Centre for Contemporary Arts, Singapore

Emergence of Contestation: 1960s

The Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore opened in 2013 in a series of white buildings, neatly spaced out in a green environment near the Pasir Panjang district. While the seeming archetype of a white cube neutral settings, the cluster of white buildings were originally the Gillman Barracks, erected in 1936 as part of a large military zone complete with schools, hospital facilities and residential housing. They were handed over to the Singaporean State following its declaration of independence in 1965, before being repurposed into an aesthetic abstraction bordering on the decorative.

Art in Former Military Sites: Spectres of Geopolitics in Southeast Asia - Gabriel Gee