19-28 January
EXHIBITION TOURS
WITH THE CURATORS
Join the curators for a walk-through of an exhibition chapter of Way of the Forest at J.D.A. Perera Gallery or Barefoot Gallery. The tours will highlight artistic processes and background stories within the thematic landscape of Colomboscope 2024.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE TOURS
Fri 19 January
ARTIST ENCOUNTERS AT SNAFU
This session foregrounds the ongoing arc of artistic thinking and research behind the projects in Way of the Forest. Artists Shiraz Bayjoo, Fernando García-Dory, Mónica de Miranda, Subas Tamang and Müge Yilmaz discuss their connection to botanical histories, agroforestry and gardening as spaces of learning, and anti-colonial legacies in relation to today’s ecopolitical challenges. Moderated by art historian and writer Anna Arabindan Kesson
SNAFU Project / 3.00 pm - 4.30 pm
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A LIBRARY OF TREES
An evening in the garden of the Colombo Public Library bringing together a live reading of Myriam Mihindou's Black Honey Manifesto or I am not a Foreigner in the Forest introduced by Elena Sorokina (Initiative of Practices and Visions of Radical Care) and performed by Tashyana Handy. This is followed by original Tamil poetry and devotional songs as a source of commemoration and ecopoiesis by Thava Thajendran and Srikanthan Sarujan, and an exchange with members of Memory Truth and Justice around the planting of community remembrance and dignifying memories of survivors and families of victims of the armed conflict in Nepal.
Public Library Garden / 6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
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Sat 20 January
URBAN WETLAND WALK
WITH SMALL CAT ADVOCACY RESEARCH
Colombo holds a remarkable secret that few are aware of. With over 277 species of fauna and 250 species of flora, Colombo’s urban wetlands are diverse and thriving ecosystems that act as the beating heart of this ever- changing metropolitan landscape. This Wetland Walk takes you on an educational trail with artist Firi Rahman to foster a better understanding of urban habitats and wildlife around Colombo’s wetlands, while introducing the conservation work of SCAR.
Beddagana Wetland Park / 8.00 am - 9.00 am
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD
WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN
Sanjeev and Sunita Maharjan, art educators from Nepal share insights into their artistic processes, exploring the changing relationship with land and farming practices in the face of Kathmandu's urbanization. This interactive learning session will focus on cultivation cycles, explore the food we eat and how it is produced.
Barefoot Gallery / 10.00 am - 12.00 pm
Recommended age group: 10-12 years
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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DISTRIBUTING THE FOREST
ZINE-MAKING WORKSHOP WITH BLAK C.O.R.E. AND THE PACKET
Participants will work together with members of the artist collective The Packet, Kieren Karritpul and Trent Walter (BLAK C.O.R.E.) to think and learn together about how we can distribute/duplicate the forest of thoughts, relations, materials, and situatedness in the form of a zine. Through this reflexive and playful approach, various textual, drawing, and printing processes will be used to compose pages that will be combined into a publication.
SNAFU Project / 2.00 pm - 5.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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MAGIC MAIDS
WORK-IN-PROGRESS PERFORMANCE BY VENURI PERERA AND EISA JOCSON
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera come from countries known for exporting domestic workers. The work-in-progress performance, ‘Magic Maids’ delves into European history of witch-hunts and their direct consequences to the exploitation of women’s labour, particularly domestic labour in the Global South, as well as narratives around persecution of migrant workers today. In ‘Magic Maids’, the broom is an axis that bridges the European witch hunts and domestic labour through rituals of cleansing. The act of sweeping becomes a portal for myriad physical metamorphosis that manifests the historical and ongoing subjugation of migrant women workers. They also delve into how spell casting, gossip, laughter, and exorcism produce agency within exploitative settings.
BMICH Kamatha Open Theatre
6.00 pm - 7.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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TERRA PULSE
NORIENT WITH COCO EM & KA(RA)MI
Cross-oceanic allies on the decks— facilitated through a festival season collaboration with the global platform NORIENT. This rare musical collaboration brings the freshest sounds from Nairobi to Paris for a shake down at Colombo’s SNAFU. Nairobi-based DJ, filmmaker, and Artistic Director of the 13. Norient Festival, Coco Em will be unleashing her contagious blend of genres from kudoro, linga, hip hop to afro house to electrify from ears to feet. She will be joined for an elevating set by Swiss artist, DJ and producer of Haitian-Hungarian origin, Ka(ra)mi, adding soul, house and Caribbean influences to the mix.
