An annual contemporary arts festival held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Colomboscope is one of the country’s leading contemporary arts events. Since its inception in 2013, its cultural significance has grown and it has expanded to include artists and speakers from other countries of South Asia and beyond. The festival brings together artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, social theorists and researcher scientists who respond to a predetermined theme, and includes mounted exhibitions, workshops, projected displays, talks, symposia, music and film screenings. It has also come to be known for its use of the city’s significant historical spaces, complementing art galleries as sites for installations, exhibitions and events. In the broader context of South Asian art, Colomboscope is also an example of the emergence of public art events that were founded in the region in the 2000s and 2010s. 

Colomboscope was established a few years after the end of a twenty-seven year civil war in Sri Lanka. The memory and impact of the conflict on Sri Lankan society, as well as counter narratives of power and political authority, were reflected in some of the early editions of the event, evolving into themes dealing with urban spaces and social structures, technology in art, environment and ecology, and migration. Colomboscope has featured artists and collectives from South Asia and other parts of the world, including Holland, Colombia, Australia and Mexico, who have often incorporated the historic colonial venues of the festival into their work through site-responsive installations. 

The first instalment of Colomboscope was held at Park Street Mews between March 22 and 24, 2013. Titled ‘Identities’, it was curated by author Ashok Ferrey, in collaboration with Anouska Hempel and Anoma Rajakaruna who curated the film and arts sections of the event. It had as its central theme the social landscape in the post-war nation. The 2014 edition of the festival shared its theme ‘Making Histories’ with the Colombo Art Biennale, although the two events adopted different approaches. Curated by the researcher and development practitioner Radhika Hettiarachchi, the 2014 edition of Colomboscope was held in several historical locations in the city, including Whist Bungalow, the Old Town Hall, the Grand Oriental Hotel and the Rio Cinema and Hotel Complex, referencing Colombo’s multi-layered colonial history. The use of Rio Complex — one of the sites of an anti-Tamil riot in July 1983 — referenced the events and legacy of the civil war. Through talks and art events featuring local and international writers, historians, sociologists and artists, the edition focused on aspects of history, from the processes of documentation and archiving, to issues of lost narratives, as well as history in the time of social media.

The festival’s third edition took place in 2015, under the theme ‘Shadow Scenes’, comprising an eponymous art exhibition alongside talks and other programming. It was co-curated by the Indian curator Natasha Ginwala and the Sri Lankan artist and researcher Menika van der Poorten, and took place in the multi-storeyed defunct Rio Hotel. While the talks focused on Colombo and facets of urban life, the exhibition featured works by artists — including some from the city of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, one of the worst affected areas during the war — drawing on their experiences of the conflict as well as urbanscapes and Sri Lankan literature and mythology. In 2016, the German curator and author Susanne Jaschko curated the festival under the theme ‘Testing Grounds: Art and Digital Cultures in South Asia and Europe’. Held in the General Post Office building, which had been closed for over two decades, the event was centred on digital art and technology in art practice, and featured works by British and European artists and experimental works by Sri Lankan artists, which used digital formats to comment on the social structure of Colombo. 

The 2017 edition ‘Re/Evolution’ was curated by van der Poorten and held at the defunct Old Maradana Railway Terminus. The broad focus of the edition was on nature and environmental issues in Sri Lanka, a strand of which was carried forward in the 2019 edition titled ‘Sea Change’, curated by Ginwala. The edition, held at the Rio Complex, the Barefoot Gallery and the Grand Oriental Hotel, also looked at issues of environmental challenges and the economy in the context of the maritime world and aspects of the city’s gentrification. 

The 2022 edition, titled ‘Language is Migrant’, was held after being postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The edition, curated by writer Anushka Rajendran and Ginwala, borrowed its title from a poem-manifesto by the Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuna and examined the notions of language in the context of nationhood and citizenship, along with themes of migration, diaspora and development. The event was held across the Barefoot Gallery, the Colombo Public Library, Lak Cafe at the Viharamahadevi Park, the Lakhmahal Community Library, the Rio Complex, and the WA Silva Museum and Printing Press. 

The environmental theme was again central in the 2024 edition, titled ‘Way of the Forest’, but the edition focused on the environmental histories of South Asia, the ties between land, nature and indigenous communities, and ecofeminism, with artworks drawing links between the exploitation of nature and gender discrimination. The edition was curated by the Nepali artists Hit Man Gurung and Sheelasha Rajbhandari and the Bangladeshi artist Sarker Protick, with Ginwala in the role of artistic director.

Sri Lankan artists associated with the 90s Trend and Theertha International Artists’ Collective, including Jagath Weerasinghe, Pradeep Chandrasiri, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Pala Pothupitiya, Muhanned Cader and Anoli Perera have participated in Colomboscope, along with younger Sri Lankan artists, such as Kesara Ratnavibhushana, Pradeep Thalawatta, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah and Aamina Nizar. Participating artists and collectives from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have included Raqs Media Collective, Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Mahbubur Rahman, Bani Abidi, Hira Nabi and Omer Wasim. Artists from outside the South Asia region have included Ackroyd & Harvey, James Bridle, Pedro Gómez-Egaña and Robin Meier.

In addition to displaying artworks, Colomboscope hosts residencies that bring together European and South Asian artists to collaborate on projects. In response to the pandemic, the team also launched a series of online art projects on the festival’s social media channels. Some critics have raised concerns over the festival’s reach being limited to an English-speaking audience. 

The Goethe-Institut and the British Council jointly organised and financed the first edition of Colomboscope. The Alliance Francaise and the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC) have been supporting the festival since 2014 and 2015 respectively. Fold Media Collective — a collective of artists, designers and film-makers — have organised the festival, often collaborating with several other patrons and partners, including galleries, festivals and collectives, including the Gujral Foundation, the Ishara Art Foundation and Art Jameel, Dubai, Chobi Mela, Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation, Collective of Contemporary Artists, and Artree. 

At the time of writing, Natasha Ginwala is the artistic director of Colomboscope.