A Garden Reimagined: To Lunuganga Season 3 Launch (July 11–14, 2024)

Since May 2023, the Geoffrey Bawa Trust curatorial team has been exploring a series of multivocal projects across disciplines through the three-season-long To Lunuganga programme. Established to honour the 75th anniversary of architect Geoffrey Bawa’s famed Bentota garden, To Lunuganga launches its third season with a programme felicitating the occasion between the 11th–and 14th of July. The themes established since Season 1 of the programme continues to guide its philosophies and programming: “nature and the natural,” “empathy through ecology,” “access beyond language,” and “garden as lens.”

The festivities will kick off on Thursday, 11th July in Colombo with an opening reception at the Kannangara House. Designed by Bawa between 1959 and 1961, the House will be the new home of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust. Channa Daswatte, Chairperson of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, will deliver a welcome address while Shayari de Silva, Chief Curator of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, will outline the To Lunuganga programme and introduce its third season.

Guests of the opening reception will also be among the first to experience the Tree Talks listening room—on view throughout July 14—which will offer a chance to hear and interact with all five Tree Talks episodes released to date, alongside an interactive installation. The fifth episode, Garden Rituals, will premiere during the launch and feature the unique sonic landscape of the garden as a preview of the weekend ahead. On Friday, 12th July, guests are encouraged to visit Barefoot Gallery to view the work of two collaborators of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust: Chathuri Nissansala’s solo exhibition and the Ena de Silva Foundation’s exhibition on the work of de Silva’s son, Anil Gamini Jayasuriya.

Bentota-based events will take place on the 13th and 14th of July. The weekend will commence on Saturday afternoon with the launch of a new installation titled Botany and Batik: the Living Archives of Ena de Silva. Exploring Ena’s and collaborators’ deep engagement with nature and how these interests informed their batik practice, the installation will be at her former Colombo residence, designed by Geoffrey Bawa and relocated to Bentota in 2017. The installation will pay special attention to Ena’s son Anil’s interests and multifaceted work, with a specially commissioned work by artist Salome Nanayakkara.

Later that evening, visitors will be treated to a performance by acclaimed musician, dancer, and choreographer Ravibandu Vidyapathi.  Accompanied by an orchestral ensemble against a backdrop of projections from the film, Vidyapathi will reimagine the compositions he scored for the 2004 film on Lunugnaga Salt River, twenty years after its release. Sundowners by the Lake will be hosted by Colombo restaurant GINI, whose drinks for the evening are inspired by the garden and its flora. GINI will subsequently prepare a meal conceived from Lunuganga-inspired ingredients in the restaurant’s signature style of live-fire cooking.

Two simultaneous tours will be conducted twice over the weekend. Artist Firi Rahman, whose installation In between: the existence of Firdaus officially launched at Lunuganga in February 2024, will lead walkthroughs of his installation. Geoffrey Bawa Trust Senior Design & Communications Manager Thilini Perera and artist Chathuri Nissansala will offer a detour of the garden, examining Lunuganga from a queer lens and studying its subversion of traditional landscape design. Nissansala’s new installation at Lunuganga as part of The Order of Nature curatorial project launched in December 2023—entitled Saudade: The Haunting Presence of Prince Dorovana—will debut the following day, with an artist-led launch event preceding the second offering of the detour.

On Sunday afternoon, guests are invited to picnic on the grounds with snacks catered by GINI against a melodic DJ set by Ruvin de Silva at Cinnamon Hill. The Geoffrey Bawa Trust’s Youth Advisory Board will wrap up the weekend with a Scavenger Hunt, an interactive session devised to engage younger audiences.

The Season 3 launch of To Lunuganga places an emphasis on the work of local connections and collaborators, including Aquila Peris, Chathuri Nissansala, Dr. Danister Perera, the Ena de Silva Foundation, Firi Rahman, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, GINI Outdoor Kitchen, Sanjeewa Wijesundara, Shenuka Corea, and Ravibandu Vidyapathi.

Previous collaborators have included: Clara Kraft Isono (UK), Hélène Binet (UK), Instituto Burle Marx (Brazil), Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum (U.S.), Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands), Reena Saini Kallat (India), Royal College of Art (UK), Sumayya Vally (South Africa and the UK), University of Sri Jayewardenepura (Sri Lanka), University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka), and Young Astronomers Club (Sri Lanka).