SNAFU Project / 8.00 pm - midnight
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Sun 21 January
SHARED TIDES
RESIDENCY SHOWCASE AND TALK WITH LOJITHAN RAM, THARMAPALAN TILAXAN, KIRANMAYI VEERAMANI AND SUBTHIGA MATHANAMOHAN
Connected by a conflicted past, but also by the continuums of shared waters, language, cuisine, cultures, climatic conditions, fishing systems, art, and dance forms—Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka have a long, shared history. Shared Tides is an attempt to relook at the very notion of borders, citizenship, and identity cross-shared by these two geographies.
Goethe-Institut / 11.00 am - 1.00 pm
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A GROVE OF SUBCONTINENTAL SOLIDARITIES
This discussion amidst artist collectives, cultural organizers and arts educators examines acts of sustainable collaboration, experimental pedagogy, and regional interdependence across cultural initiatives and festival models. Karachi LaJamia, Zihan Karim, and Priyankar Bahadur Chand share methods of building inclusive support structures amidst inequitable conditions of the art market, urban development and mass migration. Moderated by curator and writer Anushka Rajendran.
Goethe-Institut / 2.30 pm - 3.30 pm
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Sun 21 January (cont.)
Sun 21 January (cont.)
Sun 21 January (cont.)
ECOFEMINIST KIN
This artist-led conversation elaborates on multispecies bonds, ancestral wisdoms, planetary thought, and non-hierarchical kinship. How has ecofeminism been historically practised through ceremonial offerings, indigenous activism, domestic and agricultural labour? Cecilia Moo, Emma Nzioka (Coco Em), Eisa Jocson, Venuri Perera, and Sheelasha Rajbhandari recollect the role of shamans, healers, environmental protectors, and witches who have challenged patriarchal structures and capitalism’s rules.
Goethe-Institut / 4.00 pm - 5.30 pm
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KACHA KACHA
KACHA KACHA is known for providing a platform for uncensored expression and multilingual, smart beat-making and rapping. Featuring artists who are socially conscious performing their original material to an audience consisting of members from various strata of society, KACHA KACHA allows for a confluence of expressions, as each artist brings with them a different perspective to current socio-political realities. For its tenth edition, KACHA KACHA brings together poets, rappers, beatmakers, and a lively and fun full band. Returning to the Government Service Sports Club, participants include Dinoj M, SajaS, Mishal Mazin, Monsoon Blues & Co (Mayun Kalu & Uvindu Perera), Xyren, Ka(ra)mi and Orange Mango. KACHA KACHA is curated by Imaad Majeed.
Government Service Sports Club
6.00 PM - 11.00 PM
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Mon 22 January
CODEX OF THE LIVING: MEDICINAL HERBS & CREATIVE CONNECTION
WORKSHOP WITH CECILIA MOO (I)
In this workshop we will merge knowledge about remedies with medicinal plants and art, through recreational activities. To compile this knowledge, Cecilia Moo introduces a format inspired by two historically significant codices: Badiano codex, made by indigenous Mexicans, the first document of Mexican herbalism, and the Florentine codex that reflects the knowledge of the native people of Mexico and their proximity to nature.
J.D.A. Perera Gallery / 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Recommended age group: 15 years and above
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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ARTIST ENCOUNTERS AT SNAFU
This session foregrounds the ongoing arc of artistic thinking and research behind the projects in Way of the Forest. Artists Soma Surovi Jannat, Tamarra Jayasundera, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah, Anoma Wijewardene, discuss their connection to environmental justice, literature, and direct inspiration from ecologies in their midst. Moderated by development practitioner and curator Radhika Hettiarachchi.
SNAFU Project / 5.00 pm - 6.30 pm
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FOREST CINEMA
WOMEN WARRIORS RECLAIM THE EARTH
NORIENT WITH EMMA NZIOKA (COCO EM)
Dr Wangari Maathai once said, "It is the people who must save the environment. It is the people who must make their leaders change. We cannot be intimidated. We must stand up for what we believe in." This is a cinematic tribute to women of colour who continue to speak out, to fight the powers that be, to guard and preserve our environment and to dedicate their lives to create a sacred link for us and our ancestors. From the leafy green forests of Chocó department in ‘Songs that flood the river’ to the staggering portrait of debris-laden and putrid dump sites in ‘Terra Mater’, I invite you to witness these powerful works by the women of colour who have taken a stand to heal our earth! Will we stand with them?
TAKING ROOT: VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI
Dir. Lisa Merton, Alan Dater
Kenya | 2008 | 81 min.
