Are you happy? – OH! Open House at Marina Bay

The theme of this year’s OH! Open House is “The Happiness Index”, and this unique art walkabout is being held at Marina Bay this time, among the massive congregation of spanking new and squeaky clean skyscrapers. If the index would fluctuate like the stock market, I guess we could see a sharp increment on Fridays. The effect of TGIF that is.

Just like this Friday at the new DBS headquarters at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3, where I got the chance to join the staff of DBS for a tour of the DBS section of OH!, the atmosphere was specially lightening. In this multi-storey stronghold of hardworking workforce, the centre of such relaxing ambience was at The Exchange on level 13, where an unrivaled view of the bay was generously served.

Maybe it was the effect of the art works too. No matter how new and trendy the design of a bank office is, the nature of the business and the activities there inevitably makes the space look ‘too materialistic’. I feel Alan Oei, the curator of OH! made a shift from the down-to-earth Tiong Bahru last year to this high-powered corporate world at Marina Bay to challenge the correlation between money and happiness. As the participants tour high up the floors and down at the alleys, they should expect to question the glorified patterns of working and living at Marina Bay.

It is indeed delightful to know that DBS took up the role of a presenting sponsor. I hope a corporation with such prominence will continue to do more for the arts, as OH! at Marina Bay reminds us that, while money fuels our daily life, arts make our life better.

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OH! Open House at Marina Bay runs for 3 weekends – 5 & 6, 12 & 13 as well as 19 & 20 Jan, 11:00am – 5:00pm