Art After War: Sri Lanka Reimagines Community

How does a country begin to rebuild itself after war? A new article by Stefan Horlacher and Thilini Meegaswatta, published on Groundviews, which describes itself as “a citizens journalism website based in Sri Lanka,” looks at the role contemporary Sri Lankan literature and art are playing in that process. In this article, Horlacher and Meegaswatta explore how writers and artists are helping to shape a new post-war community.

Their focus is on the power of culture to do more than reflect society. Literature, film, visual art and performance become spaces where painful histories can be confronted, divisions questioned and new forms of connection imagined. The article suggests that in Sri Lanka, art is not just responding to the past, but actively helping to build a different future.

The full version of this article can be found here.