Heman Chong: Letter to Viktor

Dear Viktor,

I am writing this letter to you on my phone while I am out on a walk across Singapore.

I live in a city where it’s almost impossible to be lost. Every last detail of the state has been executed with absolute precision. There are a few slippages, but these are constantly corrected over the years. Very little is left to chance. Everyday life is surveyed, regulated and controlled.

I think a lot about the possibilities of existing outside this masterplan that I call home. Small, informal alterations to the city. Marks and objects attesting to ways in which individuals try to create a sense of place for themselves outside of the masterplan.

A cairn is a stack of rocks raised to mark a trail, where it becomes visible for the next traveller. I imagine them as one of the oldest forms of sculpture we have created as a species.

When our mutual friend, Samuel Saelemakers, approached me to make a sculpture for this plinth, a question he asked really made think.

Who or what do we put on a pedestal today?

And here is an answer I can offer in this moment of my life:

The things that allow us to help each other find our way out of the dark.

Thank you for helping us construct this beautifully impermanent sculpture. I hope to meet you one day in person, in front of this reminder that there is always a way out.

Very best

Heman

Letter to Viktor by Heman Chong is a project by the Antwerp Public Art Collection—Middelheim Museum. Curated by Samuel Saelemakers.