SINGAPORE.- In its 2016 edition, Art Stage Singapore will introduce the Southeast Asia Forum, which aims to emphasise the balance between art, commerce and content. An extension of the Southeast Asia Platform exhibitions at the Fair from 2014 to 2015, the Forum is a thematic programme that takes a more focused and deeper view into broad global issues that also affect our immediate region and lives.

The inaugural Southeast Asia Forum is titled Seismograph: Sensing the City - Art In the Urban Age. Comprising two symbiotic parts - an exhibition and a talk series, it is centred on the theme of urbanisation. The Forum's exhibition component will survey the role of artists in the evolution of contemporary societies across Southeast Asia. The projects to be presented in the exhibition will focus on 16 artists who relate to issues and sentiments of extremely rapid urbanisation in their own countries. The participating artists include Lim Sokchanlina (Cambodia), Aliansyah Caniago (Indonesia), Aditya Novali (Indonesia), Tintin Wulia (Indonesia), Moe Satt (Myanmar), Zoncy (Myanmar), Felix Bacolor (Philippines), Norberto Roldan (Philippines), MM Yu (Philippines), Sherman Ong (Singapore), Robert Zhao (Singapore), Marvin Tang (Singapore), Anon Pairot (Thailand), Piyarat Piyapongwiwat (Thailand), Navin Rawanchaikul (Thailand) and Sutthirat Supaparinya (Thailand).

The Forum's talk series will bring together architects, urbanists, social scientists, men and women of letters and artists to examine, through their different perspectives, the challenges of urbanisation and how cities can be re-imagined through different ways of seeing, learning and cooperation. The participating speakers include Jean de Loisy, Peggy Levitt, Kwok Kian Chow, Simon de Pury, Rem Koolhaas, Michael Schindhelm, Daniel A. Bell, Chua Beng Huat, Saskia Sassen and others.