Here’s to the end of the week
How do you – figuratively speaking – illuminate an entire city over the course of a weekend? That’s a question that Datin Shalini Ganendra, managing director of Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, chose to tangle with when she decided to launch Gallery Weekend Kuala Lumpur. With the participation of over 20 other local galleries and institutions, the weekend of 25 to 27 November will present an opportunity for visitors and KL-ites to delve into the city’s cultural urbanscape.
“Gallery Weekend Kuala Lumpur 2016 is about carefully coordinating these crossings and concurrences in order to best experience them,” Ganendra explains, adding that this inaugural event will cater to both newcomers to Malaysia’s artistic environment as well as those who are familiar with that world. This year’s theme, Mapping the Multidisciplinary, is all about throwing light on how much our arts scene has to offer.
“The programme has been organised to highlight the specific physical and geopolitical topography of the city and country. We’ve zoomed in on Malaysian artists and their interaction with Malaysian focuses and narratives. The Weekend features both large public institutions and smaller grassroots galleries, selected to fully map Kuala Lumpur as an urban and cultural space.” With anchor support from The Majestic Hotel and The Marini’s Group, bespoke tours and platforms for exploring gastronomy, nature and architecture can be expected to run alongside more unusual highlights, such as the Luminary Pulse Series.
A special programme of lectures and panel discussions bolstered by the support of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Luminary Pulse Series will feature structural engineer and design guru Hanif Kara, and contemporary curator Christopher Philips of the International Center of Photography in New York. A chance to engage with a line-up of illustrious speakers, be immersed in a multidisciplinary range of offerings, and purchase a choice piece or two – it’s enough to get any art lover’s pulse racing.
