Waterloo Street Stories 2025

Name: Waterloo Street Stories 2025
Start: 2025-08-22T18:00:00+08:00
End: 2025-09-06T22:30:00+08:00
Location: Waterloo Street

Schedule

Fri, 22 Aug, 2025 at 06:00 pm to Sat, 06 Sep, 2025 at 10:30 pm

UTC+08:00

Location

Waterloo Street | Singapore, SG

22 Aug to 6 Sep 2025
Courtyard Objectifs
Free admission
Held as part of the Singapore Night Festival
Waterloo Street Stories by #WaterlooStKakis is a multidisciplinary project for Singapore Night Festival 2025 celebrating Waterloo Street's cultural richness—from religious landmarks to arts spaces and everyday life. Through photography performance audio plays workshops and screenings it explores Singapore's maritime roots and evolving identity. Programmed by Centre 42 Objectifs P7:1SMA and SMU-ACM and coordinated by The Theatre Practice the project maps layered histories through movement sensory experiences and community engagement. Transforming the street into a dreamscape of shared memories it invites reflection on connection heritage and place blurring past and present in a vibrant celebration of urban life.
At the heart of Waterloo Street Stories is a long-standing arts-led community-building project that aims to strengthen the role of the arts and culture in Waterloo Street through cultural mapping and documenting the embedded ecologies and layered stories of the communities of Waterloo Street.
For the third time since becoming neighbours five organisations from Waterloo Street – Centre 42 Objectifs P7:1SMA SMU-Arts and Culture Management and The Theatre Practice – have come together to research curate and produce an arts-led event that celebrates the histories and people of the street. We operate under an informally official collective name #WaterlooStKakis signifying a neighbourly and mutually supportive working ethos.
The showcase will feature the following components:
1) Waterloo Street Stories: A Sundried Time Capsule
An outdoor photo exhibition presented by Objectifs
22 Aug to 6 Sep 2025
Venue: Courtyard Objectifs
Related events
Collage & Mark-Making Workshop
30 Aug 2025 7pm – 10pm
Free admission no registration required
Objectifs presents an outdoor exhibition by emerging visual artist Angelena Ikah during the Singapore Night Festival 2025. Her work is the culmination of a two-month residency at Objectifs.
A Sun-Dried Time Capsule is a reflection on the enduring charm of Waterloo Street and its stretch of sun-dry shops known for their dried produce and herbs. These goods resemble time capsules with traces of history preserved in their shriveled skins and faded hues shaped slowly by time sunlight and care. This series explores the imprint of time on form space and human connection; created using silver gelatin printing each image is shaped by its reaction to different materials durations and sunlight exposures. It is both a quiet observation and a tribute to the sun-dried shops of Waterloo Street and to the subtle forms that emerge when time environment and attentiveness converge.
Formerly from the Objectifs Young Photographers' Mentorship Programme Angelena will also conduct a workshop on Collage & Mark-Making. In this workshop she invites participants to turn the every day into the extraordinary blending the art of collage with the playful technique of mark-making to transform a simple envelope into a personal time capsule.
Participants will work with a curated set of images to craft a layered visual story then experiment with natural sun-dried materials to stamp and press unique textures onto their piece. Walk away with a one-of-a-kind keepsake that captures memories moments and a bit of magic.
2) Now Showing: Where There's Water
An outdoor short film programme presented by Objectifs in collaboration with Japanese film collective GINZAZA
Fri 5 Sep 2025 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Venue: Platform Objectifs
Entry by donation – suggested donation $10 – $15 per pax.
Find out more and RSVP - https://www.objectifs.com.sg/where-theres-water/
Concurrent with the programmes Objectifs' next edition of Now Showing. Themed around water the programme highlights the artistic playful and expressive form of short films curated by visionary Japanese film collective GINZAZA. Expect to be immersed in stories that ripple beneath the surface and linger long after the screen fades to black. Following the screening dive right into the post-screening creative activity and experiment with the art of water marbling – a tactile craft that echoes the themes of fluidity reflection and transformation explored in Where There's Water. Using images from the films participants can craft patterns on paper using tools like sticks to create a one-of-a-kind artwork bringing home a physical reminder of the themes from the film programme.
Suitable for all ages and skill levels. Materials will be provided.
3) Waterloo Street Stories: Sound Plot Audio Plays Series
Presented by Centre 42
Fri 22 Aug 2025 7pm – 10pm
Sat 23 Aug 2025 7pm – 10pm
Sat 30 Aug 2025 7pm – 10pm
Sun 31 Aug 2025 7pm – 10pm
Fri 5 Sep 2025 7pm – 10pm
Sat 6 Sept 2025 7pm – 10pm
Venue: Stamford Arts Centre
Centre 42 started its audio play presentation with the 2023 edition of the Singapore Night Festival as part of the inaugural Waterloo Street Stories by the #WaterlooStKakis collective.
Since then C42's Sound Plot audio plays series have grown to include new audio dramas each year as creative responses to different sites in Singapore:
Bras Basah Bugis / Central 2023
Southern-most (Tanjong Pagar district) 2024
West (Jurong) 2025
For Singapore Night Festival 2025 C42 will bring together all 10 produced plays in an on-site installation of listening experiences. This programme will also feature a newly commissioned audio play responding to SNF2025's theme on "Island Nights". This curatorial theme will see C42's Writer-in-Residence exploring Singapore's archipelagic relationship and histories as an island in South East Asia.
