Colomboscope goes green with The Way of the Forest
View(s):By Yomal Senerath-Yapa
In its eighth edition, the Colomboscope interdisciplinary art festival will focus on those green aisles. Titled The Way of the Forest, it takes us down artistic pathways to rekindle knowledge of interdependence, custodian-ship, and restorative practices across wild terrain like rain forests, wilderness, mountain cultivations, and riverine wet-lands.
The festival looks at ‘deschooling’- moving away from looking at the forest as something to plunder and exploit thus causing destruction and extinction. It promotes active listening that goes beyond our normal human senses.
Artists question who owns forest lands, who gets displaced, and who is restricted from sites marked for conservation, while also explored are lost environmental wisdoms, the forest in mythology and folklore, indigenous peoples, its magic as opposed to its ‘vastness and unruliness’ that we feel has to be conquered.
The participants this year include Anoma Wijewardene, Anupam Roy, Anushka Rustomji, U. Arulraj, Chija Lama, Dumiduni Illangasinghe, Fernando García-Dory, Jayatu Chakma, Karachi LaJamia, Karunasiri Wijesinghe, Kieren Karritpul, Komal Purbe, Madhumala Mandal, Rebati Mandal and Selo Yadav, Krisushananthan Inkaran, Kulagu Tu Buvongan, Mónica de Miranda, Müge YılmazNahla al Tabbaa, Otobong Nkanga, Pankaja Withanachchi & Roshan De Selfa, Pathum Dharmarathna, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah, Rakibul Anwar, MTF Rukshana, Ruwangi Amarasinghe, Sangita Maity, Sanod Maharjan, Saodat Ismailova, Sarmila Sooriyakumar with Pirainila Krishnarajah, Shehan Obeysekera, Shiraz Bayjoo, Soma Surovi Jannat, Rafiki Sánchez, and Cecilia Moo, Subas Tamang, Sunita Maharjan and Sanjeev Maharjan, Tamarra Jayasundera, Thava Thajendran, Myriam Mihindou, Tawfiq Sediqi and Elena Sorokina, Thujiba Vijayalayan Trent Walter, Venuri Perera and Eisa Jocson, Zihan Karim. It also looks back on the work and legacy of Barbara Sansoni and Laki Senanayake.
The festival will happen from 19-28 January 2024 at main venues SNAFU Project, Goethe-Institut Garden, Public Library Garden, BMICH Kamatha Open Theatre, Ex-Government Servicemen Sports Club, CoCa Symbiosis, SpaceEka, Barefoot, MMCA, Beddagana Wetland Park and the J D A Perera Gallery.
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