By Deepika Shetty
Arts Correspondent
deepika@sph.com.sg

 

POET Cyril Wong takes a Walk In The Park, and finally the Singapore Biennale blog has something brilliant to talk about.

In a post done today, he writes:

'Biennale is definitely hilarious though. It's a theme park disguised as a cultural phenomenon. Because we need to believe we have a culture. That we are a country. One worth investing in. We're saying the same things all over again, aren't we? Like you said, some things need repeating.'

I just hope that the responses that follow will pick up on the intriguing ideas and themes that he has raised about the Biennale.

I say this because in the past few days, posts have degenerated into slamming and slanging matches.
The fuss started on Sept 15 when a post titled "Quick Guide to One Hundred Years of Solitude", appeared on the Biennale blog.

It began innocuously enough: Someone didn't quite get what artist Heman Chong's work was about - which is perfectly fine.

After all, reading, mis-reading and not reading a work of art is sometimes what art is all about. And as it is often said, it isn't art until someone hates it.

Like poet and playwright Ng Yi Sheng, I was enjoying the fight. That was till the attacks became personal, the language degenerated and the debate and intent of the blog was well and truly forgotten.

I am all for debate, I'm all for discussion, for arguments, especially when they are laid out as lyrically as the ones in Cyril Wong's post.

Can we keep it there on the Biennale blog?

Sure, if the tempers stay in check, the intent behind the blog isn't forgotten and people who say their bit stick by what they write.

Blogs, posts and comments leave little room for apology. And people who join in the act need to remember that.

However, it is encouraging to hear the Singapore Biennale blog organisers will not be policing this site.

As Low Kee Hong, the general manager of the Singapore Biennale, has spelt it out: "Any official blog would die a natural death. I would much rather prefer that people who join the fray stand by what they write."

I'll second that. But it would be nice if the level of discourse lived up to the high-flying intent of the blog's organisers.