Beach Heritage Experience In Situ - an Intimate Bawa Experience In partnership with the Lunuganga Trust

Day Package Saturday 25th July 2020

9.00 am -10.00 am Tea and Cake on the iconic Breakfast Terrace at the Lunuganga estate with its exquisite composition and panoramic vistas over the lake and islands. Referring to the 2 nineteenth century statues of nude youths which frame the foreground, Shanthi Jayawardene, writes of this view “The extravagantly prominent double rendition possesses a potent immediacy that raises the question -why this entrancing alien fancy in semi rural Ceylon?”

10.00 pm - 12 noon Lunuganga played muse to a series of artists ranging from Laki Senanayake, Lidia Duchini, Fiona Hall, Jimmy Ong, Donald Friend and Michael Ondaatje. As part of the programme celebrating the centenary of Geoffrey Bawa’s birth, Lunuganga received and hosts a series of installations from artists and makers from and abroad in a series where the garden is explored as a site of hospitality and place of encounter (see www.BAWA100.com).

A guided visit to The Gift, a series of five site-specific works installed at Lunuganga as part of the BAWA100 programme. A private guided preview of the newest installation by Dayanita Singh, Lunuganga Chairs, alongside works already installed; Zephyrus’ Breath by Lee Mingwei, Symbiotic Organisms by Dominic Sansoni, Kithul-Ami by Kengo Kuma. The tour will go through the Red Terrace, down to Broad Walk, pausing at the Water Gate for an essential Rockland Gin and Tonic. Onward through the Plain of Jars and up past the ha-ha for a final tipple on the North Terrace.

1.00 pm -3.00 pm Lunch at the iconic Bentota Beach… the famed start of Bawa’s Tropical Modernism, “its design evoked to play on the senses … the thunder of the ocean, flashes of sunlight on the swaying palm fronds, the orange flow of the setting sun as it slips below the horizon Themed lunch at Zest will be in conversation with the BAWA100 curatorial team. After lunch, Architect Chamika de Alwis will provide a guided tour of the Bentota Beach The Cinnamon Luxury Collection with insights into the highlights of the art and architecture of this unique piece of modern Architectural history. For those on the overnight package

5.00 pm - 7.00 pm High Tea at the Sunset Lounge. Ulrik Plesner wrote (referring to Lunuganga, but equally true here) “The transition from day to night is a short, humid tropical half hour when the setting sun often playout a huge moving war of colours and shades, from warm reds and oranges in the western sky …”

6.00 pm Architect Ismeth Raheem whose played a triple role at Bentota Beach in 1970 was as assistant architect, painter and sculptor. The Lounge bears witness to this – the space dominated by his paintings and Sun Sculpture. He will speak on the significance of the latest pieces of art now adorning the walls of the Sunset Lounge, his gift to the Bawa Suite (A Homage to Bawa in Silver and Gold), elements of the garden at Lunuganga spiced with anecdotes of travelling with Geoffrey Bawa over the period 1966 – 1972, both here and abroad in Europe and .

Channa Daswatte, who trained under Geoffrey Bawa is a trustee of the Bawa Trust and Lunuganga Trust and architect of the current restoration will present a history of the Bentota Beach and insights into the current restoration and additions to the building .

8.30 pm 5 Course Dinner at Ottimo curated by Chef Sunanda Kumar - Head Chef of Bentota Beach. He is an award-winning chef who had garnered recognition, not only in Sri Lanka but significantly in the whole of South . The Dinner will be in conversation with the architectural and design teams of the hotel.

Sunday 26th July 2020

7.00 am -10.00 am Signature Bentota Beach Breakfast at Ottimo

10.00 am - 11.00 am Opening of the Geoffrey Bawa Suite Each of the suites at the Bentota Beach Heritage Wing has been reconstructed within the original framework but consisting of 2 of the original bed rooms. Each suite is themed and the art, materials and furnishing curated to suit the theme. The Geoffrey Bawa Suite sits in the corner of the hotel with views over the Bentara River and the Indian Ocean. Specially commissioned art includes the Homage to Bawa in Silver and Gold by Ismeth Raheem, “Labyrynth” and “Global Flag” by Laki Senanayake and a stunning sunburst from the Aluvihare Workshops by Ena De Silva, an original Babara Sansoni designed fabric wall hanging and Dominic Sansoni photographs.