Arts

Kala Pola 2008:

An ingenuous platform for art

by Ranga Chandrarathne

Kala Pola, a much-awaited open-air art gallery and popular art-fair was held at the lush greenery of the Exhibition Ground of the Viharamahadevi Park under the canopy of leafy trees.

This year's Kala Pola which attracted over 300 artists and sculptors, has been held for the 15th consecutive year under the patronage of the John Keells Group.

The idea for the Kala Pola was mooted up by the George Keyt Foundation which organized it for the last 15 years.

Kala Pola has been an ingenuous platform for veterans as well as armature artists and sculptures to showcase their work for an international audience in an atmosphere filled up with music, songs under the canopy of trees in the lush greenery of Viharamahadevi Park.

Kala Pola was modeled on the fascinating concept of summer art fairs in European capitals such as Montmartre in Paris with their enticing atmosphere, ambience and camaraderie following an agonizing winter and equally chilly spring.

This year's fair was marked for its variety of paintings and sculptures as well as the presence of considerable number of budding artists and students of the University of Visual and Performing Arts.

Apart from providing much-needed universal exposure for Sri Lankan artist and their work, Kala Pola offers an excellent opportunity for them to commence successful career in art and sculpture.

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'A pilgrim to the Buddhist Himalayas'

by Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne

The exhibition of Panoramic Photography by Jaroslav Poncar was held from January 16 - 20 January at the Old Dutch Warehouse, Hospital Road, Fort Galle, in parallel with the Galle Literary Festival.

Though panoramic photography is not popular in Sri Lanka, the exhibition offered a window into this genre of photography as well as a glimpse into the vast valleys and unique landscapes in the Himalayan, Tibet, Mustang, India and Cambodia.

Especially the Tibetan landscapes with temples remind the viewers of the strong religiosity which is an integral part of the life in Tibet and mystic motifs inherent to the landscape. Apart from the unique feature of panoramic photography which enables to capture a vast scope, the exhibition offers visual memoirs of a photographer who travelled into the Winterland of Buddhist Himalayas.

"A pilgrim to the Buddhist Himalayas" was compiled on the request of the Goethe-Institute Sri Lanka, German Cultural Centre in Colombo and shown under the auspices of the 50th anniversary of this cultural institute at the Harold Peiris Gallery (Lionel Wendt) in December 2007.

All photographs were printed by KODAK at the photographic laboratory ACME. It is for the first time that Poncar has accepted to prints of his work outside Germany - to his full satisfaction. The exhibition consists of 28 photographs including four panoramic views of 50 x 200 cm and 4 panoramic views of 80 x 320 cm.

Jaroslav Poncar born 1945 in Prague, has lived in Cologne since 1973 where he is a professor at Fachhochschule K"ln (University of Applied Sciences Cologne). His photographic projects took him to Africa, Arabia and to Asia, especially to the Himalayas, Ladakh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Mustang, India and Cambodia.

In 1976 he took for the first time, a panoramic camera to the Western Himalayas - the antique Russian FT-2 - and since that time he specialized on panoramic photography.

He is the author of 19 splendid books with panoramic photography and of 11 documentary films on the same regions and particularly Buddhist cultural heritage. It is for the first time that Jaro Poncar came to Sri Lanka to inaugurate his exhibition and to go on a research trip in December 2007.

But it wouldn't be the last time, as he said. Jaro Poncar had accepted to do a few copies of his photograph of the Jokhandgand Potala as an art edition.

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