Human Rights 2018 : 10.12.18

David will be showing new installation works within the 2018 Human Rights Exhibition in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

In response to the on-going political crisis in Sri Lanka, and to coincide with International Human Rights Day, Human Rights Arts 2018 will be held from the 10th – 15th December 2018, at the JDA Perera Gallery, Colombo. 

Human Rights Arts 2018 is an exhibition and a series of surrounding events created for people to gather, to reflect on and to share the creativity, knowledge and collective power of citizens’ movements that work towards achieving human dignity, democracy, justice and rights. The exhibition proposes artworks as invitations to debate and presents the gallery as a forum to be claimed and occupied.

The 10th of December 2018 is the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Arts 2018 will celebrate this global milestone within a local context of renewed public urgency to claim concepts of human rights.

A program of events will offer a platform for the current growing national culture of citizen protest in Sri Lanka, providing spaces to host impromptu responses and considered reflections on the wider political crisis. The exhibition will attempt to link the several citizens’ protests happening around the country and within the capital of Colombo, through art, interventions and discussions.

HUMAN RIGHTS ARTS 2018

Preview: 10th December, 5pm

Exhibition: 1th – 15th December, 10am - 7pm
A continuing exhibition of artwork by Chandragupta Thenuwara, David Cotterrell, Ruwanthie de Chickera and Senaka Weeraman will be available for public viewing within the JDA Perera Gallery. The artists have created their artwork in direct response to the surrounding political climate of the country. There will be scheduled curated tours of the artwork. (See programme for schedule)

Ephemeral artwork: – Opening of exhibition – 5.00pm – 7.00pm 10th December
Flashes of performance, dissolving artwork, disappearing acts will take place at specific times within the exhibition. (See programme for schedule).

Protest Art: – 11.00am – 01.00pm Daily from 11th – 15th December
Open spaces for artists engaged in protest art to come and share their work. (Artists need to call and schedule their programmes).

Open Mike: – 11.00am – 1.00pm Daily from 11th – 15th December
Fifteen – thirty minute slots for artists to speak to audiences about anything they want to - from a professional challenge to a personal experience, a failed project to an unrealised dream. Through song, performance or spoken word. (Artists need to call and schedule their open mike sessions)

Citizens’ Forums: – 5.00pm – 6.00pm Daily from 11th – 14th December
Regular scheduled forums for lay persons to ask questions and learn about the history, philosophy and practice of different resistance movements – moderated by experts and open to all. Forums will focus on – Artist Resistance, Women’s Resistance, Resistance through Social Media, Theology of religious resistance, Economic Resistance, Investigative Journalism.

Stories of resistance: Scheduled talks on specific citizen intervention into the current political crisis. Presentations made to the public on legal interventions, journalistic interventions, artistic interventions etc will be recorded and archived.

Wall of protest: Collection of posters, photographs, letters, articles, artefacts used in the different citizen protests.

We call on artists, citizens and groups to use this opportunity to contribute the stories of their interventions to a living archive of citizen resilience within a country under stress. In the midst of the continuing chaos, lets pause a moment to tell our stories and listen to the stories of others, and reflect together on the importance of protecting the principles of the universal declaration of human rights.

We invite the improvised, the organised, the quiet, the chaotic, the flawed, the failed, the banal and the extraordinary testimony of people intervening in a national crisis. Artists, lawyers, unionists, activists, students, women, youth groups, clergy … get in touch with us. Come and share with us the story of your intervention. Come and listen to the stories of other interventions. 

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