Contemporary art exhibition launched in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- "What is Not Visible is Not Invisible, " a contemporary art exhibition featuring 30 artworks mainly by French artists, opened at the National Museum of Singapore on Friday.

The exhibition features selected artworks from the French Regional Collections of Contemporary Art (FRAC), one of the most important public collection of contemporary art founded in 1982 and anchored by 23 institutions across France.

This has been the first time that FRAC artworks is presented in the Asia Pacific region.

"This exhibition...is committed to making contemporary art accessible to the public, encouraging them to discover and understand it through the eyes of the young artists and designers," said Bernard de Montferrand, President of FRAC.

"What is Not Visible is Not Invisible" is the title of a workpiece by French artist Julien Discrit. Three infrared lightbulbs are strung from the ceiling in front of an unassuming blank wall when visitors look at the installation the first time. Triggered by the viewer's presence, the bulbs light up to reveal the ultraviolet text on the wall: "What is not visible is not invisible".

The work only appears when it is seen, highlighting that to express the invisible, one needs paradoxically to make it visible.

The contemporary art exhibition broadly surveys the imaginary and temporary, and takes visitors on an experiential and progressive journey of the mind and senses.

Through multi-media installations, the show invites new ways of perception and brings each visitor into a new state of mind through personal interpretations of the presentations, its surrounding space, and context.

In artwork "Repulse Bay" by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, a beach is recreated indoors instantly, which captures the audiences' attention through the displacement of what is expected to be outdoors suddenly appearing indoors.

Artworks by prominent contemporary artists can also be seen at the exhibition. For example, the much-celebrated "Work No. 262" by British multimedia artist Martin Creed invites visitors into a space of balloons, to contemplate and respond to the idea of the physical space.

The exhibition, on display until Feb. 19, 2017, is curated to encourage interaction and leave room for personal interpretation. Many of the artworks call for visitors and the environment to play a key role in their presentation.