New Journey to the West

1993

Of all the projects I have worked on, The New Journey to the West might well be the most emblematic of my identity as "Ma, the in-between". The project, conceived for the 1993 French Festival in Singapore, aimed at re-actualising the original artistic link between the two countries. In the first half of the 20th century, the first generation of Singaporean artist had gone to Paris to study. Drawing a parallel with the classic Chinese tale 'Journey to the West', in which a Chinese Buddhist monk travels to India in search of the original scriptures, I asked four Singaporean artists to embark on a six weeks tour of France with me as a guide and bring back an exhibition of their vision of the country.

For the duration of the project, I truly felt in between worlds and cultures, while working as curator, artist, organiser and tour guide. Two exhibitions resulted from the journey. They offered a rather unusual vision of France that proved particularly appealing to the Singaporean public.

Left - Right  Vincent Leow, Koh Nguang How, Han Sai Por, Chandra Sekeran, Gilles Massot

Exhibition Invite

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Installation View

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The four Singaporean artists by Gilles Massot

Chandra Sekaran

Han Sai Por

Koh Nguang How

Vincent Leow

Sai Por visiting Orsay Museum

Behind-the-scenes