Music as a Bridge – Presence, Listening, and Encounter
The Sri Lanka Project emerged from an artistic research residency in early 2026.
It unfolded not as a fixed plan, but as a process of entering—into sound, into context, into relationship.
At its core lies a simple but demanding question:
What happens when music is approached not as product, but as presence?
Across rituals, rehearsals, conversations, and performances, music revealed itself as a social space—one that holds attention, difference, memory, and exchange. Not a neutral space, and not an equal one, but a space where listening becomes an active act.
Rather than seeking to define or conclude, this project moved through observation, participation, and collaboration. It remains aware of its position: limited in time, shaped by encounter, and open in outcome.
The work developed through listening.
Listening to musicians, to contexts, to histories embedded in practice.
Listening as a form of attention that allows difference to exist without immediate resolution.
Improvisation became a central method—not as freedom without structure, but as a way of negotiating presence in real time. A space where individual voices meet, resist, align, and transform.
Music, in this sense, creates temporary spaces of shared experience.
These moments of togetherness do not dissolve underlying differences, but allow them to be held, perceived, and negotiated.
The residency moved across multiple layers:
Alongside these experiences, a continuous process of reflection was maintained through a daily journal—capturing impressions, questions, and shifts in perception as they occurred.
What emerged is not a single narrative, but a field of experiences—fragmented, layered, and interconnected.
The residency led to new collaborations and recordings, forming the foundation of the project
Presence – Meeting in Sound.
These works are not documents of the residency, but continuations of it.
They carry traces of the encounters, the listening, and the negotiations that shaped them.
The project remains ongoing.
Its outcomes are not fixed in a single form, but extend into future performances, releases, and collaborations.
This section gathers selected images, concert materials, and fragments of the journey.
They do not attempt to represent the whole, but offer glimpses into the situations and environments in which the work unfolded.
A detailed journal was written throughout the residency, documenting the process from within.
It traces the movement of the project day by day—through encounters, reflections, uncertainties, and moments of clarity.
This project was made possible through the support, trust, and openness of partners, institutions, and hosts in Sri Lanka and Switzerland.
This project would not exist without these relationships.
Funding and Support
Pro Helvetia
Aargauer Kuratorium
City of Bern
Stiftung Dialog Basel
Burgergemeinde Bern
Partner Institutions in Sri Lanka
Swiss Embassy Colombo
University of the Visual and Performing Arts (UVPA), Colombo
Department of Instrumental Music, Faculty of Dance and Drama (UVPA)
Muslim Choral Ensemble (MCE)
Alliance Française Colombo
Goethe-Institut Colombo
Iranian Cultural Centre Colombo
Special thanks to the artistic collaborators on site, in particular Pamalka Manjitha Karunanayake, whose collaboration has been essential in shaping the artistic process.
