Singapore is the world’s second-largest trading port and an economic epicenter for the region, making it an ideal point of departure to examine place and the intersection between locality and the global that occurs in labor and the flow of capital. With this in mind, it is fitting that the Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art (NTU CCA) chose “Place.Labour.Capital.” as the framework of its first three years in existence. During these opening years, artists and creators used this theme to connect cultural production and artistic research to broader political and social issues.
This extensive publication weaves together critical essays and contributions by curators and academics with former artists-in-residence at NTU CCA, and documents past exhibitions in photographs. Place.Labour.Capital. serves equally as a rear-view mirror that enables an art institution to review its own history and its position in the time of global art. Drawing connections across disciplines and fields of practice, this will allow readers to encounter, experience, and engage critically with ideas that bear a sense of the urgency and have relevance in the wider social sphere.