Ever paused to reflect on your present life and consider how different things might be in 10 years’ time?

This is what one of the two artworks situated on SMU's campus attempts to do, as part of the Singapore Biennale – Singapore's pre-eminent platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. 

Part of the Urban Play project initiated by Indonesian artists Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina and conceived as a series of playful interventions in public spaces, 10 Years Later calls for participants to pause and take a moment for personal reflection in the midst of their busy, hurried lives, and to capture the zeitgeist of a society and its people at a particular point in its history. Participants are asked to contribute items that mark their way of thinking, being, and living in the year 2013. These items are placed in individual acrylic boxes during the exhibition, and later stored by the artists in envelopes that act as ‘time-capsules’ for the next 10 years, until they are mailed back to their owners.

[Photo: (L-R) SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer, with Indonesian artists Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina (4^th and 5^th from left), preparing the envelope which will hold his items in storage for the next 10 years]

[Featured photo: The locking of Prof De Meyer’s acrylic box signifies the sealing of his ‘time capsule’]

On the morning of 26 October 2013, in conjunction with the opening weekend of the Biennale, SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer met with the artists who were in Singapore for a few days to officially introduce their collection of interactive artworks. To express his firm support for the project, Prof De Meyer brought his own memento for the year 2013 – the book (Almost) Uniquely Singapore: 18 Objects, written by SMU students and describing objects that form part of our everyday experiences in Singapore today – to be showcased and preserved. Friends from the Singapore Biennale organizing committee, as well as a group of SMU students and staff cheered Prof De Meyer on as he unlocked the clear box and placed the book for display inside.

The book was accompanied by a handwritten note in which he ponders on how SMU might change. He wrote, “Will we still learn in the same way? How will we fulfill the mission of a university: critical thinking, teaching well and communicating effectively?”

[Photo: (Almost) Uniquely Singapore: 18 Objects, Prof De Meyer’s letter and a polaroid which was taken on the day the items were deposited]

The artwork was opened for public participation on Monday, 28 October and by the next day, all the 60 acrylic boxes had been filled.

SMU is the venue sponsor for two of the artworks of the Singapore Biennale 2013 which is organised by the Singapore Arts Museum and the National Heritage Board, and runs from 26 October 2013 to 16 February 2014.

[Photo: Prof De Meyer (centre) with Singapore Biennale artists, organizer and SMU students]