The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (MMCA Sri Lanka) opened its new exhibition titled ‘The Foreigners’ on May 4, 2023, at its premises on the ground floor of Crescat Boulevard.
Curated by Sandev Handy and Sharmini Pereira, ‘The Foreigners’ brings together the works of 15 contemporary artists who use varying media to address the entangled ways in which foreignness is inscribed onto them, marking them as strangers, outsiders, or transgressors.
Together their works resist, reimagine, and re-mix well-worn tropes of how otherness is categorised and foreignness is perceived. These works include photographs, performances, video artworks, installations, drawings, and paintings. The exhibition has been specially designed by Jonathan Edward and the exhibition identity has been created by Emile Molin.
Lead curator of the exhibition Sandev Handy said, “The Foreigners considers how contemporary artists grapple with often contradictory ideas of home, borders, and belonging. We imagine this exhibition as a complicated cacophony of both local and diasporic voices coming together to testify to their experiences of place and displacement, inviting visitors to listen, tune in and parse through them.”
He said, “My hope is that this exhibition is a starting point; a stake in the ground from which we may begin to recognise the experiences of the foreigner, the outsider, and the stranger, as crucial artistic voices towards helping us critically examine how borders often imposed upon us by dominant cultural narratives may be questioned and even dismantled.”
‘The Foreigners’ features 15 contemporary artists who include Arjuna Gunaratne (b. 1976), Danushka Marasinghe (b. 1985), Dinelka Liyanage (b. 1994), Hema Shironi (b. 1991), Hania Luthufi (b. 1989), Imaad Majeed (b. 1991), Isuru Kumarasinghe (b. 1987), Janani Cooray (b. 1974), K K Srinath Chathuranga (b. 1987), Nina Mangalanayagam (b. 1980), Reginald S. Aloysius (b. 1970), S.H. Sarath (b. 1947), Shyama Golden (b. 1983), Stephen Champion (b. 1959), and Sumudi Suraweera (b. 1982). Two of the artworks titled ‘එළිපත්ත/ Threshold’ (Part 1) and ‘එළිපත්ත/ Threshold’ (Part 2) by Dinelka Liyanage (b. 1994), Hania Luthufi (b. 1989) and Sumudi Suraweera (b. 1982) of Music Matters, were commissioned by the MMCA Sri Lanka in 2021 with the support of the European Union. Lenders to the exhibition are based in India, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.
Chief Curator at the MMCA Sri Lanka Sharmini Pereira said, “‘The Foreigners’ will give the museum’s visitors an insight into the works of contemporary artists living and working in Sri Lanka, the United States, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. One of the most important aspects of our work is to support and showcase the work of living artists; an opportunity not afforded to the generation of modern artists”, adding that, “We look forward to welcoming visitors to an exhibition that we believe touches on many contemporary issues about who we are and where we are from.”
Pereira said, “This is also our first exhibition to receive support from a group of people who reside outside of Sri Lanka and who wish to bring international attention to the country’s many contemporary artists. Through their example, we hope that other people will do similar and support research and curation around contemporary art.”
The MMCA Sri Lanka will also offer its visitors a host of free public programs alongside ‘The Foreigners’. These programs include gallery talks with artists and academics, workshops by art practitioners and professionals, guided Curator’s and Exhibition Tours, a poetry club, performances, and other special events.
The MMCA Sri Lanka is an education-led initiative that aims to establish a public museum dedicated to the display, research, collection, and conservation of modern and contemporary art for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public, schools, and tourists.
The museum is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm (except on Poya days and public holidays) on the ground floor of Crescat Boulevard. Entrance to the museum and all its public programs are free.