On Any Given Day: A Soundwalk at Hong Lim Complex
Soundwalk
Date: Sat, 30 Aug, 2 PM - 4 PM
Meeting point at Hong Lim Complex: Sook Ching Inspection Centre Historic Marker https://share.google/BTWvLxBgyKalF6vlj
Presented by The Listening Biennial, a highlight of The Singapore Night Festival
For The Listening Biennial, Third Edition, Chong Li-Chuan made a soundscape composition entitled On Any Given Day. It is an 8.5-minute stereo piece created from field recordings made at Hong Lim Complex in Singapore. The work is a meditation on the site’s layered history, specifically its role during the Japanese Occupation in 1942. The piece positions listening as an act of remembrance and woven into the soundscape is a personal thread: the story of Li-Chuan’s grandfather’s improbable escape from death during Sook Ching.
Extending from this composition, On Any Given Day: A Soundwalk at Hong Lim Complex is a 60-minute silent walk guided by Li-Chuan. It invites participants to attune to the sonic present of a site marked by public and personal trauma. Once the epicentre of forced separations, Hong Lim Complex now folds into the city’s everyday rhythms.
This walk offers a space for reflection, listening to the present, to what has been lost, and to what resounds. To walk is to remember. To listen is to resist forgetting.
Participant Notes:
- 2 hours includes a 60min soundwalk followed by dialogue with the artist
- Dress comfortably for walking and climbing of stairs.
- Bring a water bottle
About the Artist:
Chong Li-Chuan
CHONG Li-Chuan (b.1975) is a Singaporean composer who is passionate about philosophy, culture and the arts. Li-Chuan’s career in music and sound started in the late 90s, working as a composer and sound designer collaborating with practitioners in theatre, dance, spoken word, architecture, filmmaking, design, and visual art. Li-Chuan’s creative endeavours include music composition, sound design, site-specific art and performance, installation, free improvisation, and collaborative work, to continually explore the poetics of sound and listening.
