt for a hard-to-find edition, or, for the artist, the memory of childhood visits to the “City of Books” with his father.

From the age of nine, the artist lived apart from his parents, sent to another country to escape ethnic tensions in his hometown. Air travel was very expensive then, and the artist’s father visited his children in Singapore once or twice a year, staying for a week each time. As the artist’s father loved books, the family would spend their time together in bookstores.

The physical separation between child and father was bridged in the City of Books. Yet, towards the end of the week, the same place also became the family’s parting grounds. Thus, Widjaja’s memory of the City of Books is complicated and emotional. Like airports, the City of Books contains both reunions and separations. The place signals ARR/DEP. In reconsidering his personal library,

the artist has realised that embedded in his books, regardless of genre and content, is this latent memory of the problematic City of Books.

In Path.’s works, Widjaja seeks to build a (hopeful) future through the recasting of the past. The exhibition starts with three books taken from libraries across three generations - the artist’s, his father’s and his daughter’s. The books, randomly selected, are studied. Comparing them, we see similar motifs and themes, such as steel, displacement, acceptance in a new place, emerge. Drawing out these connections is a way for Widjaja to transform these formerly isolated, personal libraries into shared ones, before bringing them into the community.

The exhibition presents the outcome of Widjaja’s investigation into his library in its material, aural, spatial and temporal dimensions. Public events including workshops, performances and conversations have been programmed by the artist as an important part of the exhibition. Through the process of making the works, and the “liveness” of the public events, the artist dismantles and reconstructs his memory of the City of Books, a memory deeply lodged in his library. The artist looks to a rebuilt library, containing books with the promise of new stories.

Path. 6, Unpacking my Library 。书城 consists of three works.

Siapakah si Manusia Baja? is Bahasa Indonesia for “Who is the Iron Giant?”. The work consists of hundreds of airport novels, a literary genre defined by its social function as reading fare for travellers, and characterised by its portable dimensions and pulpy thickness. The airport novels are canvas-wrapped, marked in diverse ways and presented in rows and columns on shelf-like tables. In making repeated markings onto blank book-canvases, the artist observes that he is drawing into the present.

Widjaja turns his attention towards bookshelves in When steel rings in my sleep, an installation of steel shelves. The shelves appear to be in a transitory state, neither built nor unbuilt. Notwithstanding its imposing dimensions, the installation evokes a cradle, inviting one to draw closer to it.

The last work is video installation《重见》, Chinese for “re-seeing” and also a Chinese homonym for “re-building”. The artist’s original intent was to have his father and his daughter perform together with him in the gallery in the act of reading and mark-making. The work had to be modified as the artist’s father was unable to be present on the scheduled dates. The reality of the artist and his father living apart in two cities has seeped into《重见》.

Activities/ Workshops(Entry and participation is non-ticketed; first come first served basis only)

3, 5 & 6 Oct 2:00 - 4:00pmBook-making workshop*Turn a sheet of A3 paper into an eight-page booklet with a slit in the middle of the page. Decorate your book covers with ink stamps. * Suitable for children of all ages. Children must always be accompanied by adults.

1 Nov4:00 - 4:45pmExhibition tourJoin the artist for a tour of the exhibition, followed by a brief Question-and-Answer session.

5:00 - 5:30pmLive ArtLive Art by Boedi Widjaja in collaboration with Dawn Fung. Dawn is a folk singer-songwriter who has released two albums to good reviews. Fans of Dawn are attracted to her brand of storytelling, her knack for connecting with audiences intimately and her cosy gigs.

Conversations

15 Nov, Sat4:00 - 4:45pm Teo Han Wue is a writer and former director of Art Retreat, a private museum. He wrote an article “Debunking the myth of the Chinese-educated” where he showed that the multi-cultural environment of Chinese bookstores in 1950s and 1960s Singapore “eloquently debunks the popular myth that the Chinese educated are inclined to be conservative, … chauvinistic.” Originally sited along North Bridge Road, many of these Chinese bookstores moved to the Bras Basah Complex due to urban development. Han Wue will talk about these Chinese bookstores of the past, some of which were also salons hosting intellectual discussions.

22 Nov, Sat4:00 - 4:45pm Adib Jalal, design curator, writer and urban activator, is interested in turning urban and domestic spaces into meaningful and memorable places. He will talk about his special relationship with Bras Basah Complex and conversations that he had about the place. Adib is currently Creative Director at Shophouse & Co. Previously, he served as the Festival Director of Archifest (2012 and 2013), and is also co-founder of Fivefootway, an online journal about cities in Asia.