The ninth edition of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka’s leading contemporary arts festival, returns this January with the pulsating theme “Rhythm Alliances.” Conceived and curated by Berlin- and Karachi-based guest curator Hajra Haider Karrar, in collaboration with artistic director Natasha Ginwala and the festival team, the ten-day event will unfold across multiple venues in Colombo from 21 to 31 January 2026.
Far more than a static exhibition, Rhythm Alliances explores rhythm as an act of attunement: energizing, haunting, turbulent, and imagined. The curatorial framework positions rhythm as a conduit of remembrance, resistance, and renewal. Through newly commissioned works, performances, and sonic experiments, the festival invites audiences to experience rhythm-making as a communal and transformative practice.
A City-Wide Festival of Sound and Movement
The 2026 edition promises to be one of Colomboscope’s most versatile yet, with activities spread across Barefoot Gallery, Colpetty Townhouse, Kamatha at BMICH, Liberty by Scope Cinemas, Musicmatters, Radicle Gallery, Rio Complex, and Soul Studio. Over 50 artists and collectives, including 35 new commissions will animate these spaces, knitting together artistic vocabularies that pulse between sound, gesture, memory, and myth.
Artistic director Natasha Ginwala describes this year’s edition as “our most heterogeneous and versatile one so far—with a groove that will be lasting.” She adds, “Rhythm Alliances is dedicated to listening and choreographies of dissent, remembrance, and renewal, resonating with sensory intelligence and reciprocity.”
Drumming as Archive, Language, and Liberation
The festival’s conceptual spine draws on drumming traditions across Sri Lanka and the Global South, ritualistic beats that once mediated healing, celebration, and protest. From Sri Lankan exorcism ceremonies to Nyabinghi “groundations” in Rastafari culture, the festival reads rhythm as an ancestral technology of world-making and survival. Curator Hajra Haider Karrar reflects, “Within these resonant gatherings, rhythm asserts its agency—a pulse that speaks, insists, and transforms. The voice, musicianship, and aesthetics of the handmade converge in motion, crafting a language that liberates even as it remembers.”
Artists and Collaborations
The artist lineup spans geographies and sensibilities, featuring renowned and emerging creators : Aboothahir Al Wajahath, Arka Kinari, Atiyyah Khan, Ayumi Paul, Basir Mahmood, Basma al Sharif, Chamindika Abeysinghe, Charwei Tsai, Chitrasena Dance Company and reVerb Collective, Dinar Sultana, Dinoj Mahendranathan, Gayan Hemarathne, Haseeb Ahmed, Imaad Majeed, Jegatheeswaran Keshavan, Josefa Ntjam, Jovita Alvares, Kaimurai, Kavan Balasuriya, KMRU, Mahesha Kariyapperuma, Mekh Limbu, Moe Satt, Mohammad Ali Talpur, Naiza Khan, Nina Mangalanayagam with Marie Louise Dilmaya Bergqvist and the Transnational Adoptee Choir: The Whale, Perera Elsewhere, Pinaree Sanpitak, Raven Chacon, Saadia Mirza, Sabeen Omar, Sarah Kazmi with Mariama Ndure and Nuwan Gunawardhana, Seher Shah, Stephen Champion, Tashyana Handy and Sakina Ali Akbar, Tharmapalan Tilaxan, Tissa de Alwis, Vaimaila Urale, Vivian Caccuri, Yara Asmar, and Zarina Muhammad. Featured collaborations at this edition include Bread Modular, CoCA Art, Dizzi Geetha, Kahli, Mawongany, P. Ahilan, the Repropriation Riddims project (Asvajit Boyle, Divanke Sewmin, Mike de Silva, Nigel Perera, Sebastiampillai Vasanberk, Uvindu Perera and many more), Sumudi Suraweera and Susantha Rupathilaka with band, Sunara, Thomas Burkhalter with Melodies in My Head, NooN by Nuwan Gunawardhana and band, Weather Reports (Chloe Abrahams, Seth De Silva, Suren Seneviratne, Toulip Wonder, Ushara, Imaad Majeed, Mayun Kalu, SajasS, and more), among others.
Toward a Pluriversal Soundscape
Through this convergence of sonic languages, choreographic provocations, and time-based practices, Rhythm Alliances amplifies the politics and poetics of rhythm as a shared condition. It listens to planetary vibrations that echo through diasporic memory, resistance movements, and the enduring presence of ritual sound.
For schedules, venues, and artist highlights, visit www.colomboscope.lk
Cover Image: Still from Basir Mahmood, A Body Bleeds More than It Contains, multi-channel video and audio, 2026
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
