Christoph Bertrams, director of the Goethe Institute, a premier German language and cultural centre in Bengaluru, has said the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was instrumental in bringing a branch of the Goethe-Centrum in Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi.
“Goethe Institute has 140 centres worldwide, six of which are in India. The centre in Thiruvananthapuram was set up six years ago mainly to give language education, but cultural exchange has always been a part of it. With Kochi attaining pride of place on the art map of the world with the advent of the Biennale, it became imperative to introduce the centre in Kochi, with primary focus on language training,” he said, on the sidelines of the Goethe-Centrum inaugural on Warriam Road here.
A precursor to this was ‘Cityscapes’, an exhibition comprising urban sketches and printed pictures of German artist Eberhard Havekost, followed by another with evocative black-and-white photographs of Helga Paris, both held at Durbar Hall in collaboration with the Biennale over the past two years, he pointed out. “The fact that an exhibition of poetry-inspired textile works titled ‘Weaving language and poetries’ by German-Pakistani artist Zillie Homma Hamid is held as part of the inaugural indicates that the centre will have its focus on cultural activities,” he said.