Easily the largest art exhibition ever to be held in Sri Lanka, the Colombo Art Biennale, this September will be spread out in Colombo.
The centre-point for the event will be the Park Street Mews in Colombo 2, where five warehouses will be used to host the main art show. Each warehouse will display the work of four or five selected artists, with predominantly installation art.
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| Annoushka Hempel |
“This will be the first art biennale to be held in Sri Lanka. There’s usually a theme for each biennale and early this year we decided that the theme would be ‘Imagining Peace’. This was back in April before the war was won,” said founder of the Colombo Art Biennale (CAB) Annoushka Hempel who has studied art and is keen on promoting Sri Lankan art on a larger canvas.
She added, “We chose this theme because we thought it would be interesting to see what the artists would come up with. Some of them have grown up only knowing about war, so it would be interesting to see their interpretations of peace. Some artists also see peace as something that can be found in nature, in fauna and flora, so what we expect is some diverse interpretations.”
The installation art will be large interactive structures which those who attend will be able to experience. In fact the entire four-day event set for September 10 to 14 will be an experience by itself. Several fringe events including poetry readings have also been organised. Promoting art around Colombo in an innovative way, organisers of CAB have marked out places on a map of Colombo where everyday or overlooked local art can be found. “The idea is for people to hop into a tuk tuk and go around Colombo in search of these interesting pieces of art,” says Annoushka.
The Colombo Art Biennale aims to be a colourful and lively event with food stalls and street music, that will provide an experience unparalleled in terms of art shows in Sri Lanka. |
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