Contributing a powerful conversation from Sri Lanka on the need for harmony and healing, Anoma’s multisensory installation ‘Kintsugi’ on diversity and coexistence is showing from May to November at the European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Bembo, Canale Grande during the 58th Venice Biennale.
Focusing on the need for unity in diversity in our highly polarised world, Anoma Wijewardene showcases her ‘Kintsugi’ installation at the European Cultural Centre’s Personal Structures: Identities – a collateral exhibition of the iconic Venice Biennale. Incorporating the poetry of Romesh Gunesekera, the music of Sharon Smith and the scent of Cinnamon, the work is an appeal to hearts and minds, through all the senses as well as the intellect.
Along with the curators of the exhibition the thousands of viewers frequenting the biennale will find this message of embracing differences and the beauty of reconstruction to be incredibly meaningful; especially coming from a Sri Lanka fresh from the aftermath of the Easter tragedy. Anoma Wijewardene gave an interview, discussing how she hoped the installation would present a positive and healing outlook from Sri Lanka in the face of the current disharmony, and misguided religious fervour; and what it means to be showing her work at the art world’s most coveted global platform. Following are excerpts:
Q: How do you feel about being the first Sri Lankan solo artist to show during the Venice Art Biennale?
I have been told that the last time any Sri Lankan had shown at the Biennale was when our art legends of the 43 Group participated in it, at the official Arsenale, in 1955. So, you can imagine how humbled I am to be showing, even at a collateral exhibition during the Biennale in 2019; Forbes has called it the Olympics of Art, and I feel honoured to have been invited to exhibit at whatever level, on such an immense platform, especially since quite fortuitously we were able to contribute a really powerful story from where we are standing today – a story which is apposite and which resonates with everyone across the world right now. So, it’s really within this context that an invitation to a single Sri Lankan artist from a Venice Biennale collateral exhibition curating team becomes significant to me, and I believe also to the many people who supported this venture.
Q: Why do you think the European Cultural Centre found your message relevant for their exhibition during the Biennale?
Personal Structures: Identities, the theme of the ECC show is about recognising that this tendency to divide rather than unite forces us to look closely at our identity, our differences and our similarities. I believe the world is fragmented; and we are all yearning for healing whether it is in Colombo, Jaffna, Christchurch, Paris or Venice. So, the message of finding healing, celebrating the very idea of diversity is something that has relevance to everyone in the world, today more than ever. The beauty is in the difference, inviting us to cherish our cultural commonalities and embrace our diversity. I think this message from Sri Lanka was particularly relevant coming after the Easter tragedy that shook everyone across the world. I hope ‘Kintsugi’ sat in a context of global relevance and a viewpoint from Sri Lanka which was important for the Biennale. The Biennale’s overall theme – ‘May You Live In Interesting
Times’ – underpins the fact that the whole exposition encompasses comment on the turbulent world we now live in.
