Movement Rhizome was proud to collaborate with the Department of Fine Arts, University of Peradeniya, on Invisible Workers: A Museum of Unseen Labour, which opened on 1st September 2026. Developed by students under the department’s FNA 2025: Advanced Digital Technology for Fine Arts module, the exhibition brought together four interconnected themes, the tea-picking families of the Malayaga community in Rangala, workers navigating disability and daily labour, hidden healers whose care keeps others well without recognition, and artists as invisible workers in their own right.
Rather than presenting these four communities through hardship alone, the exhibition combined photography, oral narratives, soundscapes, objects, film, and immersive digital installation to foreground dignity, resilience, and the quiet skill behind work that rarely enters public narrative. The opening event featured a welcome address by Ms. Nimesha Kumarathunga, an introduction to the museum by Tharaka Gunasekara, remarks by Head of Department Ms. Niroshi Senavirathne, a screening of “Invoking Michel” performed by Prof. Sudesh Mantillake and a keynote address by Dr. Manoj Alawathukotuwa.
For us, the exhibition resonated with a simple but profound understanding we return to often: knowledge does not always sit in finished objects. It moves through bodies, hands, voices, gestures, memories, and everyday practices, and it grows through relationships. We were glad to walk alongside this project as it worked to shift long-overlooked figures from the margins to the foreground, and we congratulate everyone involved in bringing it together.
The exhibition closed with a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Priyantha Fonseka, featuring Dr. Thamali Kithsiri, Dr. Maduranga Kalugampitiya, and Dr. Kalpa Rajapaksha, followed by “Blessing the Unseen,” a performance in honour of invisible workers performed by Ms. Dhanushika Devindi, Ms. Sujeewa Nadeeshani, and Ms. Dinithi Thathsarani.
