CHENNAI: Conceived as a collaborative effort between the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation, Goethe-Institut/MMB Chennai, Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka, and Kalam Jaffna, Shared Tides is a residency programme for artists and lens-based practitioners. This programme encouraged them to traverse the shores and respond with artistic projects centred around shared themes.
Four artists – Kiranmayi Veeramani and Subthiga Mathanamohan from Tamil Nadu, and Lojithan Ram and Tharmapalan Tilaxan from Sri Lanka – participated in a month-long residency programme between June to August 2023. As an outcome of the residency, the works of the artists will be showcased at Warehouse, 1st Cross Street, Kottivakkam, from December 2 to 10.
Shared Tides seeks stories from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka beyond a conflicted past – stories emerging from the continuums of shared waters, language, cultures, rituals, identities, and a collective retelling of history from heard and unheard voices. During the residency, the four artists developed visual stories and collected oral narratives on these shared themes. Their research and projects examined the past and aimed to build a shared present.
The Shared Tides Showcase continues a conversation never silenced by the ebb and flow of time – personal accounts of lived experiences by the elderly in Sri Lanka, the preservation of shared rituals, the complex dynamics of borders and identities, repatriation, and otherness. The showcase prompts reflection on questions such as: What shapes our identities if national borders change? Whose stories go unheard, and who makes history? How do we define home, and how do we find it?
