Daniel Kok studied Fine Art & Critical Theory (Goldsmiths College, London), Solo/Dance/Authorship (HZT, Berlin) and Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies (APASS, Brussels). In 2008, he received the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council (Singapore). 

His artistic research explores the politics of inter-subjective relationality. By drawing a key distinction between spectatorship and audienceship, he highlights the tension between the experience of an individual and that of a group. From 2010 to 2018, he created performances through ‘figures of performance’ - such as the pole dancer, cheerleader, and military commander - each engaging the crowd through specific tools and protocols. 

Since 2014, he has collaborated with Melbourne-based artist Luke George on a performance practice based on rope bondage that investigates collective negotiations of consent and intimacy. Their performances are live experiments in democratic politics and acquiescence, welcoming failure as part of a radical approach to consensus and coalescence. Their work has been presented across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America, including at the Venice Biennale, AsiaTOPA (Melbourne), Singapore International Festival of Arts, and Taipei Arts Festival. Still Lives: Melbourne won Outstanding Contemporary and Experimental Performance and Design/Technical Achievement at the 2023 Green Room Awards.

As Artistic Director of DANCE NUCLEUS (Singapore), Daniel develops capacity for independent artists and builds trans-local partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. He regularly coaches younger artists in the formulation of their praxes across four domains - Research, Creation, Production, and Dissemination - treating independent artistic production as a question of dramaturgy in and of itself. He also curates the da:ns LAB coaching programme and the VECTOR exhibition of performance annually with support from the Esplanade (Singapore).

Daniel Kok is based between Singapore and Berlin.

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02.ENTANGLEMENTS, 2024
Daniel Kok + Luke George
Publication

This book reflects on a decade of trans-local artistic collaboration between Luke George and me. The publication features essays by Lim How Ngean (Melbourne / Kuala Lumpur), Eva Neklyaeva (Ghent), Jessica Olivieri (Sydney), and Miguel Gutierrez (New York) - dramaturge, curator, academic, artist from across different milieux offering their comments on our work as well as their own current points of view. 

In our invitation to these contributors, we did not propose a central question, but put forward ‘Entanglements’ as a theme along with a short vocabulary list consisting of terms like collaboration, queering as a process, participation, social engagement, and community.


PUBLICATION  (PDF)