We’re delighted to be able to share with you Sabda saha Pintura. Meaning ‘sound and picture’, this piece was created by artist Nichola Scrutton during her time in residency at Sura Medura.
To read more about Nichola’s experiences on residency, you can head here to read her blog.
You can also read more about Nichola Scrutton’s work on her website: www.nicholascrutton.co.uk
presents
Moving Through
Noon – Midnight
Saturday 12th December
Sunbeach Hotel Hikkaduwa and Dodanduwa
On December 12th, Hikkaduwa and Dodanduwa will host an extraordinary international programme of performances, music and installations featuring performers and artists from 7 countries and Sri Lanka.
The programme is organised by Scottish based artist and producer Neil Butler of international arts organisation UZ Arts. Neil has been bringing international artists and performers to Sri Lanka since 200, organising the first Hikkaduwa Beach Carnival in 2005 and establishing the Sura Medura Residency for international artists the following year.
In 2007, Neil organised a Peace Concert with the Maharaja Organisation. Since its inception he has supported the Colombo Arts Biennale as International Curator and for the second edition as co-director. In February 2015 he brough an extraordinary range of artists to audiences in Hikkaduwa and Colombo, with the finale being the building of a life size paper boat by the artist Frank Bölter, which delighted and bemused audiences as Frank attempted to sail back to Germany.
For the December 12th event, he has brought together artists from Scotland, Austria, Nigeria, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Ireland.
Over a 6-week residency the artists have created their own installations and performances as they response to the country and culture surrounding them. Over the last two weeks they have worked together to create a collective performance where they will be joined on the 12th of Decemeber for the finale by Sri Lankan artists and performers, and performers from the Afro Sri Lankan community of Puttalam and Sirambiadiya.
Said Neil Butler; “We invite the public to meet the artists, enjoy their installations and performances and then join in the party at the end of the day for a rice and curry banquet, singing, dancing and fireworks”.
The day starts at noon at Sunbeach Hotel in Hikkaduwa and continues with a journey to nearby fishing village of Dodanduwa, where there will be remarkable installations and performances centred around a wrecked trawler that has been turned into a musical instrument. There will be performances in and around the sea and then a party in the evening back at Sunbeach Hotel.
All the events are free but if you wish to join the artists for lunch or dinner, you should reserve a place by emailing – movingthrough@uzarts.com
Follow the link below to read Matteo’s second blog post on his experiences in Sri Lanka.
Matteo Lanfranchi Sura Medura blog post 2
“A long, hard look”
Click here for John’s second blog post, detailing his experiences in week 2 of his residency at Sura Medura.
UZ Arts are delighted to announce that they will be working with IN SITU to bring six European artists to Sura Medura Internationation Residency Centre through their Europeans Abroad fund. The residencies, which will take place in the winter of 2014/2015, will give the chosen artists the opportunity to explore and develop new work in response to their environment.
The international directors are:
Adrian Schvarzstein
Since 1989, Schvarzstein has been working as a clown, actor and theatre director after studying ‘Commedia Dell’Arte’ in Italy. Recent projects include the street theatre performance ‘Kamchatka’ (Miramiro Prize 2008) and directing the opera ‘La Barca’ in Holland. A Catalan by adoption, but really a mixture of various nationalities whose formation took place all over Europe, Schvarstein has spent his life avidly accumulating experiences and it would be difficult to find a field of artistic activity that does not interest him
Kitt Johnson
Danish dancer and choreographer Kitt Johnson has beeb developing her unique artistic universe for more than 25 years. Her style is at one minimalist, expressive and innovative. She has been artistic director of the company Kitt Johnson x-act since 1992. With this company she has created more than 50 productions nationally as well as internationally – her trademark is solo performance, but her repertoire is wide and also includes ensemble works, Cirque Nouveau, site-specific work and children’s performance. Kitt Johnson X-act also mounts and curates performance festivals with the company, including the site-specific MELLEMRUM biennale, contributing to her ambition to create a platform from which Danish and international performance art can engage in dialogue and share experience.
