Exhibition from 20 April to 24 November 2024.
Key Supporter: CHARLES & KEITH Group Foundation
Venue: Pavilion of Singapore, Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi, Venice

VENICE – A journey into the realm of Seeing Forest introduces visitors to a captivating, forested zone existing in both the imagination and in the urban landscape of Singapore. Positioned as a transitional space, the secondary forest serves as a threshold between the primeval, untouched forest and the developed urban areas, prompting contemplation on the intricate web of human and non-human coexistence. Renowned artist Robert Zhao Renhui presents an invitation to explore the reciprocal impact of urban design on the natural world, and vice versa, creating a new ecosystem of migrant species that mirrors the historical development and diverse composition of a city’s human population.

The exhibition features three pivotal works: a two-channel video installation titled “The Owl, The Travellers and The Cement Drain (2024),” a sculptural video installation named “Trash Stratum (2024),” and a digital print titled “Buffy (2024).” These works represent a culmination of Zhao’s extensive research and offer compelling insights into the secondary forest and its inhabitants.

The central piece, “The Owl, The Travellers and The Cement Drain (2024),” presents mesmerizing scenes from the forest, juxtaposed with an enigmatic narrative of two human characters navigating through this space. Departing from conventional documentary approaches, ecological activism, and linear storytelling, Zhao endeavors to transform the forest into a fluid realm of boundless possibilities.

In parallel, the sculptural video installation “Trash Stratum (2024)” showcases diverse creatures congregating around an improvised watering hole within an abandoned dustbin. The installation challenges traditional systems of categorization, alluding to colonial practices, and advocates for imaginative and fluid interpretations of interconnections and networks within nature.

The digital print “Buffy (2024)” captures a bird native to Southeast Asia, the buffy fish owl, with its back turned to the viewer, evoking the profound aphorism by Heraclitus, “nature loves to hide.” This thought-provoking representation hints at the intriguing link between concealment and revelation.

In addition to these key works, visitors will encounter a printed map of an unnamed, imaginary forest, providing an orientation to the surreal and natural dimension within the Pavilion. Artist Robert Zhao Renhui expressed his profound connection to the secondary forests, emphasizing their capacity for constant discovery and the nuanced coexistence of diverse forces and elements.

The curator of the Pavilion, Haeju Kim, invites visitors to engage in a sensory and contemplative experience, akin to entering a forest, and emphasizes the crucial intersection between the seen and the lived experience, set against the backdrop of Singapore’s secondary forests.

Photo: Robert Zhao and Haeju Kim.

Under the thematic backdrop of “Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere” for Biennale Arte 2024, Zhao’s presentation pays homage to the untamed and unrestricted forests bordering urban landscapes, encapsulating Singapore’s narrative of settlement, colonization, migration, and harmonious coexistence between species.

Eugene Tan, Co-Chair of the Commissioning Panel and Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Art Museum (SAM), praised Zhao’s profound investigation of Singapore’s secondary forests, acknowledging the complexities, conflicts, and harmonies within these spaces.

Singapore’s Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Edwin Tong, emphasized the significant role of art in provoking reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature and the environment, offering hope for the future.

The presentation of “Seeing Forest” marks Singapore’s 11th participation at the prestigious Biennale Arte and is commissioned by NAC, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and organized by SAM. Scheduled for display from 20th April to 24th November 2024, the official inauguration will take place on Wednesday, 17th April 2024 at 12.30pm at the Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi building.

For the latest updates, please @singaporeartmuseum on Instagram or Facebook, or visit bit.ly/SingaporePavilion-BA2024.

“[Through the exhibition] My hope is to create a rich and ambiguous space where visitors
can experience an imaginary forest where the barriers between human and non-human,
past and future, are abandoned; where humans, animals, plants, and possibly ghosts,
co-exist in various overlapping realities; where visitors will be bombarded by sounds and
images that conjure up beauty and mystery and weirdness.”- Robert Zhao Renhui, Artist

The observation of the ultimately unknowable in the natural world is a hallmark of artist Robert Zhao Renhui’s praxis. Since 1998, under the auspices of his own semi-fictional Institute of Critical Zoologists, Zhao’s many and varied projects have served as lenses that highlight the resilience of nature and the various interactions that occur when such resilience overlaps with human life and society.Notably, over the last seven years, he has been focusing on secondary forests in Singapore— forests regrown from deforested land due to human intervention such as development and plantation — and the new ecosystems that have developed within it. For the Singapore Pavilion, decades of Zhao’s accumulated observations are condensed and organised into an intensive installation that complements the scale and condition of the Singapore Pavilion in Arsenale. Through this exhibition, we see how the island of Singapore has evolved to arrive at the present day, revealing some of the ways in which human urban design can shape the natural world itself, resulting in an ecosystem of migrant species that echoes the trajectories and makeup of the city’s human population. At the same time, Seeing Forest also highlights
phenomena that are universally relatable to those living in any urban environment.

Photo: Mr Edwin Tong (Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law) and Robert Zhao.