Parkview Square isn’t just popularly known as Singapore’s “Gotham building”. It also houses the country’s largest private museum. David Fuhrmann-Lim reports.
For 15 years, not much seemed to happen at Parkview Squar at 600 North Bridge Road.
Then in March this year, without trumpets blaring or banners unfurling, Atlas (the bar to get your gin fix at) and Parkview Museum (Singapore’s largest private museum) opened there.
The latter is on the third floor of the magnificent Art Deco building, and its aim is to enrich our local art scene and provide a global platform for artistic expression and the popularisation of contemporary art in Singapore – at no charge to the public.
“I think Singaporeans in general are ready to start looking at art more, and I know the government wants to push art here,” says Vicky Hwang, managing director of the Parkview Group (which is known for its residential and hotel developments, and arts organisations) in Singapore.
“And when Singaporeans put their minds to it, they make it happen in a big way.”
The museum’s first exhibition, On Sharks and Humanity, is a multidisciplinary conservation effort that’s epic in scale and emotional in scope.
Featuring artists from Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and the United States, it addresses the practice of shark finning and the impact of human activity on the oceans. It is supported by international non-profit organisation Wildaid, whose mission is to end the illegal wildlife trade and reduce demand for wildlife products such as shark’s fin.
“We decided to open with this exhibition,” Hwang says. “We could’ve opened with Italian contemporary art, but we wanted to do something that was a little bit more accessible to the general population, something with a more passionate appeal that would also have a social cause.”
Parkview Museum is founded on the belief that art can play a significant role in initiating societal change.
George Wong, Parkview Arts Action founder and Hong Kong Parkview Group executive chairman, says: “This is a serious environmental issue that affects us all. Shark preservation is undoubtedly critical. Declining shark numbers pose a fundamental threat to the health of the world’s oceans. Through the artists’ varied interpretations, On Sharks and Humanity can inform and confront audiences in ways that strike more directly into the human psyche than the abstract language of scientific debate.”
Singapore is the exhibition’s first South-east Asian stop. It was previously showcased at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in 2014 before travelling to Moscow and the National Museum of China in Beijing in 2015.
The environment and artistic expression are priorities in Parkview Group’s development strategy. Wong himself is an inveterate art collector.
He firmly believes that people need to interact with art and see art in everyday life, not just in a museum setting. Most of the group’s properties have art installations through the whole development area, the retail sections, the hotel areas and the common walkways.
All this is apparent in Parkview Square’s surrounds: Botero’s Dressed Woman looms large in the courtyard; four Ren Zhe statues – representing celestial beings – symbolically protect the corners of the property; and a few of the On Sharks and Humanity pieces are installed strategically as well.
Parkview Museum is the group’s first in South-east Asia; the other is in Beijing. Its art collection includes the largest Dali collection outside of Spain, numerous artworks by Western masters, and a substantial collection of contemporary Chinese art amounting to more than 10,000 works.
“We want to bring international artists and thematic exhibitions that will draw on artists from all over the world. We plan to have about four exhibitions a year [at this museum],” says Hwang.
“Currently, Beijing is showcasing Italian contemporary art, and that’s the next show that will come here.” After that, we can expect an alternation between solo shows and thematic group exhibitions. These will be curated by the group’s arts organisation arm, Parkview Arts Action, which will strive to involve the local community and play an educational role by strengthening our appreciation and understanding of contemporary art.
