2219: Futures Imagined

2219: Futures Imagined
1 November 2019

I am truly delighted to announce an exhibition very dear to my heart, and one that’s been incubating for a long time. 2219: Futures Imagined explores how our world might change over the next 200 years. It is a major exhibition curated by me and my team at ArtScience Museum, as part of the Singapore Bicentennial, based on an idea by Alvin Pang.

The show, which opens on 23 November 2019, takes the timeframe of the Bicentennial – 200 years – and projects it forward. But rather than being a set of predictions of how the future may unfold, 2219: Futures Imagined presents speculative ideas by more than 30 artists, designers, writers and architects from around the world, including: Larry Achiampong (UK), John Akomfrah (UK), Sarah Choo (Singapore), Finbarr Fallon (Singapore), Adeline Kueh (Singapore), Zarina Muhammad (Singapore), Lisa Park (Korea), Rimini Protokoll (Germany), Superflux (UK) and Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore)and many more.

Purple by John Akomfrah, 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

The exhibition places visitors in scenarios that explore how our future lives may be impacted by climate change and loss of the planet’s biodiversity. It features ‘experiential futures’, immersive installations, theatrical sets, meditative spaces, interactive artworks, films, prints and sculptures that allow audiences to step into, and be part of, possible futures.

2219 deliberately resists the utopian and dystopian futures we often see in science fiction, and instead focuses on ‘small futures’ – intimate and enduring stories and traditions which are passed down from generation to generation. It invites visitors to reflect on what kind of future they want for Singapore, and what actions they may take now to bring that future into being.

Calendrival Systems for the Afterlife by Zarina Muhammad, 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

We are immensely grateful to Gene Tan for daring us to make this show, to Alvin for having the idea, to SpaceLogic for co-producing, and to Annie Kwan and Adriel Luis for acting as our curatorial advisors.

See more: https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/exhibitions/2219-futures-imagined.html

Reflections on 2219 – Updated in 2023

2219 ended up being ArtScience Museum’s longest running exhibition, running from 23 November 2019 to 9 August 2020 right through the peak of the pandemic. Many of the themes it explored became eerily prescient as the pandemic hit in 2020.

Alvin Pang’s poetry installation in 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

2219 drew on a technique which the futurist Stuart Candy refers to as “experiential futures” (https://is.gd/stuartcandy). These are interactive installations and physical environments that allow audiences to step into, and be part of, possible futures.

Nowhere Near by Sarah Choo Jing, 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

2219 placed our visitors in futures where the world had been transformed by environmental issues. It was developed to commemorate the Singapore Bicentennial taking the timeframe of the Bicentennial – 200 years – and projecting it forward to imagine what Singapore, and indeed the world, might be like in the year 2219. Rather than being a set of predictions of how the future may unfold, 2219 presented speculative ideas by more than 30 artists, designers, writers and architects from around the world.

Image by WOHA Architects, 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

Designers Superflux invited us inside an Singapore apartment set some time later in the 21st century amidst rising sea levels and dwindling food supplies.
What is the family who lives here like?

Mitigation of Shock by Superflux, 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

What books do they read? What are their children drawing? Where does food come from? And what meals do they eat?

What’s the view like out their window?

How do they navigate their world?

Finbarr Fallon took us into a Subterranean Singapore, set at a time where the surface of the earth is no longer habitable.

Subterranean Singapore 2065 by Finbarr Fallon. 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

How was this city engineered? What does governance look like down here?

What social problems exist in this underground world?

Donna Ong and Lisa Park gave us glimpses of how nature might be memorialised once we can no longer be part of it every day.

Artworks by Donna Ong and Lisa Park. 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

Perhaps in this future, trees take on an almost sacred quality …

Blooming by Lisa Park. 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

Later, Rimini Protokol gave us an uncanny encounter with some of the creatures we may need to learn to love more closely with as the borders between the land and the sea become more porous.

<win><win> by Rimini Protokoll. 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

In 2219, we used the language of immersive set design to invite our visitors to physically step inside potential futures and spend time existing within their contours. We asked: is this a future you want to be part of? Is it one you could find a way of surviving within? Could you thrive there?

Subterranean Singapore 2065 by Finbarr Fallon. 2219: Futures Imagined at ArtScience Museum, 2019-2020

In gently prompting you to ponder such questions, ArtScience Museum are also making space for deeper enquiries: what kind of future do you want? And what actions you might take today to bring a more sustainable future into being.

Exhibition website: https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/exhibitions/2219-futures-imagined.html