Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023

The Prince Claus Fund is launching its first Biennial Symposium –– Collaborating with partners within various localities, the event facilitates South-to-South knowledge exchange and harnesses the potential of culture for fostering solidarity and positive societal change.

Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023 –– Legacies of Care, Failures and Emerging Solidarities

Organised in collaboration with Geoffrey Bawa Trust

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

In our interconnected world, fostering dialogue and collaboration is essential for us to embrace our unique lifestyles while coexisting harmoniously. The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023 focuses on building sustainable and enduring relationships among cultural innovators with the ultimate aim of showcasing the transformative power of culture.

The first Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium takes us to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust we welcome international and local partners for a three-day programme of keynotes, performances, tours, and more. Titled “Legacies of Care, Failures and Emerging Solidarities” and curated in collaboration with renowned artistic director Keng Sen Ong, the Symposium aims to facilitate conversation and reflection on how arts and culture can address urgent societal challenges and stimulate international solidarity across global issues of climate, equity, and freedom. Beyond the global, the Symposium focuses on local research and employs a trans local lens, to delve deeper into the urgencies of action and collaboration.

The 2023 Prince Claus Fund Symposium takes the practice of care as a departure point for activating a sustainable and inclusive future co-existence. Resilience and regeneration will be at the heart of the programme, with emerging and established cultural changemakers collectively investigating the ways of acting sustainably and responsibly, to create inhabitable societies in various local contexts. Taking failures as a driving force for new beginnings, the Symposium aims to create long-lasting connections between cultural practitioners from Southeast Asia and advocate for the transformative power of culture.

Joining the Symposium in Sri Lanka are one of the country’s leading architects, Channa Daswatte; renowned filmmaker, Anomaa Rajakaruna; accomplished artist and art historian, Thamotharampillai Sanathanan; choreographer and performance artist Venuri Perera; arts educator Sharareh Bajracharya; artist and curator Fadescha; visual artist, and 2020 Prince Claus Laureate from Pakistan, Hira Nabi; renowned Bangladeshi photographer, activist, and longstanding Prince Claus Fund partner, Shahidul Alam; Nepali writer, publisher, and 2009 Prince Claus Laureate, Kanak Manit Dixit; visual artist and 2020 Prince Claus Laureate, Ibrahim Mahama, and more.

The Symposium will welcome the honorary member of the Prince Claus Fund's Board, HRH Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands who will have a conversation with Artistic Director Keng Sen Ong reflecting on the Fund's work and legacy, alongside the Prince Claus Seed Awardees Chaturi Nissansala, Parilojithan Ramanathan, Adit Dewan, Ankur, Arpita Akhanda, Debashish Paul, Moe Myat May Zarchi, Ujjwala Maharjan, Suranga Katugampala, Ammara Jabbar and Asad Ali Zulfiqar.