Alex Rigg
Alex studied Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art and at the University of Ulster and has since had a prolific career in practising various art forms. As well as having thirty years of practical experience in building large-scale structures in timber, steel, cloth and stone, he has also been creating and delivering live events since 1982. Particularly iconic are the large-scale willow, steel and timber fire-sculptures that Alex and colleague Trevor Leat create together for festivals and events, including the Wickerman Festival and many par Hogmanay events. Similarly, his incredible work in physical theatre, dance, sculpture and design has been shown internationally, and his company Oceanallover has created many innovative events, bringing new audiences to physical performance.
Europeans Abroad aims to create bridges with artistic and cultural partners outside Europe in the form of residencies or co-productions. Calling on its experience throughout the European territory, the IN SITU network offers its partners and artists the opportunity to enhance their practices by discovering the realities of other continents.
Kit Mead, our recent artist in residence at Sura Medura, will be showing his film “The Other Kwai” at this year’s Merchant City Festival in Glasgow on the 26th July. It will be shown in South Block in the Merchant City in association with Glasgow Film Theatre and their Pop Up events programmers. More information about event can be found here.
You can also follow Kit’s progress in Sri Lanka making his film by reading his blog posts in the News section of the Sura Medura website.
We are now looking for artist proposals for the next Sura Medura residency. Look at the Opportunities page for more details.
On Saturday the 23rd I presented ‘The Other Kwai’ a film I have developed during my time at the Sura Medura Art Centre. Set within the linearity of a single day with a narrative structure reflective of ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957), broken by images from the Hollywood film and the weaving of chair caning, ‘The Other Kwai’ takes in the echoes of the impact when fiction collided with reality, creating a new history which continues to affect and reverberate through the rainforest canyons of the Kelani River at Kitulgala. My previous film work has consistently been intended to be exhibited within installation spaces and I have found that while the focus of the audience is the projection of moving images, the space where it is presented can act as a crucial element to the work as a whole; helping to create an immersive environment for an audience, while also referencing components or the structure of the films presented, causing the spaces to become constituent components of the installations. This has continued with the presentation of my latest work in Sri Lanka. Using the grounds of Sunbeach Hotel in Hikkaduwa I set up an outdoor cinema for the audience to sit and experience the work. Previously many of my moving image installations have been structured in a non-linear way, in part due to the particular qualities and contexts of exhibiting in gallery spaces. This piece was presented in an unconventional art environment and needed certain criteria to be put in place to create an installation space that continued to feed information involved within the work to the audience.
When confronted by moving image art in the cavernous spaces of contemporary visual art galleries and museums the work has regularly been place on a continuous loop, forcing the actions to repeat once completed and without break. This is a way of making the work viewable to as many people wondering around the building throughout the day as possible but (unless the films are incredibly short or focus on repetition) can destroy the narrative structure of many of these works, leaving the audience to be more concerned with wondering where in the film they have stumbled into (Beginning middle or end) then the actual content they are viewing. This has seen a rise in artists films either being non-linear where the audience participate within an environment where they edit their own film from the images and sequences projected or by having set times for the films to start, giving that control of accessing the work in the correct linear order the artists intended it to be viewed (This curatorial decision making was heavily visible in the exhibiting dynamics of last year’s Turner Prize). The outdoor cinema area I constructed acted as a formal space for viewing cinematic work and rather than be a space that was open to the coming and going of various people, was rigidly structured in reference to conventional cinema spaces by applying a start time for the film with a single showing to reinforce the linear composition of the work.
In an earlier blog post I mentioned my fascination at watching and filming a local man fixing the caning on a chair. This footage has become an important part of my film and weaves throughout its duration, creating associations with the intricate design of the bridge, transient qualities of the material and laying of new histories within the story of the Kitulgala. These chair cane seats also seem part of the very fabric of Sri Lankan society, appearing in local villager’s homes, hotels, museums, as well as during the Sri Lankan scenes of ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957) and I thought it was crucial that seats featuring chair caning where used for the outdoor cinema space. A subtle reference that made the images on the screen tangible and helped to create an immersive viewing environment.
I thought I’d end this post with a link to mini featurette on the making of ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ made in 1957. An interesting but brief insight into the production of the set.
