Cinnamon Colomboscope: Focus on the environment
View(s):With a well-timed theme, a promising mix of local and international artistes and an exciting line-up of interactive events and installations, Cinnamon Colomboscope will return this September. Themed Re/Evolution, the festival will bring the ongoing environmental crisis under the spotlight, in the hope of using the arts to inspire new ways of thinking and living in response to the situation.
Cinnamon Colomboscope will be held at the former Colombo Terminus Railway Station in Maradana, rendering an unconventional viewpoint into metropolitan Colombo and its history along with the arts.
The only multidisciplinary arts festival of its kind in Sri Lanka, the upcoming edition of the festival will be presented by Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts for the third year running, in collaboration with EUNIC Sri Lanka (Goethe-Institut, British Council and Alliance Francaise de Kotte) the founders of the festival, and the John Keells Foundation along with state patronage extended through Sri Lanka Tourism.
The key attraction of the festival is the arts exhibition; the 2017 showcase will feature an impressive mix of artistes from local and international backgrounds, whose work combines art with technology and new media. While the festival will present over 50 artistes from Sri Lanka including K. Thabendran, Kesara Ratnavibushana and the CoCA Collective, there is also a line-up of emerging and previously undiscovered talent in visual, performance art, video installations, films, interactive art, photography and sound installations.
The international artistes hosted at Cinnamon Colomboscope include Ackroyd & Harvey from the UK, Eva Horn and Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky from Germany, Benoit Billotte and Karine Bonnewal from France and Elmas Deniz from Turkey along with several more from Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, India and Bangladesh.
With education and awareness being the central goal of the event, the programme also includes talks on waste management, conscious consumerism, deforestation and development, organic food produce and green technology. Education and outreach programmes for children facilitated by Mind Adventures Theatre Co and Iridescence, plus a workshop programme for kids powered by the British Council Colombo, are also scheduled as components of the festival experience. This exciting and thought-provoking programme has been curated by a Sri Lankan team for the first time in the history of the festival, led by the chief curator Menika van der Poorten.
Cinnamon Colomboscope 2017 will take place as six days of curated visual and performing arts,
between September 2 -7. For more information visit www.cinnamoncolomboscope.com