Making Lunuganga more than just a beautiful garden
As the Geoffrey Bawa Trust explores, ever more subtly, the potential of Lunuganga not just as a garden but as a fountain of creativity, an essay at self expression and an island’s identity, they are leaping into new territory- finding novel ways to make the garden’s timeless magic reflect.
To Lunuganga: April 2023–August 2024: 75 years of art, architecture and ecology comes in three seasons; the traditional cultivators’ seasons of Yala and Maha (Sirupokam and Perumpokam) coinciding with three celebrations of the beguiling and the beautiful.
Season 1 (May – August 2023) comes packed with rebellious art, architecture and astronomy; but sandwiched in between are two projects particularly dear to the hearts of the curatorial team: the Hog Deer conservation program at Hondoowa Island, Lunuganga and the Biodiversity conservation project in Lunuganga, said Shayari de Silva, chief curator and Channa Daswatte, Chairperson, Lunuganga and Geoffrey Bawa Trusts.
The Hog Deer at Hondoowa (a small island in the Dedduwa Lake) were introduced in colonial times as a game species. The Vil Muwa or Gona Muwa, slightly smaller than the spotted deer, is the only critically endangered member of the deer family in the country.
The research team from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura who are leading the studies is spearheaded by Prof. Priyan Perera, Prof. P.N. Dayawansa, Chathura Rupasinghe Vimukthi Fernando and Prabhashini Harishchandra.
The Biodiversity Conservation Project in Lunuganga is handled by the Biodiversity Unit, Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya and the Department of Botany, University of Peradeniya.
Prof. K.M.G.Gehan Jayasuriya, Professor in Botany, said that Lunuganga is special in that it is an island in an estuary with invasive species. No study on ecosystem dynamics on an estuarine island in Sri Lanka has been done before.
Four essential themes will underlie the programme: nature and the natural, empathy through ecology, access beyond language and garden as lens.
Among the exciting line up- “a star party and poetry reading will allow audiences to experience Lunuganga aurally at night, while a Tree Talks podcast will chart access to the garden through its specific flora, tapping into the intertwining of humans, plants, and local deities. A 3-D archive project with Clara Kraft Isono and the Royal College of Art in London will explore the garden as a living collection, mapping the past and future at Lunuganga. As the organisers of Open House Colombo (part of the Open House Worldwide network) this year, the Trust will highlight and bring access to gardens and greenspaces across Colombo and Bentota. A publication exploring space through smell and feel will portray the sensorial experience of the garden…”
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