Cinnamon Colomboscope unfolded over the weekend of August 22-23, focusing on themes of ‘City. Identity. Urbanity.’ An exhibition ‘Shadow Scenes’ had a multi-faceted collection of artists at the Rio and elsewhere in Slave Island, a programme of panel discussions drew an interested audience. Duvindi Illankoon and Adilah Ismail attended some of the sessions

The City as a Character: Dystopias, utopias and  all that is in between:
At the very end of the panel, a seemingly disappointed audience member piped up that she did not hear the word utopia or dystopia mentioned even once but British-Jamaican-Chinese author Kerry Young and Indian writer and journalist Naresh Fernandes managed to entertain for other reasons. Young did a great reading, fielding questions on life in Kingston town, while Fernandes drew on his long history with Mumbai to talk about life in the city of dreams.

Both authors saw parallels in the way cities have evolved – commenting on the increasing isolationism of the rich and a deepening class divide. Fernandes made a point of the Ambani residence, a 27-storey tower in Mumbai that is home to only four people but is certified, somewhat ironically, as a green building. Author and former curator of Colomboscope, Ashok Ferrey moderated.

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The Slave Island Walk : The metamorphosis

Slave Island was slowly waking up when an assorted group assembled at Rio Cinema on a clear, Saturday morning last week. The third edition of Cinnamon Colomboscope explored themes centred on the city, identity and urbanity and it was only apt that an exploration of Slave Island was part of its programme.

The festival’s theme was a timely one. Colombo has been struggling to find its post-war identity over the past years and this identity crisis and metropolitan angst has been exacerbated by political webs, class tensions and market forces. Slave Island and its surrounding areas stand as an example of these tensions and a spatial fragment of a tangled city straddling ghosts of its past, present and futures. ...