SONGS THAT FLOOD THE RIVER
Dir. German Arango
Colombia | 2021 | 72 min.
TERRA MATER (MOTHER LAND)
Dir. Kandarama Gahigiri
Rwanda | 2023 | 10 min..
Goethe-Institut Garden / 7.00 pm - 10.00 pm
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Tue 23 January
MAGIC MAIDS
CREATION-WORKSHOP-RITUAL WITH EISA JOCSON AND VENURI PERERA
This workshop-ritual is a way of researching and creating together, using ‘ritual cleansing’ as the overall framework for the workshop. We will explore - How can we sweep out and unsettle deep-seated issues related to women’s oppression? How can we begin to purge, purify, and cleanse the violence in a collective ritual? Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera will be sharing from their ongoing research. For women and fem-identifying participants.
BMICH Kamatha Open Theatre
11:00 am - 4.30 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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CODEX OF THE LIVING: MEDICINAL HERBS & CREATIVE CONNECTION
WORKSHOP WITH CECILIA MOO (II)
J.D.A. Perera Gallery / 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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THE FOREST, THE CITY,
AND THE FISHING CAT
READING GROUP WITH ANYA RATNAYAKA
In this Reading Group, Anya Ratnayaka of Small Cat Advocacy guides a discussion about the conservation of lesser-known species including the fishing cat in the urban wetlands of Colombo. The selection of texts will include scientific research combining forestry in city wetlands, bringing together ideas of the forest and the urban. Anya will connect the topic with the MMCA Sri Lanka’s current exhibition ‘88 Acres: The Watapuluwa Housing Scheme by Minnette De Silva’, and the theme of Way of the Forest. The texts will be emailed to all participants upon registration, and it is recommended that they watch/read them before attending the Reading Group.
The Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art Sri Lanka
6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Sun 21 January (cont.)
Wed 23 January
FOREST CINEMA
GHOST 2561-2565
KORAKRIT ARUNANONDCHAI
& CHRISTINA LI
From the forest to the sea, from air to stone, a ghost dwells within and embodies a time which comes alive to us through fictions. These historical and emergent narratives transform individual experiences into shared realities that survive beyond the realm of the living.
The films brought together in this screening were selected from the two editions of Ghost, a video and performance art series that occurs every three years in Bangkok, Thailand. The first edition, Ghost 2561 (2018) was curated by founder and artist Korakrit Arunanondchai; the subsequent edition Ghost 2565: Live Without Dead Time (2022) was curated by Christina Li. In this collection, we witness how natural and manufactured subjects can haunt and possess novel forms of life, and knowledge. Intricately intertwined with our past and future, they exist alongside the silent breathing of the world, under the decomposing ground under our feet, and in the atmosphere of the sky above us—where spirit remains.
WA’ANAK WITU WATU
Dir. Natasha Tontey
North Sulawesi, Indonesia 2021 | 24 min.
LHAI TORN
Dir. Chantana Tirapachart | 9 min.
LUMAPIT SA AKIN, PARAISO
(COME TO ME, PARADISE)
Dir. Stephanie Comilang | 25 min.
MANGOSTEEN
Dir. Tulapop Saenjaroen
Thailand 2022 | 39 min
BLUE
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Thailand/ France | 2018 | 12 min.
Goethe-Institut Garden / 7.00 pm - 10.00 pm
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Wed 24 January
FOREST CINEMA
TRACES OF THE VANISHING FOREST
DHARAMSHALA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WITH RITU SARIN
AND TENZING SONAM
Dharamshala International Film Festival’s peripatetic and constantly changing programme—DIFF On the Road—brings curated selections of films to venues and locations across India and beyond. DIFF On the Road was envisioned as part of the festival’s mandate to build networks of cinematic solidarity in South Asia and to extend the space for discourse around independent cinema. In keeping with Colomboscope’s thematic concern for this edition, DIFF On the Road showcases two films that delve deeply into the myths, legends, and spirits of disappearing forests, and their lingering impact on those forced to migrate to the concrete jungles of urban worlds.
THE FEVER
Maya Da-Rin | Brazil | 2019 | 98 min.
AN INVOCATION TO THE EARTH
Yeo Siew Hua | Singapore | 2020 | 16 min.
