Cinnamon Colomboscope 2015 : The City. Identity. Urbanity 

Colombo, the urban capital of Sri Lanka, was rediscovered through the eyes of artists, musicians, performers, writers and researchers as Cinnamon Colomboscope unveiled itself during the weekend. As Colombo’s only festival dedicated to the arts in multidisciplinary forms, this year’s event widened its scope with introduction of two parallel segments : a talks and literature programme, ‘The City. Identity. Urbanity.’, and a visual arts exhibition ‘Shadow Scenes’.

The first programme in the series was titled ‘Of Dystopias and Utopias : The City as a Character’, featured a British-Jamaican-Chinese author Kerry Young and an Indian writer and journalist Naresh Fernandes who read from their novel and explored representations of cities. During the discussion, Kerry shared her views on Kingston, the city which she represents. In her comments she said that Kingston can be described as a city of Bob Marley, a city of reggae. “I have seen many tuk-tuks in Colombo with the sticker of Bob Marley. Is it that there are many reggae fans in Colombo? I don’t know how it could be characterized but it can be anyting.” On the other hand, Naresh described Bombay as a ‘glam city with glass facades’. “You get a busy city on the one side, bar dancers and an entirely opposite fun-loving environment on the other. If there are 9 million people then there are 9 million individual stories that could be related by each one of them. I think Bombay is a combination of all those.”

In her comments to the Daily Mirror, Kerry said that the event is quite an informative platform to learn more about cities around the world. “I haven’t seen the greater part of Colombo but I think it must be a composition of the rich living on one side and the poor in slums and towards another section. Colomboscope has allowed spectators and those participating in it to explore Colombo beyond what it already is.”

Kerry is a reader for The Literacy Consultancy, a tutor for the Arvon Foundation and a Fellow on the Royal Literary Fund Fellowship Programme where she is writer-in-Residence at the University of Sheffield.

Metro/Sexual 

In a series of events to explore Sri Lanka, ‘Metro/Sexual’ stood out as a one-of-a-kind experience to its contributors and spectators. Based on a theme of gender and sexuality, the contributors related their experience with partners and how they feel about love and relationships in different contexts. The contributors for the event were Dr. Dayanath Ranatunga, Eric Reinhardt, Indu Dharmasena, Grassrooted, Shanuki De Alwis, Equal Ground and Mind Adventures.

‘Metro/Sexual’ was organised at the Rio Hotel which is a reminder of a historical narrative that has once shaped Sri Lanka’s conflict history. The Rio was opened with much fanfare in 1965 by its founder Navaratnam, in order to introduce a highly sophisticated film experience to the island. In 1979 its outlook was made more attractive by the introduction of seven story hotel which was looted and partially destroyed by mobs during the Black July Riots four years after it was constructed.

Realism, Reportage and Representation 

Arts can be diversified within a broad spectrum and it can be expressed in numerous mediums. Realism, Reportage and Representation was a discussion that explored how its speakers strived to represent and question the realities of the cities n which they live through new media, satire and cartoon. The contributing speakers were political cartoonist Gihan De Chickera, British satirist Jonathan Coe and Indian journalist and editor of scroll  Naresh Fernandes. During the discussion they elaborated on how politics has interfered with their creations and how to maintain self-censorship while drawing a cartoon or writing an article. In his comments Gihan said that events like the elections are just satires altogether and satires have become the reality today.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Naresh Fernandes said that it had been amazing to be a part of Colomboscope. “This is the second time that I am in Sri Lanka and I am privileged to represent Bombay in an event like this. I am astonished by the energy put forth by all the organizers to make it such a huge success.”

Naresh Fernandes is a journalist who lives in Bombay. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Time Out India. He is the author of City Adrift: A shot biography of Bombay and the co-author of Bombay Then and Now. 

Kacha! Kacha! 

As mentioned before, Colomboscope was a series of events that explored Colombo through several mediums such as book readings, discussions and performances. Kacha! Kacha! Was an exploration of ‘urban music’ through a mash-up of Colombo’s sub-cultures including Sinhala, Tamil and English rap, urban poetry and satiric suburban lyrics. Many individuals including soloists and bands such as Drill Team performed giving in a different dimension to the concept of urban music. The performances were adorned with welcoming cheers and the spectators were fascinated by their talents altogether.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Menika van der Poorten, co-curator of Colomboscope's 'Shadow Scenes' said that the entire series of events have been quite informative and insightful. “There is transference of language and I think it has given in a new meaning to what is called arts. I am privileged to be a member of the organising team.”

Ameena is a writer and co-founder of the Perera Hussein Publishing House which has established itself as the frontrunner for cutting edge Sri Lankan fiction from emerging and established Sri Lankan authors.

By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe
Photographs by Indrarathne Balasuriya, Pradeep Dilrukshana & Kithsiri De Mel