Goh Ching Lee
Director, Singapore Arts Festival
Chair, AAPAF

Speech at the AAPAF Conference, 1 Aug 2008.

First, I would like to extend my gratitude to Jakart for its gracious invitation and hosting of the 4^th Annual General Meeting of the Association of Asian Performing Arts Festivals in Jakarta. It is a real pleasure for us to be here.

We were unanimous in our wish to meet in Jakarta this year.  Firstly, by our presence here, we hope to give our moral support to the work of Jakart. Jakart has been a committed and staunch member of AAPAF, and I would like to salute its Executive Director Ary Sutedja and Artistic Director Mikhail for their tireless efforts in sustaining Jakart in spite of the challenges they face, and in their own support given to new Indonesian festivals in Bali, Jogjakarta, and Solo. Secondly, we welcome this valuable opportunity to meet and be acquainted with the work of artists, cultural workers and supporters in Jakarta.

I would like to thank ‘President Soekarno’ for his vote of confidence in AAPAF as an example of a way forward in developing the arts and culture of the 21^st century. Indeed, we are raising our collective voice to be heard, to highlight the existence of Festivals in Asia, and to demonstrate that despite our different histories, developmental trajectories and artistic persuasions, we are committed within AAPAF in seeking personal and professional connections that will enrich the development of our own festivals, and in the process, enrich the experience of the communities we impact upon.

In the four years since its formation, AAPAF membership has nearly doubled from15 members to 29 festival and arts organizations, with 18 members from Asia and 11 other members from Europe, Australasia and South

America, comprising festivals and festival networks, arts companies, artist agencies, and other cultural and educational foundations and institutions.

The key to successful co-operation is strong personal working relations, and meetings amongst AAPAF has raised the level of communication and rapport, leading to co-operation and co-productions on a bilateral basis, as well as a multilateral dance co-production, MATA, involving 5 member festivals that was presented in Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Jogjakarta, and Solo. Just a month ago, we launched the AAPAF Internship Award that will offer two annual grants to arts students or young arts professionals resident in Asia  to take up a minimum 4-week internship with participating festivals. We hope through this to develop an AAPAF alumnus who will continue to champion the work of AAPAF in their future careers and possibly as future cultural leaders.

I want to come back to why are arts festivals important? Why should we have them and spend money organising them? What’s the role of the Festival, and their relevance in the 21^st century? Much has been written about the artistic, educational, social, economic value of Festivals. But may I, at the risk of sounding reductive, offer Singapore’s short-hand explanation – the A B Cs of why festivals and the arts matter.

They matter because of A, for Arts sake – to give artists and the community the intrinsic right and the opportunity for self-expression, to grant them the right to dream and to roam, to enable them to find personal and aesthetic fulfillment and enrichment through artistic creation and participation

B, for Business sake – because festivals are good for business and the economy, creating business spin-offs for allied industries – hotel, transport, travel, food and beverage, attracting arts or festival tourism, engaging the business sector in business and corporate sponsorship etc

C, for Community sake – the capacity of Festivals to create a shared cultural and educational experience that will promote intercultural understanding, bridge communities and help promote a sense of shared destiny and identity

Personally, I see an arts Festival as a celebration and affirmation of life and of living – life in all its glory, fantasy, beauty, and pain. We see and experience this through the eye, mind, and imagination of artists who question, interpret, confront, deconstruct and reconstruct the physical, emotional and mental worlds we live in. Through them we may relish, comprehend and heal in the worlds we live in. Through them, we may also escape the worlds we don’t want to live in. Ultimately, while festivals themselves may not be enough to make life worth living, they certainly do make life much more interesting, more bearable, and more livable.

And in that sense, Festivals are needed with greater urgency in the 21^st century than ever before. The ‘old’ wars of nationalism and ethnic conflicts of the last century  have given way to a new and more terrifying global and  ideological conflict in the post 911 21^st century; advances in science and genetics are questioning and overturning moral constructs without necessarily creating new ones to replace them; the digital age means the democracy of access to knowledge and opportunities, but it could also mask a new kind of tyranny for those who do not have the means and privilege of tapping into it. The renewed environmental crisis – global warming, SARs, bird flu, the increased incidences of massive natural disasters, food shortages etc - the first decade of the 21^st century has already probably yielded far more new urgent international crises than we had expected.

Individuals and communities are increasingly coming under assault from unexpected developments with an increasing sense of panic. Perhaps, Festivals can play a vital role here - offer a space for us to contemplate and reflect, and an opportunity to help us transcend the complexities of the 21^st century.

All of this means that as festival organizers we have a great and heavy responsibility in the 21^st century!

I once heard the theatre guru Eugenio Barba say this in tempering the idealism of his students - “ Good art will not necessarily save or change the world. But bad art will make it worse!” I think this warning can apply to Festivals.

There is no magic formula in creating ‘good’ festivals. But the start point is in creating them with great care, sincerity and sensitivity. I hope that through the AAPAF process, we can glean lessons on this from one another.

Thank you.

JakArt secretariat: Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: + 62-21-70830742, email: proseni@indosat.net.id