Photo contest – Let’s celebrate!

As part of the eleventh edition of the French Spring Festival, the Embassy of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the network of Alliances Françaises in Sri Lanka and the Maldives are pleased to announce the photography contest open to all amateurs and professionals. 

 

This year’s theme is Celebrate ! as France and Sri Lanka are celebrating its 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The ten best photographs will be selected by an expert jury panel and showcased in a travelling exhibition presented at the Alliance française de Kotte in Colombo and then in the Alliances françaises of Matara and Kandy.               

 

The pictures should engage with the theme and be sent by e-mail at [email protected]. Submissions via Wetransfer are allowed. The deadline for submissions is midnight on June 11th. Winners will be contacted personally at the end of June. 

A vernissage of the exhibition will be organized at the Alliance Française de Kotte in Colombo on July 5th in the presence of the juries. The winners will be announced during the vernissage. 

Theme

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and France, this year’s theme is: Celebrate! 

Celebrate is an invitation to seize and appreciate every precious moment that punctuates our lives. Celebrate the bonds that unite us and the encounters that enrich us. To celebrate is to pay homage to the steps we have taken, to the victories of daily life, to the rituals we share and to the beauty that surrounds us. May this gallery of frozen moments be a true ode to celebration!   

 

Terms and conditions

. 10 photographs will be selected by the jury. The 10 selected photos will be the subject of a travelling exhibition presented at the Alliance française de Kotte in Colombo and then in the Alliances françaises of Matara and Kandy.

. The creations presented must be original and related to the theme “Celebrate!”. You must be the author of the photograph. 

. Photos must be sent by e-mail at [email protected]. Submissions via Wetransfer are allowed.

. The photos will be printed in large format (50x70cm). Therefore, they must be sent in high definition in JPG or PDF format, for a quality of at least 300 DPI. 

. Only one photo is accepted per candidate.

. Each photo must be accompanied by a title and a description text in English, explaining the story behind the photo and how the photo fits the theme. 

. Participation is free. 

. The name of the 10 winners will appear on the cartel and in the communication on social networks.

 

General conditions

. The competition is open to all amateur and professional photographers residing in Sri Lanka or in Maldives, without age limit. Any unique image from any camera is eligible. 

. For the winners residing outside the city of Colombo, please take into account that transportation and accommodation will be at your expense if you wish to attend the opening or to see the exhibition.

. You must be the author and responsible for the shooting of the submitted image. It is your responsibility to ensure that all necessary permissions have been obtained from any person featured in a photograph. 

. You must agree to transfer the rights of diffusion of the photographs for the duration of the exhibitions in Colombo, Kandy and Matara. The copyright remains the property of the photographer. The printed and framed photographs can be recovered by the artists at the end of the three exhibitions. 

. By participating in this contest, you agree that the Embassy of France, the Alliance Française and its partners may use your images for publication or promotional purposes.  

 

Selection criteria

An international jury will select the winners. The judges will pay attention to the following points: respect of the theme, use of basic and special techniques, composition, originality, subject, overall effect.  

 

Calendar

. Closing date of the call for applications: June 11th 2023 at midnight

. Selection panel: end of June 2023. The 10 selected photographs will be communicated as soon as the jury has made its deliberations.

. Opening of the exhibition: July 5th at the Alliance Française de Kotte in Colombo. The dates of the exhibitions in Kandy and Matara will be communicated later.  

 

Jury

. Prof. (Dr) Indika Ferdinando, Director and Research and Creative Work Development Division at University of the Visual and Performing Arts

. Kisho Kumar, photographer and activist

. Onella Perera, Development Assistant at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka

. Menika van der Poorten, Cultural practitioner, producer and curator

And as the president of the jury, His Excellency Jean-François Pactet, Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

 

Prizes

. For the ten selected photographers: personal invitation to the opening, valid for two people and their printed and framed photograph (returned at the end of the exhibitions). 

. The first three prizes will be announced soon. Stay tuned and follow us on our social networks!

creative art therapies eventbrite

Creative arts therapies – Seminar and workshops

CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES
An introduction to the healing power of Creative Arts
creative art therapies eventbrite
SEMINAR – 9th JUNE

Local and foreign experts in their field will give you an overview and a taste of the most popular creative therapies out there, currently gaining popularity around the world. You’ll gain a basic understanding of art, sound & music, drama & playback, storytelling and dance therapies; what they are, how they work, and why you should give (some of) them a try.

This is an interactive evening of presentations, Q&As and direct experience, that will be followed by a series of workshops for each therapy during the course of June, as well as a finale of improvised artistic co-creations on July 1st.

Registration

ART THERAPIES WORKSHOPS

Dance Therapy: Finding the Inner dancer – 12th June

A dance workshop with Karin, a certified Dance Therapist, and Elizabeth.

This Workshop will be a basic experience in coming to its own body, experiencing the inner source of a kind of “zero-point“ where all movement is starting.

Registration
Playback Theatre: Community-based improvisation theatre with audience participation – 13th June

A form of interactive and improvisational theatre, where members of the audience tell certain life stories and see them brought to life instantly by the actors.

Registration
Art Therapy: Soaring – 20th June

An experiential workshop where you are invited to explore the self and how best to align with your own authenticity to journey towards your life goals and dreams through drawing.

This workshop is facilitated by Radhieka, a Multimodular Expressive Therapist.

Registration
Storytelling Therapy: Alignment – 21sth June

A workshop on Storytelling. The facilitator will use the Multimodular Expressive Therapy tool which is called ‘Storytelling Therapy’ to dive into finding and exploring the stories that have moulded us. This then is therapeutically shaped into identifying the balance we need to re-align ourselves to our life purpose in a gentle way that leads to a catharsis.

Registration
Art Therapy: Soaring – 20th June

An inspiring journey into Sound & Music; combining applied scientific explorations, guided experiential practices and a long deep relaxation in a concert of sounds – where intuitive music combines with therapeutic vibrations of various instruments.

Registration
seminar indo pacific word press

SEMINAR – The History of the Indian Ocean by Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard

Before the Indo-Pacific: The Many Lives of the Indian Ocean in the twentieth century
seminar indo pacific word press
Before the Indo-Pacific was the Indian Ocean. A vast, semi-enclosed watery space that, for millennia, had served as an interface between what we now call Asia, Africa and the Middle-East, but was by the early 1900s under the sway of colonial empires. The twenty-first century’s invention of the Indo-Pacific—as a concept that puts the ocean at the heart of geopolitics—bears the imprint of the Indian Ocean’s many lives over the twentieth century. First, as a “British Lake”, crisscrossed by the Royal Navy and other maritime powers but also by anti-colonial movements. Next, as a logistical theatre during the Second World War. Later, in the second half of the century, as a space for intensified resource extraction and territorial appropriation, and eventually an arena for Cold War rivalry and Afro-Asian states’ efforts to remake the world order. Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, Associate Professor at King’s College London, will sketch for us these political, cultural, economic, and strategic transformations.
Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard

Associate Professor in International History at King’s College, is a historian of South Asia and the Indian Ocean. A specialist of decolonisation, particularly in terms of international politics, she has written extensively on Sino-Indian relations, most notably in Shadow States: India, China and the Himalayas, 1910-62 (Cambridge University Press, 2016). She is currently working on the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean since 1945.

Registration