Goethe-Institut Garden / 7.00 pm - 10.00 pm
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Thu 25 January
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FOREST GODS WORKSHOP
WITH PARROTFISH COLLECTIVE (I)
Parrotfish Collective is a group of conservation professionals and wildlife enthusiasts turned conservation communicators, who re-communicate science in visual and creative ways. At Colomboscope, Parrotfish Collective is facilitating a workshop that introduces participants to urgent conservation issues and how these can be communicated in an accessible manner. Participants will be invited to reimagine a paradisaic relationship with the forest and reverence via examining nature worship practices that have prevailed in the island and sustained by Indigenous ways of life, for centuries, through ceremonies, healing practices, festivals held in old-growth forests, and the sacred realm of forest spirits.
SNAFU Project / 10.00 am - 1.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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BENEATH THE FOREST FLOOR
WORKSHOP WITH DHANUSHKA JAYANETTI
This immersive exploration peels back the layers of the hidden fungal king- dom, unveiling their clandestine roles in maintaining ecological balance. From unraveling the delicate mycelial net- works to exploring symbiotic relation- ships with plants, this journey provides a glimpse into the secret life of fungi. Delve into their influence as unsung heroes of biodiversity and contributors to human culture through culinary and medicinal facets. However, challenges abound as we uncover threats to fungi and ongoing conservation endeavors. Concluding with an interactive segment, the session aims to deepen appreciation for the enigmatic world “Beneath the Forest Floor”, stress- ing the vital need for fungal conservation.
SNAFU Project / 2.00 pm - 3.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Fri 26 January
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FOREST GODS WORKSHOP
WITH PARROTFISH COLLECTIVE (II)
SNAFU Project / 10.00 am - 1.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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ALCHEMY IN THE URBAN
WORKSHOP WITH NAHLA AL TABBAA (I)
Join Nahla Tabbaa in a workshop that explores the crossroads between urban foraging, alchemy, prayer and medic- inal healing. Participants will explore and learn about healing plants tucked into the daily fabrics and public areas. In both science and in fiction, we will explore how these plant-based medi- cines can continue to aid us in today’s world- against capitalism, burnout, co- lonialism and other traumas of todays world. Part explorative, part culinary, part fictional writing, the discoveries and re- sults will culminate into an incantation- like recipe book and a remedial spread.
Ranbath Organic / 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Tue 23 January (cont.)
A THOUSAND CHANNELS
RELEASE AND LIVE LISTENING EXPERIENCE OF EPISODE #5
This third iteration of A Thousand Channels, produced with Colomboscope festival, is a sonic companion to its delving into the forest – not merely an ecological area of land dominated by trees, but a multiple lifeworld that necessitates mutual and connective strategies of preservation and growth. Taking its title from Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation (“one way ashore, a thousand channels”), this online radio programme has developed slowly, dynamically, and collaboratively with artists, writers, thinkers, and activists over the last nine years, and continues to embrace Glissaint’s idea of relation as shared knowledge, inseparable from the complex grounds in which it is co-produced. A Thousand Channels is a project by Syma Tariq.
SNAFU Project / 7.00 pm - 8.30 pm
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NIGHT WALK
WITH SMALL CAT ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH (SCAR)
During this excursion you’ll explore a wetland habitat at night while searching for the elusive fishing cat, and more, while learning all about the ethics of night-time wildlife viewing.
Thalangama Lake
9.00 pm - 11.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Sat 27 January
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE
COCA - SYMBIOSIS ACTIVATION
CoCa, Collective of Contemporary Artists, is the first pioneering art organisation in Sri Lanka that focuses on ecology- based socially engaged, sustainable art forms and practices connected with mind, society, and environment. The CoCa activation at Colomboscope invites young minds to free roaming explorations using games based on ecological principles, journalling, and exercises around conservation, trust building, and reuse in everyday life— attuning to the eight senses from the auditory to the olfactory.
CoCA - Symbiosis Art Space
10.00 am - 12.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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NAVIGATING THROUGH THE SILENT WOODS: SIGNS OF THE FOREST
WORKSHOP WITH SIGN NETWORK LK
This interactive storytelling session with sign language aims to teach basic prepositions coupled with nature- inspired signs and other elements found in the forest.
Barefoot / 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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ALCHEMY IN THE URBAN
WORKSHOP WITH NAHLA AL TABBAA (II)
Ranbath Organic / 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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N/A | AUDIO VISUAL SHOWCASE
NIGEL PERERA & ASVAJIT
Non-Applicable (N/A) is a live electronic music act and audio-visual collaboration involving two experienced practitioners of the form, Nigel Perera and Asvajit. Representing the culmination of a decade-long journey of artistic co-development, the project serves as an outlet for the duo’s combined musical output across a multiplicity of genres and stylistic frameworks ranging from dub, jazz, and funk to the many sub-genres of house and techno music. With its emphasis on hardware-based live performances and multifaceted visual experiences, N/A carries a distinctive gradient of resonances that elevate locally made electronic music as an artistic medium.
