15th – 19th February 2012
Long awaited and following the enormous success of the first edition of the Colombo Art Biennale “Imagining Peace” in 2009, CAB is delighted to announce its second edition with “Becoming” in February 2012.
CAB is honoured and proud to introduce its two curators for this year’s edition of the Biennale – Roman Berka, who heads Museum in Progress in Vienna and Suresh Jayaram, director of 1Shanthi Road in Bangalore.
Theme: “Becoming”
The theme for the 2012 Colombo Art Biennale will be: ‘Becoming’. This title was chosen to reflect the social and political context of Sri Lanka today as well as from the wider issues that are facing our world. We are now concerned with the way this peace has affected the country. Where is Sri Lanka now? What has it become? The theme of Becoming asks artists and participants to consider the reality and the concepts of Becoming, the ‘possibility of being in a moment between two decisive ends.’ Becoming is not an idea which asks for certainty but by its nature explores open-endedness, transformation and potentiality.
CAB will be strengthening the platform from which Sri Lankan artists can be seen, interpreted and understood both nationally and internationally. There will be a greater international presence compared with 2009 as, alongside the 20 local Sri Lankan artists, there will be established international participants from regional countries: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, as well as those from further afield: The US, France, Australia, UK and Germany.
The venues will be situated all over Colombo and will play host to a fantastic range of new and established artists. We will update you with news and development of events and names of artists (www.artaholicblog.com).
The CAB Team consists of Annoushka Hempel (Founder and Director of CAB), Jagath Weeresinghe (Co-Founder of CAB/Artist/ Archaeology University Lecturer, Founding Member & Chairman of Theertha International Artist Collective & Curator), Neil Butler (Director of CAB, Artist, Director of Glasgow Art Fair), Puja Srivastava (Project Manager), Deneth Piumaskshi (Project Coordinator) and Knut Landsverk (Project Consultant).
The Colombo Art Biennale 2012 is brought to you by a collective of generous sponsors. We are grateful to the support of our sponsors; Standard Chartered Bank, Mimeta – Centre for Culture and Development, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, The Prince Claus Foundation, The Wijeya News Group, The Goethe Institut, Maharajah Group, Leo Burnett, Park Street Mews, The WareHouse Project and the Sri Lanka Tourism & Promotions Bureau for endorsing our event.
