Biennial Symposium 2023 Legacies of Care, Failures and Emerging Solidarities

The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023 in Sri Lanka, "Legacies of Care, Failures, Emerging Solidarities" will feature seven panels, each consisting of keynote speeches and sessions led by numerous renowned local and international cultural practitioners.

The event is free, please make sure to RSVP to the event via the button below.

This event is part of the Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023's public programme and takes place on 4 December, 09:30–17:00 (UTC+5:30) at The Stables Venue, Park Street Mews in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The event is followed by the informal drinks until 19.00 (UTC+5:30). The programme is developed in collaboration with Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

FULL PROGRAMME

09:00 – 09:40 Registration and Coffee

9:40 – 10:00 Welcome

Welcome words by Prince Claus Fund director Marcus Desando
Sketching the day by the Symposium's artistic director Keng Sen Ong

10:00 – 10:40 Liveable Societies – Climate, Water, Air, and Us

Greening Architecture by Channa Daswatte (Sri Lanka)
Water Politics, Land Use by Marvi Mazhar (Pakistan)
Rights of Nature by Pooja Sood / Khoj (India)

10:40 – 11:20 The Human-made – Different Kinships, Memorialisation, Food Politics

Justice, Dignity, and the Need for Safer Spaces by Fadescha (Berlin/India)
Memorialisation and Historicisation by Anomaa Rajakaruna (Sri Lanka)
The Kitchens of the Displaced: Food, Memories, Agency by Tayeba Begum Lipi / Britto Art Trust (Bangladesh)

11:20 – 11:40 Coffee Break

11:40 – 12:20 Documenting and Empowering the Context

Truth to Power by Shahidul Alam (Bangladesh)
We are Present: The Power of Narratives is Ours by Radhika Hettiarachchi (Sri Lanka)
Contemporary Urgencies by Kanak Manit Dixit (Nepal)

12:20 – 13:00 Failures and Futurities

Failure of Decolonization by Avni Sethi (India),
How to Love a Tree by Hira Nabi (Pakistan)
Post-civil War: Archaeology as a Weapon by Dr. T. Sanathanan (Sri Lanka)
Learning Through the Arts, After a History of Silencing by Sharareh Bajracharya (Nepal)

14:30 – 15:10 South Asian Contemporary Experiments in Solidarity ––

What Can They Look Like and What Are Their Limitations, Conditions, Legacies, Failures

Curating as Making Queer Kin in Karachi and Elsewheres by Aziz Sohail (Pakistan/Australia)
Counter Worldmaking in the Cold War Era and Contemporary Hyperlocality: Friendship, Intimacy, and Play by Sandev Handy (Sri Lanka)
Stitching Together the Translocal, and the Burdens of Solidarity by Sheelasha Rajbhandari (Nepal)

15:10 – 15:45 The Human Being amidst Planetary Deterioration

Exhausting the Human Being in Global Foreign Labour by Hit Man Gurung (Nepal)
Exploitative and Extractivist Cultures: Accountability before Development by Sammy Baloji (Congo)
Way of the Forest by Natasha Ginwala / Colomboscope (Sri Lanka)

15:45 – 16:05 Coffee Break

16:05 – 16:50 International Potentialities: Parallel Activations and New Alliances, for Repair

Carla Fernandez (Mexico)
Besa Luci (Kosovo)
Maya El Khalil (Lebanon)
Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana)

16:50 – 17:00 Concluding Remarks & Thank You

17:00 – 19:00 Reception at Monsoon Colombo