KOCHI: The third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which has grown over the years to become a public biennale from a people’s biennale, with the government and the general public becoming its stakeholders, will get under way on Monday evening.
The grand festival of contemporary visual art taking place at 12 venues spread across Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, Ernakulam, and Kottappuram near Paravur, and lasting 108 days, will be opened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Fort Kochi Parade Ground at 6.30 p.m. Percussion maestro Peruvanam Kuttan Marar, with his team, will present an ensemble prior to the opening. Earlier in the day, the biennale flag will go up on the Aspinwall House premises, the main venue.
As many as 97 artists from 31 countries straddling numerous disciplines like art, literature, poetry, theatre, performance art, music, cinema, sculpture, and video and audio installations will be part of the edition curated by artist Sudarshan Shetty on the theme of ‘forming in the pupil of an eye’, which envisages a multi-layered journey through a variety of realities with different spatial and temporal dimensions. Eight of the 36 participating artists are from Kerala, and there is a great variety on offer as you have writer Anand, illustrator Bara Bhaskaran, political cartoonist E.P. Unny, architect Tony Joseph, and muralist P.K. Sadanandan, besides C. Bhagyanath, K.R. Sunil and T.V. Santhosh.
If the last edition recorded a footfall of five lakh visitors, it is expected to be at least a lakh more this time around. The State government has taken steps to release the first instalment of Rs.3 crore of the total Rs.7 crore it has pledged for the fest. What has come to be a permanent feature of the biennale is the appeal of its venues that carry an old world charm – 12 in all this time around, a few more added to the regular ones.
So, you have the Aspinwall House, the Cabral Yard right across the road, Pepper House, David Hall, Kashi Art Cafe, Kashi Art Gallery, MAP Warehouse, Anand Warehouse, TKM Warehouse, and Cochin Club located between Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, the Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Ernakulam, and Kottappuram Fort (a new addition from the Muziris region) transforming into vistas of art and performance for the next three months.
Adding fresh dimensions to the biennale now will be some of these new spaces and persons conventionally not associated with art festivals. “So, you have Latvian artist Voldemars Johansons who has changed the horn sounds on a number of autorickshaws, making them ambassadors of the biennale as they drive around the city, while Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec is writing an 88-chapter novel while moving through Kochi,” said Mr. Shetty.
Entry to the biennale is regulated through tickets, priced at Rs.100 per adult and Rs.50 per student for gaining access to each venue once.
In addition to collateral shows conducted primarily at venues across Fort Kochi, the biennale will feature segments like the Students Biennale, Art by Children, exhibition of works done as part of the Pepper House residency and the like. Regular seminars, performances, workshops, curated film shows, and demonstrations will make it a packed event.
