Programme Synopsis

Artist Heman Chong handpicks luminous films that explore the genre of road movies, as a lens through which to view his expansive cultural practice. More than just stories of travel, road movies are about navigating the foreign and unfamiliar—both in the world and within ourselves. This theme of displacement has been a significant and recurring touchstone in Chong’s own artistic development.

The programme finds its heart in two films that have shaped Chong’s creative voice: Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (1997) and Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999). He pairs them as a way to explore nuanced stories of intimacy and identity, alongside the feeling of being adrift. For Chong, the 1990s when the films were made mark his formative years as an artist, and the films allowed him to explore a world apart from his own. In Happy Together, Chong resonates with its portrayal of alienation, amplified by a striking visual style that was born of necessity and chance—the movie was shot on expired film stock, rendering its world in beautifully volatile colours. To it, Chong finds a powerful companion piece in Beau Travail, where bodies and desires move through a landscape that is not their own.

These cinematic journeys illuminate intricate relationships forged on the road, the complexities of isolation, and how landscapes shape both protagonists and societal realities. The programme refers to Chong’s artwork, Works on Paper #1: Notes on Roads, Trips, and Other Slips and Falls (2023–ongoing), a series of posters for an imaginary film festival, extending the themes of the road movie into a new, speculative realm.

This film programme is co-presented by the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and The Projector, on the occasion of Chong’s major survey exhibition at SAM, Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.

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