Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Kochi-Muziris Biennale
കൊച്ചി-മുസിരിസ് ദ്വൈവാര്‍ഷിക കലാപ്രദര്‍ശനം
Logo of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018
GenreInternational Art Exhibition (Contemporary art)
Begins12 December 2022
Ends10 April 2023
Location(s)Kochi, Kerala, India
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)
Attendance600,000 (2016–17)[1]
People
Websitewww.kochimuzirisbiennale.org

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest art exhibition in the country[2] and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia.[3] The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation with support from the Government of Kerala. The concept of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was ideated and executed by Venu Vasudevan, IAS, who was the Government of Kerala's cultural secretary. The exhibition is set across Kochi, with shows being held in existing galleries, halls, and site-specific installations in public spaces, heritage buildings and vacant structures.

Indian and international artists exhibit artwork across a variety of mediums, including film, installation, painting, sculpture, new media and performance art. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale tried to invoke the legacy of the modern metropolis of Kochi and its mythical predecessor, the ancient port of Muziris.

Alongside the exhibition, the Biennale offers a program of talks, seminars, screenings, music, workshops and educational activities for schoolchildren and students.[4]

History

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In May 2010, Mumbai-based contemporary artists of Kerala origin, Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu, were approached by the then culture minister of Kerala, M. A. Baby, to start an international art project in the state. Acknowledging the lack of an international platform for contemporary art in India, Bose and Riyas proposed the idea of a Biennale (a large scale international exhibition) in Kochi on the lines of the Venice Biennale.

Kochi Biennale Foundation

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The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) is a nonprofit charitable trust engaged in promoting art and culture in India, with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale as its primary focus. KBF was founded in 2010 by artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu.

The First Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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Aspinwall House, one of the main venues of the biennale

The First Kochi-Muziris Biennale began on 12 December 2012.[5] The Biennale hosted 80 artists, with nearly 50 percent foreign artists, site-specific works and an education programme in the three months. The Aspinwall House exhibits the works of 44 artists.

The entry was free until 23 December 2012, which was then replaced by a ticketed entry at ₹50. According to artistic director Bose Krishnamachari, support has come in many forms. Shalini and Sanjay Passi held an ₹25,000-per-head dinner in the capital to raise funds, raising ₹550,000 (US$6,600). Google met with the foundation and has offered help with the website, which received 7.5 million hits in the first month. The Jindals of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, the late Kerala Congress leader T.M. Jacob, R. K. Krishna Kumar of Tata group, Jayanta Matthews of Malayala Manorama and the businessman Shibu Mathai have all donated.[6]

The sites for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale were:

  1. Aspinwall House
  2. David Hall
  3. Pepper House
  4. Moidu's Heritage
  5. Durbar Hall
  6. Cabral Yard
  7. Parade Ground
  8. Fort Kochi beach
  9. Kashi Art Gallery
  10. Jew Town Road Godown
  11. Rose Street Bungalow
  12. Cochin Club
  13. Gallery OED
  14. David Horvitz

The Second Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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The second edition of the biennale cost about ₹17 crore, slightly up from the ₹16.5 crore spent on the first edition. The Kerala government's contribution fell to ₹3 crore from ₹9 crore despite pleas for financial assistance. The organisers relied on sponsorship and online crowd funding to meet the expenses. The number of visitors grew to five lakhs in the second edition, an increase of one lakh from the first edition.[7]

Partnerships

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In March 2015, the Kochi Muziris Biennale Foundation partnered with Centre for Public Policy Research, Cochin, for the first Urban Space Dialogue in Kochi to advocate for the need for creating urban spaces in Kochi.[8] The Dialogue featured Nuru Karim, Raj Cherubal, Dhanuraj, Jitish Kallat, Bose Krishnamachary and Riyas Komu.[7]

The Third Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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The third edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale opened on 12 December 2016 and was curated by Sudarshan Shetty.[9] The Biennale was visited by more than six lakh people in its third edition.[1] The exhibition was concurrently staged at 12 venues[10] and featured 97 works as well as 20 events.[11] Sudarshan was declared curator of the 2016 Kochi-Muzirs Biennale by the Minister for Culture, K. C. Joseph, at an event in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, on 15 July 2015.[12] He was unanimously chosen as curator by an Artistic Advisory Committee appointed by the Kochi Biennale Foundation for the third edition. The Committee comprised artists Amar Kanwar, Atul Dodiya, Bharti Kher and Jyothi Basu, art critic Ranjit Hoskote, patron Kiran Nadar, gallerist Shireen Gandhy along with KBF trustees Sunil V, Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari.[13]

Sudarshan Shetty's works have been exhibited in solo and group shows in India and abroad, including at the Gwangju Biennale (2000), Tate Modern, London (2001), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2001), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010) and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012).

The Fourth Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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Main article: Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018

The fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale opened on 12 December 2018 and was curated by Indian artist Anita Dube.

