The Creative Voice
Dancing at Lit Up 2014. Photo credit Lit Up 2014.jpg

Lit Up: A Multidisciplinary Arts Festival

Lit Up: A Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
2011 - 2014

I (Marc) was the artistic director of Lit Up from 2011 to 2014. Organised by Word Forward, a non-profit arts organisation, Lit Up was a unique, indie approach to multidisciplinary art. Each festival brought together artists from different disciplines under a theme. From graffiti artists to spoken word, to improv comedy to bands, the experience for the audience was multi-sensorial, eclectic and immersive. Carolyn came onboard from 2013 to support the publicity, marketing and on-the-ground organising.

The Sam Willows at Lit Up 2013

In my notes for the 2012 edition, I wrote this:

Lit Up is both process and product, an interactive and performative experience that crosses genres and invites the audience to engage. We can liken the experience of Lit Up to the process of forming a sculpture: 

Space: The spaces we occupy are what defines us and what we are defined by. They are quotidian, and yet inviting in its possibilities to question and invoke layers of thought. 

Tension: Art is not inherently anarchic but creative, yet the impetus to craft is seeded by tension. It is the role of the artist to sculpt a theme through their chosen medium.

Transition: Singapore is continually a city in transit, negotiating the memory of physical and emotional states of being with an irrepressible urge towards the modern.

Shape: Meaning is shaped collaboratively,  in the negotiation between artist and audience. Through this, an architecture of definition is proposed and punches through in its tangible expression.

While always negotiated by the spaces the festival was held in, the above definition holds true, and Lit Up was more than the sum of its parts: it was a playground for established artists to experiment and a platform for emerging artists to be seen. Tickets were affordable and venues were intimate. It was not mass-market art driven for capitalism, but about building a community of artists for the community at large.

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