For the first time, Bawa’s work on exhibition here
‘Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There’ is the first major exhibition which draws from the archives to look at Bawa’s practice. Organised in four thematic sections, exploring relationships between ideas, drawings, buildings and places, the exhibition presents the different ways in which images were used in Bawa’s practice.
Over 120 documents from the Bawa archives, most of which have never been shown publicly previously,will be on view at this exhibition in February 2022, including a section on unbuilt work and Bawa’s own photographs from his travels. The website with previews and content was launched on December 15.
These works show the particularity of each project’s location and the explorations undertaken by the practice to explore sites across the many layers of culture, history and environment that characterise a place beyond its position on a map.
Although Bawa’s work has been exhibited at multiple venues in the UK, USA, Australia, India, Brazil, Singapore and Germany, this is the first exhibition on Bawa’s work to be shown in Sri Lanka.The exhibition is curated by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust’s curator Shayari de Silva and includes new photographs and video works by Sebastian Posingis, Dominic Sansoni and Clara Kraft Isono.
The Geoffrey Bawa Trust is a non-profit, public trust that was established in 1982 by the late architect,with the objectives of furthering the fields of architecture, the fine arts and ecological and environmental studies.
This exhibition received generous financial support from the primary partner Kohler, local partners Nations Trust Private Banking and Crystal Property Group, JAT Holdings and venue partner Park Street Mews.
The exhibition will be on from February 1, 2022–April 3, 2022 at the Stables, 48 Park Street,Colombo 2.