Sharmini Pereira, Chief Curator at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (MMCA Sri Lanka), was a panellist at the ‘New Dialogues: Contemporary Art from South Asia’ lecture series, which took place in Bangladesh. The series was organised as part of the inaugural Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation/Kochi-Muziris Biennale Award (DBF-KMB Award), a new multi-year exhibition and lecture programme that brings together the Hayward Gallery, the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation, and the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
The lecture series featured several eminent arts and culture professionals from South Asia such as artists Bani Abidi, Jeebesh Bagchi, Nikhil Chopra, Iftikhar Dadi, and Munem Wasif. Sharmini Pereira contributed to the panel titled ‘Exhibitions as Infrastructure’, where she explored the ways in which MMCA Sri Lanka is creating a museum of modern and contemporary art in the country, through not only exhibitions but also the training of museum professionals, who for Pereira are the most necessary component of any infrastructure project.
Speaking of how exhibitions contribute to the canon, knowledge production, and building a critical infrastructure, Pereira looked at the museum as infrastructure in the South Asian context. She identified how the MMCA Sri Lanka has been shaped by the process of making a museum from scratch, and took the audience through the MMCA Sri Lanka’s past exhibitions to explain the canonical approach to exhibition making. Pereira also emphasised that exhibitions do not exist without human capital, such as curators, exhibition designers, installers, editors, translators, conservators, etc., and that exhibition-making has helped the MMCA Sri Lanka to train and build up an infrastructure of expertise and knowledge.
The panel discussion highlighted Pereira’s commitment to advancing contemporary curatorial practices and making art accessible and relevant to diverse audiences. Her insights continue positioning the MMCA Sri Lanka as a growing leader in the region’s cultural and artistic landscape.
