Now in its 17th year, Urbanscapes, Malaysia’s longest-running creative arts festival, joins forces with telco company U Mobile to present nine days of holistic artistry.
Visitors can indulge in varied showcases drenched in the fields of visual arts, music, performance arts and more around Kuala Lumpur, with ample opportunity to mingle with KL-ites, kindred spirits, as well as numerous artists and artistes.
With the theme #reconnectKL, which predicates on the themes of yesteryears, the idea is exactly that and then some. “We want Urbanscapes to inspire people to get out of their homes and explore their city, to discover new experiences and create meaningful conversations around all the fest has to
offer,” details festival founder Adrian Yap.
Immersio
Exploring has always been a part of the festival, whose multiple locations dot the city. Curated activities have been scheduled to occur at prominent Urbanscapes spots and other fitting ones, including Medan Pasar, River Of Life, REXKL, The Godown KL, Sentul Depot, Kwai Chai Hong, Lorong Bandar 13 and Lorong Panggung.
Feast For The Eyes
Art installations and other visual treats are a compulsory Urbanscapes component, and this year’s iteration carries on with that long-standing tradition with a kaleidoscopic array of offerings.
Colours Of Life
Presented by Nippon Paint, Colours Of Life features the works of budding and seasoned street artists, who have been asked to bring life and colour to the city. Meanwhile, Immersio, with site-specific new media art overseen by audio-visual collective Filamen, will produce an interactive arts exhibition mated with performances. This is set to take place in three heritage shophouses located at Medan Pasar.
BMW Shorties
Touted as Malaysia’s longest-running short film competition, the BMW Shorties, will be screening for an entire week genre films from Southeast Asia in a mini film festival called Tayangan BMW Shorties. This will take place at the REXKL, a historical theatre that has been revitalised for today, from 16 to 24 November. The BMW Shorties Awards Night will be held on 23 November, which will reveal the Top 10 finalists and the grand winner.
Music To The Ears
Urbanscapes is also a place where lovers of music can get their fill of banging beats and euphonious jams as performed by a talented bunch of local and international artistes.
Coming in with two days of entertainment at The Godown KL is Urbn. Seni, with Young Blood on 16 November and Urban Sounds the next day. As its name implies, the former presents budding performers, with names like Youth Portal, Shye, SHN and The Fatalis. The latter meanwhile hits hard with several of the region’s heavyweights, including SonaOne, ALIF, Yung Raja, Charlie Lim, and Playburst.
No Party For Cao Dong
Spanning several days, the returning Unlimited Grooves Festival (UGF) by U Mobile will take over the century-old Sentul Depot, kicking up the tempo right up until Urbanscapes 2019 is over in a resounding send-off party.
Glass Animals
Mandarin tunes can be heard on 20 November as UGF teams up with City Roars to bring in top Malaysian and Taiwanese performers, including No Party For Cao Dong. Mixer, Arvan, Anna and BandTai. The following day sees UGF collaborating with 777 Music to introduce some celebrated indie names on the stage. Norwegian band Boy Pablo, Taiwanese synth pop band Sunset Rollercoaster, quintessential pop band Sobs from Singapore, and Malaysia’s Lost Spaces have been booked for the night.
Hullera
On 24 November, things come to a crescendo as the noon-to-midnight UGF Festival Closing Party brings Urbanscapes to a close with an impressive line-up to send the crowd into a final frenzy. British psychedelic band Glass Animals, New York indie pop band The Drums, Californian singer Cuco, South Korean rapper Colde, Welsh rockers Boy Azooga, and Floridian pop duo Sales make up the imported musicians, while the local musical artistes comprise luminaries like Iqbal M., Hullera, Heidi, Loca B, Gard Wuzgut and more.
Iqbal M.
And So Much More
Rolled into the nine days are not just further art installations and music events, but loads of other specials as well.
Workshops @ Kwai Chai Hong
Community events such the workout-themed Neon Waves, youth-volunteer-endeavour The Rogue Festival, Workshops @ Kwai Chai Hong, The Chow Kit Walking Tour, Sharing Sessions and more. Another initiative, HuRu-HaRa, interweaves music, dance, installation, visual projection and sound to produce unique results.
HuRu-HaRa
Get acquainted with them all and keep up with the latest updates by going to the website listed below!
Urbanscapes 2019
WHERE Various locations in KL
WHEN 16-24 Nov (full programme on website)
ADMISSION Event dependent
urbanscapes.com.my