The Bridge on the River Kwai Mini Featurette 1957
Enjoy!
Kit
I’m into my final week of my residency here at the Sura Medura and wow has it gone by fast! These past few weeks particularly have been spent combing through all the footage I have recorded to produce a narrative that takes in the echo’s of the original Bridge on the River Kwai film which still resonate around Kitulagla and the whole of Sri Lanka 60 years after the film crew left.
This Saturday the 23rd of February I will be presenting my film ‘The Other Kwai’, 2013, in a purpose built outdoor cinema space at the Sunbeach Hotel in Hikkaduwa. ‘The Other Kwai’ will be presented at 9pm followed by a short Q&A discussion.
If you happen to be in Hikkaduwa come on over!
Kit
Serendipity:
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery.
The Three Princes of Serendip is an old Persian fairy tale dating back over a thousand years. Consisting of historical facts embellished by folklore and based upon the life of the Persian King Bahram V, who ruled the Sassanid Empire located predominantly in modern day Iran and its surrounding neighbours from 420-440AD. One key story within the story, centres on three sons of a King sent away from their Kingdom, Serendippo in the Far East, and into a new and unsheltered education away from privilege. Their collective wisdom soon finds them determining the precise meaning and causes of disruptions on the track they are wandering on the edge of a desert. They believed that a one eyed camel holding containers of butter on one side and honey on its other, is carrying a pregnant women across the dessert. When they happen across an individual and regale their observations, the man reacts in outrage and accuses them of stealing his camel. Taking them to a local Emperor to be punished, they go on to describe how they deciphered innocuous clues to discern such possible reasoning, and shortly after a traveller enters the scene informing the court he has just found such a camel wondering the desert. Rather than being punished, the Princes are handsomely rewarded and appointed advisors to the Emperor. And everyone lives happily ever after…
The story would wind its way to Italy around the 1500’s before being translated into French and finally reaching an English speaking audience, all the time influencing writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Voltaire, whose novel Zadig – almost a direct translation bar a change of animal – would in turn inspire the developing area of detective fiction (think of Sherlock revealing his reasoning to Watson) and help detail the empirical scientific method. That in my eyes is quite impressive for a simple fairy tale, but this was not its only lasting impact.
Horace Walpole the Earl of Orford, son of the first British Prime minister and cousin of Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson, was a very well educated chap know for being an art historian, antiquarian, politician, revivalist of the Gothic style in architecture and man of letters. These letters –over 3000 in total– on which his literary reputation primarily rests, would be the source where the word ‘serendipity’ would be coined and first appeared in a letter dated the 28th of January, 1754;
“this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.” And was formed from “a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of….” (1)
And that is the etymology of the word Serendipity bar one very important fact, the location of this mythical land of Serendip/Serendippo. As I mentioned earlier, the tale of three Princes while highly embellished, stemmed from historical facts such as the name of an island. The Sanskrit word Suvarnadweepa translated into English means Golden Island. Far back in time it was absorbed into the Tamil language, changed to Seren Deevu and adopted by Persians and Urdu and defined as Serendip. This Golden Island still exists today and is now known as Sri Lanka and from my experience Serendipity still resonates in this land.
So now you find me in Kitulgala the location of a Hollywood behemoth that won 7 Oscars, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, which for a brief point in the 50’s took over the Rest Houses, mansions, countryside and river of this small, central-highlands Sri Lankan town. I had arranged and stayed in the Kithulgala Rest House which held claim to being the place where most of the crew stayed and had raucous parties long into the night during the production. It’s an old colonial building originally built for travelling administrators of the British Empire and housed the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh during a trip in 1954. There are many references here such as the ‘Bridge Restaurant’ and posters adorning the walls but it’s once I started venturing outside of this setting, that unexpected moments began to descend on me in surprising ways.
