SINGAPORE — Ahead of National Day next month, the People’s Association on Sunday (July 7) kicked off its annual community art festival with an eye on this year’s bicentennial commemoration that marks 200 years since Sir Stamford Raffles’ arrival.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attended the opening of PAssionArts Festival 2019 at the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park — one of 38 “art villages” that will progressively pop up across the island — participating in activities at seven art installations that looked into more than 700 years of Singapore’s history.

The installation representing the earliest time period between 1299 and 1819 features a traditional Malay sampan decorated with a dragon head and wooden scales that were painted on by more than 200 students from Xin Min Secondary School and members of Ang Mo Kio-Hougang Community Arts and Culture Clubs (CACCs).

Mr Lee, who put the finishing touches for all seven art installations, painted on the eyes of the dragon and penned his wishes on two of the scales.

Its artist, 30-year-old Rebecca Lim, said the co-created artwork symbolises the fusion of cultures, unity among ethnic groups and the determination that had brought Singapore and its people to where it is today.

Another installation that was themed after 1964, a year of turbulence that saw communal violence between the Chinese and the Malays, had 200 Yio Chu Kang residents painting on rice papers.

The flimsy paper sheets typically used for Chinese calligraphy were then pasted onto four sculptures that represented four races in Singapore — Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian.

Artist Ben Puah, 43, used the rice paper to symbolise the “fragile” nature of Singapore’s racial fabric as it must be “treated sensitively”, he told reporters on Sunday.

“Our society is too fast paced. There is a need for us to slow down and stay calm,” he said.

Other art installations include five giant triangular tents where families can gather to play five stones, a wildly popular childhood game of the Merdeka Generation, or Singaporeans born between 1950 and 1959, and generations after that.

Another is a large cotton canvas on which 200 pieces of the Vanda Miss Joaquim national flower were pounded onto to make imprints. Each flower represents a year of Singapore’s 200-year history from 1819 to 2019.

There is also an augmented reality installation that represented Singapore’s future. The artwork featuring a virtual three-dimensional Merlion aims to get the young to teach their grandparents how they can embrace technology.

Members of the public can submit photos they want superimposed on the virtual Merlion, and interact with it through a big screen.

The arts village at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park collated the work of more than 2,000 residents across Ang Mo Kio and Sengkang West CACCs. Sunday’s launch was attended by about 2,500 residents.

The entire PAssionArts Festival, which aims to use art to celebrate National Day, will feature the work of 88 CACCs working alongside 150 artists and art groups, and run till Aug 25.

Besides visiting the art installations on Sunday, Mr Lee also participated in a mass kompang jamming in a segment that was facilitated by Malay percussion group Nadi Singapura.

There, Mr Lee joined more than 100 residents in playing the traditional Malay drum.