01/11/2021
Hello Friends,
Our Joint Artistic Directors, Amin and Shai have come to a decision to close Bhumi Collective at the end of 2021. With the closure of the company, they both will be pursuing new opportunities in their individual practice in the new year, which they will be announcing in time to come.
Bhumi Collective was never meant to be a company. It had started because two old friends who had never worked together before decided to do so while they were pursuing their MA studies in the UK. They wanted to tick a box off their bucket list – to present a work at the Edinburgh Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world. They made new friends, got down to it and made it happen and the rest as we know it, is history.
Fast forward five years later, Bhumi Collective has had the opportunity to present work in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the UK. The team has been able to participate at different conferences, meetings, marketplaces and residencies around the world and we have always been proud to carry the Singapore flag each time. Since our inception in 2016, we have presented and produced over 20 productions which have opened up opportunities for us to connect with friends from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, New Zealand and the Philippines, to name a few.
Before we go, we still have a few projects lined up. Recently, we announced a work-in-progress presentation of In the Name of…Hip Hop, which is still available online for you to check out for a few more weeks. In December, we will be working with Tampines-Meridian Junior College with whom we are running a hybrid edition of a Southeast Asian focused cultural immersion programme for their students. Following this, we will be conducting a sharing of our recently concluded micro-residency with Broome and Sydney based dance company, Marrugeku and finally, we will be presenting a research development sharing of The Malay World Project: Roots & Routes as part of the Taiwan based platform, Asia Discovers Asia Meeting (ADAM) 2021: Rehearsing for the Future.
We are blessed to know that we have been able to contribute to the arts industry in Singapore and the world. While Bhumi Collective’s journey may have come to an end, Amin and Shai will continue the vision, hopes, and values of the company with even more people in their new pursuits, while still working together in an Artist-Producer capacity. The projects that have been in development with Bhumi Collective will continue, with future announcements to come.
We are also proud to have had the chance to work with many young and young-at-heart talents across disciplines and roles. They have been our core team members, associates, collaborators and friends, all of whom have made the last five years extremely colourful.
Like most journeys in life, our plans are never static or straightforward. Life takes a turn, plans change and we look to ways of doing things differently. In our instance, the pandemic affected us adversely initially but eventually, it has also urged us to find urgency in the things we want to say, do and pursue. We look forward to this new year of change that awaits us.
And so, we want to send a great big TERIMA KASIH to all of you who have been a part of this journey with us – from collaborating with us to being a listening ear to just being a great supporter.
