Way of the Forest
travelling edition at 421 Arts Campus
A travelling exhibition of the eighth edition of Colomboscope, Way of the Forest was held in collaboration with 421 Arts Campus from September 22 to December 29, 2024 in Abu Dhabi. The exhibition featured the work of 19 artists from South Asia, South West Asia, and Africa. Way of the Forest at 421 Arts Campus in Abu Dhabi converged artistic pathways to rekindle knowledge of interdependence, custodianship, and restorative practices across rainforests, wilderness, mountain cultivations, and riverine wetlands. It invited
approaching the forest as a multispecies school—moving from the curriculum of plunder, reckless supremacy, and extinction, to embrace its lessons in organic networks of mutual aid and restorative balance beyond the human sensorium. The forest as a lexicon holds a plenitude of meaning across languages: Aaranya in Tamil and Sanskrit relating to a sanctuary, vana in Sinhala. Bonn, Jongol, and Aranno in Bangla, guṁ in Nepal Bhasa, tēṁ in Tamu—each evoking distinct states of being, emotions, disparate imagination, and a palpable climate.
This exhibition was an intricate study of our eroding ecological histories, of lost environmental wisdoms, monstrous developmental agendas, and ghosts of extraction. It endeavoured to plot legacies of colonization of resources and minds that operate in
disguise. Within mutating landscapes, artists questioned who owns forest lands, who gets displaced, and who is restricted from sites marked for conservation. Participating artists are Rakibul Anwar, Moza Almatrooshi, Shiraz Bayjoo, U. Arulraj, Jayatu Chakma, Nahla al Tabbaa, Pathum Dharmarathna, Sangita Maity, Karachi LaJamia, Sanod Maharjan, Saodat Ismailova, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah, Sarmila Sooriyakumar with Pirainila Krishnarajah, Otobong Nkanga, MTF Rukshana, Tamarra Jayasundera, Karunasiri Wijesinghe, Kulagu Tu Buvongan, and Thava Thajendran.
The travelling edition of Way of the Forest at 421 Arts Campus also featured an excerpt of the Forest Cinema. The film program presented a curated selection of films by DIFF on the Road, a programme which aims to build networks of cinematic solidarity in South Asia and to extend the space for discourse around independent cinema. The films to be showcased are directed by Indian-Tibetan filmmakers and artists, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam. Forest Cinema at 421 Arts Campus also presented films by Ghost 2561-2565 in collaboration with Korakrit Arunanondchai and Christina Li.
Coverage Highlights
