Arts

As a global phenomenon, techno has not only shaped music history, but has also set impulses that have impacted contemporary culture, art, pop culture, media consumption and technologies.

The Goethe-Institut's exhibition TECHNO WORLDS approaches this multi-layered phenomenon through the works of international artists. The exhibition will be on display at Rio Hotel & Cinema Complex in Colombo from 13 - 28 September 2024. The Colombo display of TECHNO WORLDS will feature an additional section on the history of Pettah Interchange (2012 -2016) in Sri Lanka.

We are looking for individual creatives, organizations or businesses whose creative work is centered around circular practices or symbiotic relationships with people and the planet. If this is you - apply now to be part of Sri Lanka’s first Creative Green Map! We are accepting applications starting from the 19th of March to the 14th of April 2024.

Like knocking stones together to spark a flame, “Thattu Pattu” derives its meaning from two loan words between Sinhala and Tamil — the languages predominantly spoken in Sri Lanka. Thattu Pattu intends to spark a renewed interest in music from the fringes of Sri Lanka.

JISR is Arabic for “bridge”. The popular international ensemble performs in a wide variety of instrumentations with top-class virtuoso musicians. Rooted in several musical genres, this unconventional musical project builds bridges between Arabian, Afro, jazz, rock and classical music and takes the path of maximum musical variation and improvisation.

The Sound Room Sessions are a series of live-streamed concerts from the Sound Room at Musicmatters in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka. 

The INTERFACE has been re-built from the ground up by technologist Lalindra Amarasekara and showcases a musical performance by electronic musicians Nigel Perera, Asvajit Boyle in collaboration Shivantha Fernando and Divanka Sewmin.

Merging electronic music from South Asia and Germany.

A project by Goethe‑Institut seeking to capture, document, explore and invite music, poetry, research and discourse on the intersections of music and activism in South Asia. The thematic frame of M.A.P // A.M.P interfaces with other topics, especially pertaining to civil society, minorities, feminism, and queer activism.

A four-day residential dance retreat on the South Coast of Sri Lanka for dancers and choreographers.Tell your own stories through the medium of dance and be intensively guided by Paul Upali Gouëllo, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand and Farah Deen.


 

The possibility to exchange ideas with different formats to professional dancers as well as students who would like to think outside the box of their traditional dance spectrum.

Colomboscope is a contemporary arts festival and creative platform for interdisciplinary dialogue that has grown steadily within the cultural landscape of Colombo since 2013.

A residency program for lens-based artists and photographers from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka intending to work with local resources to research and develop cross cultural bodies of work on shared histories, cultures and environments, supported by Goethe-Institut Chennai and Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka and implemented in collaboration with the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation and Kälam.

»Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground« was on view from 11 - 27 November, 2022 at J.D.A. Perera Gallery in Colombo. Mira Hirtz and Daria Mille are the curators of this traveling exhibition that was conceived and first exhibited at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and is based on a concept by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel.

While Sri Lanka is going through turbulent times alternating between despair and euphoria, the Goethe-Institut together with the Chennai Photo Biennale is pleased to present four emerging photographers' documentary projects that have been 'Capturing the Current' in Colombo, Galle and Jaffna during May and June 2022.

kal traces decolonial and feminist futures and pasts that are connected through bodies of water lapping at different shorelines.

The photo project Humanity & Earth enabled young Sri Lankan photographers to concentrate on the relationship between humans and earth. The photographic documentation of ecological focal points in Sri Lanka and their aesthetic presentation were the thematic key elements.