Pulau Ubin, an island north-east of Singapore, doesn't immediately come to mind as a suitable showplace for art.

But that is exactly where 22 artists are headed next week, as part of The Flying Circus Project (FCP) art camp. They will be presenting their work not in a gallery space, but under moonlight on the island.

At the event organised by TheatreWorks, artists will wander around the island gathering herbs. Later, they will make lunch from their pickings.

In the evening, they will give one-hour presentations each, ranging from a short dance or a lecture to video projections and talk about their creative processes and their works.

The unusual location comes about because the project this year is built around a travelogue or a tour led by the theatre company.

TheatreWorks artistic director Ong Keng Sen says: "We want to take artists to the margins of Singapore to show them a different image of the country.

"It's not only the bustling, overbuilt, global economy that most foreigners know it to be."

That is why the artists will also hop onto a boat to explore Singapore's sea borders and reclaimed areas in a tour led by national sailor Charles Lim.

Now in its 12th year and sixth edition, the project is best described as an arts gathering, where artists from different disciplines and countries come together for arts and cultural exchanges.

In its first few editions, it started out as a season of workshops, which dealt with the intersections of contemporary and traditional Asian culture.

Now it has blossomed into a complex, hard-to-describe arts melting pot with a shifting format each year. The list of activities include forums, talks and performances, which the public is welcome to join for a small fee.

The event opens next Wednesday at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road with an exhibition by Tokyo-born, Viet-Nam-based visual artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba and a DJ set by conceptual artist and musician Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky.

The other participating artists this year include Singaporean multi-disciplinary artist Brian Gothong Tan, famed German choreographer Meg Stuart, French dancer Rachid Ouramdane and Tiffany Chung, an emerging United States-born Vietnamese conceptual artist.

During the weekend, besides the Ubin trip, there will also be an arts marathon, Superintense, where artists will each have one hour to present performances and installations from 11am to 1am the next day.

Then, on Nov 5, the Flying Circus moves to Ho Chi Minh City for five days. If any member of the public is interested in the tour, there's room for 20 people, each of whom will have to pay about S$2,000 (US$1,400) for air tickets, accommodation and the tour.

Ong says the city was chosen for its proximity to Singapore and for its interesting history of post-war trauma and rising capitalism.

There, the artists will attend events such as talks by veteran war painters and journalists who painted from the frontline during the Vietnam War.

Despite its unorthodox format, the project has been successful as a platform to introduce cutting-edge contemporary artists to Singapore.

Many participants from previous years have returned to Singapore to perform in festivals and shows at other arts venues. Feted French choreographer Jerome Bel, for example, took part in Flying Circus in 2004, and performed recently at the Esplanade as part of its dan:s festival.

Ong says of the project: 'It challenges the orthodox notion of a festival, where you watch a production and go to a restaurant and wash everything down with beer.

"In FCP, you drink and eat with artists and learn about their creative processes." (By ADELINE CHIA/ The Straits Times/ ANN)