The Fifth Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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In May 2019, it was announced that Singaporean artist and writer Shubigi Rao would curate the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale from December 2020 to April 2021.[14][15] Rao had previously exhibited at the fourth Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018, the sole Singaporean representative.[16] Titled "In our Veins Flow Ink and Fire", the first announced artist list involved 25 participating artists and collectives, featuring names such as Arpita Singh, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency, Iman Issa, Joan Jonas, Melati Suryodarmo, Samson Young, Slavs and Tatars, Thảo Nguyên Phan and Yinka Shonibare.[17]

Both Kochi-Muziris Biennale founder Bose Krishnamachari and Shubigi Rao would be jointly featured on the 2019 edition of the ArtReview Power 100 list for their work on the Biennale.[18]

"In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire" finally opened on 23 December 2022 after being postponed twice due to COVID-19 and then again the night before the opening on 11 December 2022 due to "organisational challenges."[19] 53 artists signed an open letter to the Biennale Foundation detailing the organisational shortcomings and exhorting the Board and Advisors to make structural changes later.[20]

Reactions and controversies

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According to Tate Modern, Kochi-Muziris Biennale was the best biennale they had ever seen. The biennale accrued 150,000 visitors in its first month and 250,000 visitors in its second, averaging a thousand visitors a day (as high as 5,000 daily and 10,000 on weekends, early January). McKinsey and companies have expressed their interest in studying the Biennale to know its economic effects.[6] According to Karthyayani G. Menon, director of Jehangir Art Gallery—Mumbai, Baroda or Kolkata had not been at the forefront of artists—she hoped that the biennale would make a change to that situation.[21]

Many eminent artists in Kerala raised concern over the alleged lack of transparency in the way the funds were spent by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale foundation. Many contemporary artists from the state of Kerala had come out in support of the event, as it could help preserve the image of Kochi.[22]

During the 2016 demonetization of the Indian economy, during the official opening, the government of Kerala promised $1.1 million in funding and support for a permanent venue for the biennale. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is the leader of the Left Democratic Front government and long-time secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the state, said that the Biennale matched Kochi's multi-layered history of settlement by Arabs, Chinese, Jews, Portuguese, Dutch, English and different migrant communities from India. Vijayan announced ₹7.5 crore in funding for the Biennale, the highest sum a state government in India had ever given an art event. The government would support a permanent venue for the "mega-prestigious" event.

The fifth edition of the Biennale was mismanaged by the organisers, leading to a last-minute postponement that left visitors stranded.[23] The Biennale has also faced accusations of modern slavery, including non-payment of wages and non-attribution of workers' contributions to artworks.[24]

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References

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  1. ^ a b "LuLu Financial Group's Adeeb Ahamed pledges Rs 1 crore to 2018 Kochi-Muziris Biennale". The New Indian Express. 3 August 2018.
  2. ^ "I want Kochi Biennale to go on,says ex-CEO Manju Sara Rajan". The New Indian Express. 14 April 2018.
  3. ^ "Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018: Final list of artists to be out on August 15". The Week. 3 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018".
  5. ^ "Kochi becomes Biennale city". The Hindu. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Kochi's gift to the world". The Hindu. 24 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Urban Space Dialogue- CPPR and Biennale". April 2015.
  8. ^ "Urban Space Dialogue". 24 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Kochi-Muziris Biennale Announces The Curatorial Vision". Biennial Foundation. 1 October 2016.
  10. ^ "Biennale 2016: Kochi all set to open its heart for art lovers". The New Indian Express. 11 December 2016.
  11. ^ "12 MUST-SEE WORKS FROM KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2016". Verve. 8 January 2017.
  12. ^ "Kochi Biennale Foundation Announced Sudarshan Shetty As The Artistic Director And Curator of the Third Edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale". Biennial Foundation. 15 July 2015.
  13. ^ "A People's Biennale: A Conversation With Kochi-Muziris Biennale Co-Founders Bose Krishnamachari And Riyas Komu". Biennial Foundation. 9 March 2016.
  14. ^ "Shubigi Rao to Curate Fifth Kochi-Muziris Biennale". Artforum International. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  15. ^ "Artist Shubigi Rao to curate Kochi-Muziris Biennale". The Times of India. 10 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  16. ^ Nanda, Akshita (10 May 2019). "Singapore artist Shubigi Rao to helm South Asia's largest visual art biennale in 2020". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  17. ^ Tse, Fion (22 July 2020). "Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2020 Reveals First Artist List". ArtAsiaPacific. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Power 100: Most influential people in 2019 in the contemporary artworld: Bose Krishnamachari & Shubigi Rao". ArtReview. 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  19. ^ Pallavi Surana (22 December 2022). "India's Kochi-Muziris Biennale Return After Two Years of Delays, Full of Hope and Sound". ARTNews.
  20. ^ "Open Letter from the Artists of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022–23 - Notes - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  21. ^ "Biennale reflects changing Indian art scene in a decade". The Hindu. 17 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  22. ^ "Biennale will enhance Kochi's image: artist". The Hindu. 13 January 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  23. ^ Kumar, S. Anandan & Surya Praphulla (12 December 2022). "Art world dismayed over last-minute postponement of Kochi Biennale's main show". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  24. ^ Sudeep, Theres (16 November 2022). "Kochi-Muziris Biennale is back again. So is its dirty war with angry, unpaid contractors". ThePrint. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
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Further reading

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Media related to Kochi-Muziris Biennale at Wikimedia Commons

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