Synopsis:

In conjunction with Tan Biyun's exhibition of The Unforgetting Space and Sidd Perez and Vuth Lyno's Unsettled Assignments, O.P.E.N. Histories: Exchanges is a series of workshops and a film screening that offers a deeper engagement with the ideas surrounding the exhibitions.

The Unforgetting Space Workshop: Reliving the Japanese Occupation
30 Jun and 4 Jul
3pm
72-13
2h, no intermission
By Tan Biyun and Victoria Tan

How was it like to live through the Japanese occupation in Singapore? By simply relying on our history textbooks, it is often difficult to get a full sense of the lived experience of the everyday realities, especially in times of crisis such as the Japanese occupation. This workshop fills the gap by taking an immersive approach towards the learning of history that engages our senses. Participants will be guided to produce collages and 3-D objects reflecting on the everyday realities of the Japanese occupation, from which they will gain a greater appreciation of what Singapore has achieved today.

Suitable for 15 years and above. Limit 25 pax.

The Unforgetting Space Workshop: The Changing Faces of Singapore
5 Jul
3pm
72-13
2h, no intermission
By Tan Biyun

What do the covers of our history textbooks tell us about the Singapore Story? What if we can really read a book by its cover? Beginning with an inquiry into how the covers of our textbooks have changed over the years, the workshop invites participants to consider how power is reflected and extended through images. Participants will also be challenged to redesign the cover of their current history textbook, using the activity as a way to critically examine the contributions of key figures that have shaped our nation.

Suitable for 15 years and above. Limit 25 pax.

The Unforgetting Workshop: A Picture of Singapore History
6 and 7 Jul
3pm
72-13
2h, no intermission
By Tan Biyun and Wong Hui Yu

What do the images in our history textbooks tell us about our past? How do their meanings shift across different contextual frames? This workshop invites participants to explore the use of images as historical evidence and to try their hands at narrating this history through the use of visual source material such as photographs, films, artworks and illustrations. Through this process, participants will gain an appreciation of how images have not just represented but have themselves produced history.

Suitable for 15 years and above. Limit 25 pax.

Unsettled Assignments: Workshop
1 Jul
11am
72-13
6h, including one-hour lunch break
By Sidd Perez, Vuth Lyno

This half-day workshop begins with presentations on conflict and peacekeeping within postcolonial Southeast Asia, culminating in group activities to examine how Singapore is implicated in this history. Through this process, you will also draw on your personal stories and collective histories in an attempt to incubate a language that grapples with the complex relations developed between post-colonial countries.

Suitable for 18 years and above. Limit 20 pax.

Unsettled Assignments: Screening of Where I Go by Kavich Neang
1 Jul
7pm
72-13
1h30, no intermission
Introduction & post-screening dialogue with Vuth Lyno

In Kavich Neang's documentary Where I Go (2013), the Cambodian film-maker discusses the experience of growing up and discrimination faced by a pair of mixed-race Cambodian siblings: San Pattica, whose father was a United Nations peacekeeper from Cameroon in Cambodia from 1992 to 1993, and his sister, whose father is Ghanaian.

Rating: NC16 (drug use)