Introduction

by Anoli Perera

The Swedish Sri Lankan Artists Residency (SSAR) program has somewhat of a long history.

The idea for a Swedish Sri Lankan collaborative art program was first discussed with us by William Wareing, curator, Millesgarden Museum, Stockholm, during a survey trip to Sri Lanka in 2001, whom I had met during a visit to Sweden in 1998. William Wareing’s trip to Sri Lanka was an assignment by the Swedish Institute (Stockholm) to do a background check on Sri Lankan art and to select the artists for a possible exchange program between Sweden and Sri Lanka in the future. In 2002, both Jagath Weerasinghe and myself were invited to Sweden to discuss the logistics and to look at the works of Swedish artists for the SSAR program. We were given a wonderful glimpse of the cultural life in Stockholm by William Wareing facilitated by the Swedish Institute. During our stay in Sweden we were able to meet a large number of artists and see their art. During the same trip, we were introduced to Onita Wass, curator, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Sweden) who became the partner art organization in Sweden for the SSAR program.

While it was an immensely difficult task for us to select three Swedish artists from the long list of artists we met in Stockholm, the final selection of artists for the SSAR program came down to Jacob Dahlgren, Filippa Arrias and Jesper Nordahl. Sri Lankan participation in the program included Pala Pothupitiya, Nilanthi Weerasekera and myself. After a year of postponement due to restrictions of time and overlapping with other programs of Theertha, we were finally able to realize the SSAR program it in 2004.

The main objective of the program is to initiate a dialogue between Sri Lankan and Swedish artists and to open up possibilities of future collaboration between artists in both countries. Theertha’s primary interest was to connect with and expand its network with artists and art institutions overseas to open up oporuities for Sri Lankan artists. But this interest was also fueled by the artistic curiosity and interest of knowing new art and art practices in another geographical and cultural context. These twin interests played an important role in Theertha’s decision to support SSAR program in Sri Lanka. Theertha is an artists led non-profit organization that has been working for the local art community run by 14 visual artists whose objective is to provide a forum for dialogue, debate, experimentation and innovation in the visual arts and facilitate art knowledge and information access across artistic, geographical and cultural boundaries. In the spirit of Theertha’s objectives, the Swedish - Sri Lankan Artists’ Residency Programs (SSAR Program) was envisaged as a possible forum for Swedish and Sri Lankan artists to work together. As such, the program is formulated where Swedish artists would live and work in Sri Lanka from 5th December 2004 to 3rd of January 2005 in an atmosphere of collaboration with Sri Lankan artists. They would collaborate in one or many projects during this time. The program would conclude with an exhibition where works produced during the residency will be exhibited.

A program of this magnitude would not have been possible without the financial partnership of the Swedish Institute, the collaboration of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities and the insight, assistance and encouragement by William Wareing and Onita Wass. We are also grateful to Anna Maria Svensson, Swedish Institute, for her support and advice. We would like to thank them for their commitment and trust in us to host the SSAR program. We are also extremely grateful to Mr. Chandraguptha Theuwara and Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts for providing their gallery space free of charge for the program, and to Mr. L. S. D. Pieris and the Sapumal Foundation Trust for giving us the foundation venue for the ‘Artists’ Talk’ event. We would also like to thank the SSAR program team at Theertha and all the others who assisted us in carrying out the numerous activates of the SSAR program.

We hope that the present SSAR program would lead us to other collaborative art programs in the future.