When tuk-tuks become mobile canvases
View(s):At the 2026 Matara Festival for the Arts (MFA) which takes place this February 20-23, tuk-tuks will take on a leading role. They will be transformed into mobile artworks, created in a collaboration between Sri Lankan contemporary artists, a regional artist from India, youth from Matara, and of course, local tuk drivers.
The project, supported by the John Keells Foundation in collaboration with the India-Sri Lanka Foundation, is one of the festival’s central exhibits this year, and part of a broader attempt to explore how art can support new forms of community empowerment and economic opportunity.
Community artists Dinithi and Kethmin transforming a tuk
The tuk-tuk mobile art initiative is led by leading names in contemporary art: Prof. Jagath Weerasinghe (MFA’s curator), Bandu Manamperi, and Anura Krishantha, along with Bengaluru-based artist and assistant art professor Dushyantha HP who will work side by side with the MFA’s youth — Dinithi Bogahawattha, Kethmin Dilshan and Thenuka Vithanage. They are also joined by Matara youth – Kavishka Siribaddana (13), Pansilu Nanayakkkara and Bisadi Galhena (both 10) and Kithupa Nanayakkara (8).
Together, they have converted the exteriors of four tuk tuks into public artworks. The concept is intentionally simple: take something that already moves through the daily lives of thousands of people in Matara and use it as a platform for contemporary artistic expression and community/national storytelling.
Prof. Weerasinghe describes it as a way of “bringing art back into the public sphere,” an approach that reflects MFA’s overall aim to decentralize and make art and its opportunities more widely accessible.
Tuk owner-drivers Sithum, Tharindu, Priyantha and Kasun are co-creators and active partners as the idea grew from observations of how drivers already present themselves: proud of their tuks, invested in maintaining a distinctive identity, and eager to offer stories about their city.
The festival aims to build on that instinct by first building a creative rapport with the drivers, and in the longer-term looking potentially to (should onward public-private support materialize) scale the project and add in workshops designed to strengthen drivers’ knowledge of Matara’s history, cultural sites, and community stories. The ultimate vision is to equip them to act as local narrators and micro-tourism guides, using the artwork on their vehicles as starting points for conversation.
Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.