SNAFU Project / 8.00 pm - 12:00 am
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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TREES IN OUR SURROUNDINGS
NATURE DRAWING WORKSHOP WITH KARUNASIRI WIJESINGHE
Leading artist and educator Karunasiri Wijesinghe invites a deep immersion with the life of trees in his workshop at Viharamahadevi Park. His constellation of practice involves daily observation of the sensory communication between fauna, seasonal transformations, and microclimate produced by old tree systems in the bustling metropolis. Over the years, Wijesinghe has travelled and sketched in nearly every forest canopy, natural reserve, around hill landscapes and wetlands of Sri Lanka. In this workshop, participants will have the freedom to select their own drawing materials and be guided in composition techniques.
Public Library Garden / 10.00 am - 1.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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WETLAND SCAVENGER HUNT
WITH SMALL CAT ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH (SCAR)
This distinctive scavenger hunt is a fun-filled eco-adventure, putting you into the shoes of a Wildlife Biologist. The winning team will receive novelty t-shirts designed by Firi Rahman.
Diyasaru Wetland Park / 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
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Forest Farewells
Way of the Forest will conclude with culinary, visual and acoustic offerings in the Public Library Garden.
The Intuitive Hopper by Nahla al Tabbaa & Ranbath Organic
The Forest Suite by Musicmatters Community featuring Sumudi Suraweera, Sarani Perera, Uvindu Perera, Naveen Wickramathunga, Nuwan Gunawardana, Nipuni Sharadha and Amila Sandaruwan
A Generative Dream by Lalindra Amerasekera with soundscape by Non-Applicable
Colombo Public Library Garden
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Free and open to all
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Fri 26 January (cont.)
Fri 19 January
ARTIST ENCOUNTERS AT SNAFU
This session foregrounds the ongoing arc of artistic thinking and research behind the projects in Way of the Forest. Artists Shiraz Bayjoo, Fernando García-Dory, Mónica de Miranda, Subas Tamang and Müge Yilmaz discuss their connection to botanical histories, agroforestry and gardening as spaces of learning, and anti-colonial legacies in relation to today’s ecopolitical challenges. Moderated by Natasha Ginwala..
SNAFU Project
3.00 pm - 4.30 pm
A LIBRARY OF TREES
An evening in the garden of the Colombo Public Library bringing together a live reading of Myriam Mihindou's Black Honey Manifesto or I am not a Foreigner in the Forest introduced by Elena Sorokina (Initiative of Practices and Visions of Radical Care) and performed by Tashyana Handy. This is followed by original Tamil poetry and devotional songs as a source of commemoration and ecopoiesis by Thava Thajendran and Srikanthan Sarujan, and an exchange with members of Memory Truth and Justice around the planting of community remembrance and dignifying memories of survivors and families of victims of the armed conflict in Nepal.
Public Library Garden
6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
Sat 20 January
URBAN WETLAND WALK
WITH SMALL CAT ADVOCACY RESEARCH (SCAR)
Colombo holds a remarkable secret that few are aware of. With over 277 species of fauna and 250 species of flora, Colombo’s urban wetlands are diverse and thriving ecosystems that act as the beating heart of this ever- changing metropolitan landscape. This Wetland Walk takes you on an educational trail with artist Firi Rahman to foster a better understanding of urban habitats and wildlife around Colombo’s wetlands, while introducing the conservation work of SCAR.
Beddagana Wetland Park
8.00 am - 9.00 am
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD
WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN
Sanjeev and Sunita Maharjan, art educators from Nepal share insights into their artistic processes, exploring the changing relationship with land and farming practices in the face of Kathmandu's urbanization. This interactive learning session will focus on cultivation cycles, explore the food we eat and how it is produced.
Barefoot Gallery
10.00 am - 12.00 pm
Recommended age group: 10-12 years
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
DISTRIBUTING THE FOREST
ZINE-MAKING
WORKSHOP WITH BLAK C.O.R.E. AND THE PACKET
Participants will work together with members of the artist collective The Packet, Kieren Karritpul and Trent Walter (BLAK C.O.R.E.) to think and learn together about how we can distribute/duplicate the forest of thoughts, relations, materials, and situatedness in the form of a zine. Through this reflexive and playful approach, various textual, drawing, and printing processes will be used to compose pages that will be combined into a publication.
SNAFU Project
2.00 pm - 5.00 pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT