Colomboscope 2017 brings the city alive

The city’s most anticipated multidisciplinary contemporary arts festival - Cinnamon Colomboscope launched its 2017 edition with a powerful message and an impressive mix of works from local and international artists.

Hosted by Cinnamon Hotels with the John Keells Foundation and conceptualised by the EUNIC cluster of Sri Lanka (GoetheInstitut, British Council and Alliance Française de Kotte), the festival, is currently being held at the former Colombo Terminus Railway Station freely open to the public. Cinnamon Colomboscope is unfolding over six days of curated visual and performing arts (2-7 September) that highlight the importance of environmental sustainability triggering progressive conversations on the topic among the public. The festival theme titled Re/Evolution, centres the 2017 edition of the event in advocating environmental consciousness. Re/evolution signifies the need of the moment to relook at our ways and evolve against the harm that our systems and ourselves are causing on the planet. By highlighting the key environmental issues of our age through the arts, Cinnamon Colomboscope aims to trigger a progressive public discussion on the topic.

Since its inception, Cinnamon Colomboscope has consistently promoted and built a platform for the contemporary arts in Sri Lanka. With international artists from UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, India, Pakistan, Poland and Turkey, and a strong local representation of local artists taking part, Cinnamon Colomboscope 2017 programme is a rich mix of new perspectives, thought-provoking art and compelling performances. It combines art with technology and new media through the works of over fifty artists. With some respected names in the local arts community such as Anomaa Rajakaruna and Kesara Ratnavibhushana, as well as promising fresh talent like Lekha Edirisinghe, the festival this year presents an all-encompassing cross section of local talent. Acclaimed filmmaker Anomaa Rajakaruna shares her haunting captures of the abandoned buildings that remain behind war-torn areas in Northern Lanka, punctuated by aerial bombing, firing and other military operations, and how little by little, Mother Nature is reclaiming them bringing in a humbling new perspective for the idea of who truly owns land. Kesara Ratnavibhushana’s ‘Healing State’ aims to highlight the fact that, in Sri Lanka, we are blessed to have an array of plantlife that have been used for centuries to heal the body and the mind, which he feels this is hugely relevant in a world where we lack a holistic approach to heal- ing. The images, in tones of sepia, seek to play on nostalgia as a metaphor for loss of such plantlife. Meanwhile, Lekha Edirisinghe’s piece ‘Inside a bottle’ captures the issues created by the bottled water industry and how it replaced beautiful Sri Lankan ideologies such as that of ‘Pinthaliya’.

The exciting mix of international names such as Ackroyd and Harvey from the UK, EvaFiore Kovacovsky from Germany and Karine Bonnewal from France are also presenting compelling works in Colombo. One outstanding piece is the awardwinning art work ‘Chlorophyll apparition’ by Ackroyd & Harvey which creates spectral images formed by a concentration of chlorophyll that directly corresponds to the quantity of light available to it. For Cinnamon Colomboscope, the artist duo have adapted their process to work with rice seed, the most widely consumed cereal grain in the country. This is the first time they have used ‘paddy’ and the artists regard the experimental nature of this work as intrinsic to their approach with working with living plant material. Overall, their approach to this is shaped by their long-term concern with environmental degradation and socially engaged artistic practice. This will shape their ideas in response to observations and interactions made during their time spent in Sri Lanka. All these incredible works are part of the Re/Evolution multidisciplinary arts exhibition held throughout the festival period.

This year’s extensive programme includes outreach education initiatives, talks exploring environmentalism and its intersections, film screenings, performances in music, dance and theatre and more. With education and awareness building on the theme as a central goal of the event, its programme also includes talks on waste management, conscious consumerism, deforestation and development, organic food produce and green technology.

Cinnamon Colomboscope will be held between 2nd and 7th September 2017 from 10am - 7pm at the former Colombo Terminus Railway Station, Maradana (Trace Expert City, Trace Lane, off Olcott Mawatha, Colombo 1).

For more information visit www.cinnamoncolomboscope.com