On the first day I arrived I decided to have a wonder around the town and get a feel for the place I would be spending my time in. Having reached the other side of the town, and after refusing numerous offers for Tuk Tuk lifts, from the last politely declined offer, a conversation ensued. From this I learnt the Kelani River is now famed as a fantastic white water rafting location in Sri Lanka with many native and foreign tourists descending upon it for such adventurous fun. This Tuk Tuk driver also runs an adventure sports company and asked if I would like to do some rafting. Again I politely declined his offer and in a sudden on the cuff decision making moment, asked instead if he could take me to the location of the Bridge from the film. I just couldn’t wait to see it for real any longer. It was late in the afternoon and time was creeping into early evening at this point and the Tuk Tuk driver pointed out that he in fact lives just a short walk from that very place and was happy to take me there for free as he had finished his days work and was at this point heading home. I jumped in, the 2 km drive commenced, and the conversation continued.
I asked if he knew the film and he responded in glowing terms and knowledge and informed me that his father was actually an extra in the film! The off chance of deciding to accept his ride, and the fact he only revealed this information after he was driving me to the location was, for me, rather surprising, a little skeptical but very exciting. I asked if it would be possible to meet his father and if it would be possible to film him. His father a Mr. Samuel Perera, he notified me, had recently had a stroke and a major operation so couldn’t speak as clearly as he used to but he said he was happy to introduce him. After winding our way around hills populated by jungle and tea plantations we pulled up and wandered down to his family’s home. I was introduced and Mr. Perera was more than happy for me to interview him the next day. And so for the next few days I spent a fascinating period of time interviewing and wandering the set location with a man who claimed to be a ‘9 year old Jungle Boy’ in the film, re-enacting –on his own accord– crucial moments from the film on and around the Bridge on the River Kwai location.
Mr. Perera and his wife Mrs. Perera have archived copious amounts of magazines that reveal stories and histories of David Lean’s film, including one article which talks of a Samuel Perera who was a young extra in the film and how that moment in his life “a far cry from his real life” was now just a “fading dream” (2) for Mr. Perera. But having watched him and the enthusiasm that revitalizes and spurs him on, this is no fading dream but a performative moment that has very much seeped into his life and become an active element of who he is.
“All the other actors from this film have died except me… This is my job, I am Jungle Boy”. (3)
I was aware of locals having been used in the film but with no clear contact or possible way of communicating with any of them I thought it would take a serendipitous moment for such an opportunity to be presented to me and fortuitously it did. This wonderful character appeared and existed wanting to tell his story, keeping his performance alive and the existence of the fictitious action firmly in reality as the jungle slowly consumed any visible evidence of a bridge save a few concrete foundations on rocks beside the Kelani River. This was just one such aspect of the film still echoing in the Sri Lankan rainforest.
To cross the Kelani River you have to catch a local boat and these boats also feature in the “The Bridge on the River Kwai” as a Burmese boat used by William Holden’s character to escape the jungle prison, out to the sea and left to drift the ocean until he is picked up by the British Navy and taken to a command post in Sri Lanka. To see these boats in such a place makes sense with the ease and close proximity of the filming and could act very easily as a form of South East Asian transportation but when I went to film the river crossings of these vessels something very unpredicted caught my attention. Down on the river bank a short walk from the Rest House, where the locals bathe and you catch your crossing, a pile of back stage lighting equipment sat including the lights and reflector boards. An hour earlier or an hour later this pile of production equipment would have gone to their port of call and I would never had witnessed it but for this moment the memory of cinematic craft surfaced, presented itself and echoed like the thunder that reverberated the hills as if the explosion when the bridge was blown up, still rumbles on.
Sri Lanka is the birthplace of serendipity and while a key ingredient of serendipity is the need to be in the right place with the right frame of mind, with the viewer needing to be ‘sagacious’ enough to link two apparent things together to come to a valuable conclusion, and similarly as an artist you apply a particular perspective and knowledge stream to connect materials, concepts, histories, moments and information together in unexpected but fascinating ways, putting yourself into situations where coincidences can happen. Sometimes the uncanny can rear its head and give you some truly astonishing interrelated repetitions of actions and events unforeseen, and truly serendipitous.
(1) The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009
(2) Anton jayasuriya, Hotel by the Bridge on the River Kwai, Plantation Bungalow – Kitulagla and River Resort Eduraella, 1997
(3) Mr. Samuel Perera, Kitulgala, Sri Lanka, 2013
