Melaka Art & Performance Festival

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Melaka Art & Performance Festival Selamat Datang! Join us for a joyous, creative celebration of the past, present and future. The arts are necessary to propel the new.

MAP Fest continues Melaka's rich history as a centre for cultural exchange by creating opportunities for artists and audiences to share work and perspectives. MAP Fest celebrates a place of cultural fusion – incorporating past, present and future. The Festival is Mapping the City with its stories, through selected sites for audiences all over Melaka. This is a place for artists to experiment and present short innovative performances in all artistic mediums, to encourage the life of the arts in Malaysia, Asia and internationally. MAP seeks to promote Melaka to the world as a Creative Hub for innovative arts – where heritage is respected and artistic and cultural fusion is encouraged. Not just as entertainment but through a vibrant development of community involvement that integrates – and maps – the arts within the life of Melaka.

Night Moves and then supper at Car Park 🚙
04/09/2026

Night Moves and then supper at Car Park 🚙

Morning Moves and then breakfast ✨
04/09/2026

Morning Moves and then breakfast ✨

Another year at Pos Yum.Into the Dark is a four-day immersive residency for contemporary performers that draws on the li...
22/08/2026

Another year at Pos Yum.

Into the Dark is a four-day immersive residency for contemporary performers that draws on the living ceremonial tradition of the Temiar indigenous people of peninsular Malaysia. Rooted in more than four years of direct ceremonial exchange with Temiar communities, this residency offers participants a rare and ethically grounded encounter with one of Southeast Asia’s most profound animist healing traditions — the Sewang Gelap — as a portal into transformative choreographic practice.

Special Sharing with Yi Ke: The Healing Rituals of Indigenous Peoples in the Malay Peninsula - Sewang Gelap • YI KE 王可 •

Workshop : Trance ZonesBy Agus Riyanto & Tony Yap ——Forum : Trance and Quake - Embodied portals in archipelagic practice...
15/08/2026

Workshop : Trance Zones
By Agus Riyanto & Tony Yap

——
Forum : Trance and Quake - Embodied portals in archipelagic practice
By Jonathan Marshall

MAP 2026: MELAKA ARTS & PERFORMANCES RESIDENCY MAP, a seven-day residency program, brings together international artists...
15/08/2026

MAP 2026: MELAKA ARTS & PERFORMANCES RESIDENCY

MAP, a seven-day residency program, brings together international artists from diverse disciplines to collaborate, experiment, explore, and create works that reflect a spectrum of artistic styles. This culturally diverse and independent group will delve into philosophical and personal ideas and concepts centred around this year’s exploration: “gempa - quake.” The residency aims to create an inclusive and simple model that provides a space for experimentation and showcases the artists’ intrinsically inter-cultural artistic languages. MAP fosters collaboration, sharing, and deepening connections among the artists while ensuring their autonomy and responsibility for their own needs. This flexible model offers open possibilities for all the participating artists. MAP showcases, in the final stage, short works by independent artists. These works will explore the relationship between nature, intense volatility, and the human experience, aiming to ignite a transformation.

“QUAKE” MAP 202624-30 AugustMELAKA
15/08/2026

“QUAKE”

MAP 2026

24-30 August

MELAKA

Spirit of MAP 20257 days • 71 artists • 49 works • 3 trance rituals • 2 installations • 1 forum • 1 screening.What a mas...
23/09/2025

Spirit of MAP 2025

7 days • 71 artists • 49 works • 3 trance rituals • 2 installations • 1 forum • 1 screening.
What a massive week 🌏 and it felt so good! Thank you once again, and see you all next year 2026 ✨

“Thank you : artists, helpers, energy-makers, masters, and the young! We came from places only we know, yet we have shown that we can celebrate the same spirit within us all united in diversity and difference, intense in our expressions. To become intense is simply to be human, experimenting to know ourselves.

Let us thank ourselves for sharing, for daring, and for playing with the limitless, sculpting time itself. I feel young, old, and ageless in this ‘dance’ with you all. “ — Tony Yap

“I AM MANY” has been selected for the Dance (Lens) Festival 2025 and KLEX Festival 2024, and it’s an absolute pleasure t...
23/09/2025

“I AM MANY” has been selected for the Dance (Lens) Festival 2025 and KLEX Festival 2024, and it’s an absolute pleasure to be part of this event.

The short film was originally shot in 2016 but remained unpublished and stored on my hard drive for many years. This year, with “Being Human” emerging as a profound theme among us, I felt a deep calling to revisit this piece. It holds immense significance for all of us. With Tony’s graceful movement and evocative text, the unique essence (Jiwa) at The Baboon House, the soulful music of Reuben Lewis, and my interpretation of what it means of “Being Human”, it’s been an honor to collaborate with these dear friends over the years. I believe our shared creative journey will continue to resonate, and the dance will never ends.

Dancer and Text: Tony Yap
Music: Reuben Lewis
Venue: Roger, The Baboon House, Melaka
Camera and Editing: Kien Faye

Originally filmed in 2016, revisited in 2024.

MAP 2025 acknowledges the spirit-filled and generous past support by Andrew Ching, Suen Kar Nee for then past decade. MA...
23/09/2025

MAP 2025 acknowledges the spirit-filled and generous past support by Andrew Ching, Suen Kar Nee for then past decade. MAP is non-profit and there’ll be a website and publicity. All support people provide their work voluntarily. It is now an artists run residence for exchange and sharing. Thank you Kien Faye and Taka Takiguchi, Ankur Saxena, for your huge part in the running of MAP, Roger Soong for use of Baboon House and for generosity in so many ways. Thanks also to Qamar for the use of Bangunan Warehouse as main venue space. Thanks Peter Banki for running the forum and Agus Riyanto for the workshops and classes. Thank you Robert Ching, Shirley Yap, Alan Yap, Michael Green Lian, Lizzil, Per, Kiki and all others for your generous financial contribution. Thank you also to ALL artists for shaping the festival and helping one another.

Photo courtesy of all photographers!Dennis Teo . Ee Robert . HC Thin . Shelly Cheah . Teo Swee An . JK Suah . Lorris . Y...
23/09/2025

Photo courtesy of all photographers!

Dennis Teo . Ee Robert . HC Thin . Shelly Cheah . Teo Swee An . JK Suah . Lorris . Yfeng lim . James Pang . Sweeling . Floyd Chong . Ng CK . Lam . & more ...

Dear photographers. Thank you for being part of the shooting and documentation for MAP2025. On behalf of all the artists, I want to express our gratitude. We are thankful for your continuous support since the early days of large-scale performances in the St Paul hill, to the more intimate shows now in the warehouse and Baboon. This festival has grown into a platform for artists to exchange and create together, and through your lenses, these moments are preserved as precious memories. Your dedication and commitment allow our experiences to live beyond the present, to be kept and shared. Thank you for walking this journey with us, for making MAP’s story visible and unforgettable.

親愛的摄影大哥大姐。谢谢你们参与MAP2025的拍摄与记录，我代表所有artists们向你们道谢。感恩你们一路来的支持，MAP也从以前在山上教堂的大型表演，一直到现在在warehouse与baboon的小型演出，这个艺术节已经成为艺术家与艺术家之间交流与创作的平台，而你们的镜头为这些瞬间留下了珍贵的见证。你们的努力与坚持，让我们的记忆不仅停留在当下，更能够被保存、被传递。谢谢你们与我们同行，让MAP的故事可以被看见，被记住。

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