The installation is planned to take place across all three weekends of SNF subject to space availability and coordination with the performance schedules at 42 Waterloo Street.
4) Waterloo Street Stories: Fortune Hands
Presented by P7:1SMA
Fri 22 Aug 2025 8.30pm – 9.15pm
Sat 23 Aug 2025 8.30pm – 9.15pm
Venue: Courtyard Objectifs
In Fortune Hands performers bring to life stories of history faith and fortune honoring the vibrant maritime and trade roots that shaped Singapore. Hands—symbols of connection labor and exchange—reflect the nation's identity as a bustling port city where ships were built deals were struck and strangers became friends. But these hands don't just belong to the past—they remain part of everyday life. Along Waterloo Street palm readers study open palms offering quiet insight and a moment of reflection in a fast-moving world.
5) Waterloo Street Stories: Familiar Strangers
Presented by SMU-ACM
An arts-led community-engaged project about the embedded ecologies and intangible cultural heritage of the denizens of Waterloo Street. Amidst today's climate of constant change and redevelopment this project aims to bring to light to older and quieter neighbourhoods like Waterloo Street. In particular this project aims to capture and celebrate the stories interrelations and cultural heritage of the varied inhabitants who call Waterloo Street home. This project also hopes to inspire those less familiar with Waterloo Street to contemplate about the strangers in their own lives and connect with the concept of a 'familiar stranger' a stranger who one nonetheless recognises from regular sustained contact despite not forming a personal relationship.
There are two components:
a) ⁠Outdoor Photo Exhibition
22 Aug to 6 Sep 2025
Venue: Back courtyard of Stamford Arts Centre
Set along the locale of Waterloo Street this exhibition of staged self-portraits traces the residual presence of a city. During nightfall the artist photographs himself as a speculative mid-century familiar stranger. The city becomes palimpsest each image drawing the past into view through quiet acts of embodiment. Moving between visibility and disappearance the work dwells where memory resists the forward march of development. It questions how a place holds its history and how that history might be conjured—if only for a moment—before vanishing again.
b) Programme
Fri 22 Aug & Sat 23 Aug 2025 6pm – 10:30pm
Fri 29 Aug & Sat 30 Aug 2025 6pm – 10:30pm
Fri 5 Sep & Sat 6 Sep 2025 6pm – 10:30pm
Venue: Stamford Arts Centre L1 Project Studio
Familiar Strangers is a participatory arts programme exploring the subtle and often overlooked fabric of social connections in our everyday lives. Through the showcasing of the myriad lived experiences of urban sociality embodied within Waterloo Street a self-guided activity invites everyone to recall the familiar strangers in our lives – individuals we recognise but do not know – and co-create a community installation comprising a mosaic of stories that celebrates the significance of fleeting interactions in our lives. By encouraging dialogue and self-reflection Familiar Strangers encourages participants to cultivate a heightened appreciation for and curiosity about the lives and perspectives of others around us.
About the #WaterlooStreetKakis
Established in 2003 Objectifs is a visual arts space in Singapore that is dedicated to film and photography. Our goal is to cultivate original voices in visual storytelling and to inspire and broaden perspectives through the power of images. We do this by presenting a year round programme of exhibitions screenings workshops talks mentorships and residencies aimed at fostering dialogue about visual culture and advancing the practice and appreciation of photography and film.
Centre 42 is a theatre development space committed to the creation documentation and promotion of Singapore theatre particularly in text-based works. We incubate original writings for the stage support the development of artists and new works and manage a functional archive documenting the histories and processes of Singapore theatre. Centre 42 is located at 42 Waterloo Street and has called the Blue House its home since 2014.
P7:1SMA also referred to as Prisma is a dance performance company helmed by Norhaizad Adam. Our core ethos revolves around the belief that "Dance is a strategy and Malay is a concept." Through our creative endeavors we navigate the intricate blend of tradition and contemporary practices. Our mission is twofold: to delve into moral complexities and to push the boundaries of tradition. At the heart of our approach lies a commitment to respect and reciprocity. By confronting moral dilemmas head-on we aim to challenge entrenched traditions fostering a space where new understandings can flourish. Through our innovative works we seek to reshape perceptions of Malay culture and identity inviting audiences to explore new realms of thought and appreciation.
The Arts and Culture Management Programme at Singapore Management University (SMU-ACM) is a second major that provides an interdisciplinary blend of conceptual and skills-based learning to equip students with the foundational knowledge managerial aptitude and strategic reflexivity for entry into the arts and creative industries. The hallmark strengths of ACM are the close linkages to the arts and cultural policy communities in Southeast Asia and a focus on experiential industry projects intended to sharpen the professional competencies and cultural leadership potential of students.
The Theatre Practice (Practice) is Singapore's longest-standing professional bilingual theatre institution. Artist-driven and deeply progressive Practice strives to be an arts space in Singapore that consciously nurtures and empowers people who care about humanity. Over the past 58 years we have developed and presented works that aim to reflect the richness and complexities of Singapore's diverse cultures. Artistically diverse and constantly relevant Practice will always engage in the ceaseless exploration of new frontiers.