The Art of New Alternatives?

Nation-Building and the Creation of a 'New Community' in Contemporary Sri Lankan Art

International Conference // March 09 – 11, 2022 // HSZ E01 (TU Dresden)

Funded by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

With its long pre-colonial Sinhalese and Tamil history in addition to its unique legacy of successive colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, Sri Lanka can be seen as an exemplary test case for post­colonial societies and nations but also for theories and models of hybridity, syncretism, multi­culturalism, community and nation-build­ing; a model case for dealing with difference and diversity, religions and ethnicities, traditions and histories as well as ideologies and political doctrines in a highly traditional and stratified society before the backdrop of a convoluted past. For these reasons, the conference adopts a strong cultural studies perspective which in­cludes questions stemm­ing from sociology, social anthropology/ethnography and philosophy of community, but differs significant­ly from other research projects, roundtable discussions and workshops on Sri Lanka by understanding culture "as a terrain of struggle wherein the political fabrication of terri­tories and the articulation of collective life are contested and negotiated" (B. Korf) and by transcending the narrow limits of the political and sociological sphere and focusing on art!

This conference sets out to ask for new, different and more creative solutions of what multiethnic and multireligious life in Sri Lanka might look like; to ask for concepts of community and nation-building, of negotiation, hybridity and 'unity-in-difference' which transcend political rivalries, ethnic and religious rifts as well as economic dependencies and to offer alternatives to the present (and historical) deadlock. Given the extraordinary complexity of the historical and socio-political situation in Sri Lanka, we expect the results of this conference to reach far beyond the island nation and argue, in accordance with Saravanamuttu, that the "current predicament of Sri Lanka" is representative of "the nation- and state-building process in the [entire] develop­ing world".

Confirmed Participants

• Visakesa Chandrasekaram (University of Colombo)
• Birte Heidemann-Malreddy (TU Dresden)
• Stefan Horlacher (TU Dresden)

• Thamali Kithsiri (University of Zurich)

• Benedikt Korf (University of Zurich)
• Neloufer de Mel (University of Colombo)
• Ruhanie Perera (University of Colombo)

• Nilanjana Premaratna (Umeå University)

• Udagedara Priyantha (University of the Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo)

• Harshana Rambukwella (Open University of Sri Lanka, Nugegoda / Südasien-Institut Heidel­berg)

• Ruvani Ranasinha (King’s College, London)
• Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu (Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo)

• Wieland Schwanebeck (TU Dresden)

• Rachel Seoighe (University of Kent, Canterbury)
• Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan (University of Jaffna)
• Neluka Silva (University of Colombo)

• Samanth Subramanian (Cambridge, UK)

• Mahendran Thiruvarangan (University of Jaffna)

• Shermal Wijewardene (University of Colombo)

In addition to the presentations by invited speakers and critical discussions at the end of each section, there will be poster presentations by students, round­table discussions and public readings. To make Sri Lankan art more accessible to broader audience, there will be a film screening, readings, and artwork such as installations and paintings will be shown as video presentations. The conference is directly linked to a lecture series on Postcolonial Studies, a seminar on South Asian literature and is part of Studium Generale. It is officially acknow­ledg­ed als "Lehrerfortbildung" by the Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Kultus (SMK) and open to the public.