You might imagine that Sudarshan Shetty, the new artistic director and curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016, is engrossed with artists and art forms, but actually it’s the art of conversation that’s currently taking up his time.
Via a telephonic conversation from Mumbai, he explains why. “How do I disarm myself from what I know, so that themes can emerge and take me elsewhere?” asks the 54-year-old, who is among India’s top contemporary artists, and continues KMB’s tradition of being helmed by artist-curators.
The answer: through seeking out multiple conversations with many creative minds, as he did on a recent visit to Chennai. He conversed, among others, with T.M. Krishna and Padmini Chettur, to explore notions of Carnatic music and contemporary dance. “These were important conversations on how to negotiate Biennale spaces with other practices. A Carnatic music performance can last, say, three hours. How can I stretch this into a Biennale? I’m not trying to make visual artists out of theatre, music or dance performers; I’m trying to see how I can keep the integrity of the art form but blur the demarcations.”
Shetty is investigating how art practitioners who are “seemingly outside the realm of visual arts — such as theatre artists — can be brought into the picture. I would like them to be a part of the process, even obliquely.”
“Sudarshan’s interests are varied and extend beyond the visual arts to poetry, philosophy, music…,” observes Bose Krishnamachari, artist, KMB co-founder and president of KMB’s board of trustees. This multipronged approach is one reason why Krishnamachari is confident that Shetty’s curating will result in a Biennale that will challenge, excite and reach an even larger audience. He adds, “Sudarshan was part of the Biennale’s first edition; he understands the sensibilities of the land and its ecosystem.”
“Biennale has become a word in Malayalam,” responds Shetty. “You cannot escape Kochi’s multicultural cosmopolitan history; the Biennale becomes an extension of that, a conversation that gets included in Kochi’s ongoing narration. There are many Kochis waiting to be discovered.”
“There is, for example, a great storytelling tradition in Kerala. On my last visit to Kochi, I had gone to the barber’s for a shave, and heard his version of the story of St. Thomas. Stories transform into myth, and become part of the collective consciousness,” he adds. Shetty believes that to reach out to a wide cross-section of people, an important strategy is “to work with the idea of the familiar, but not with the obvious”.
“I hope to arrive at several streams that will run through the Biennale and be inclusive of the people who come to see it,” he says.
Shetty feels that the Kochi Biennale has helped in a critical way to break the myth of art being some sort of elitist concern. “I have seen busloads of people arrive at both previous Biennales and engage with the art in rapt attention. It’s the people’s involvement with the Biennale that has made it a national event.” He adds that the Biennale takes great pains to reach out to young people, via such initiatives as the Student’s Biennale and the cadre of youthful volunteers. If he could magically summon one artiste from any period in history to include in the ongoing Biennale conversations, it would be — “Kumar Gandharva,” he answers without hesitation, calling the late legendary Hindustani classical singer the most “contemporary” of artistes.
If there’s one thing he’s wary about including in the Biennale it would be — “interactive art. I believe all {good} art is interactive. In India, when you use the term ‘interactive’, unfortunately it tends to mean ‘entertaining’.”
The conversation with Shetty runs through a wide range of ideas and creative disciplines; ranging from the controversial Chilean poet Raul Zurita to A.K. Ramanujan’s famous essay Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? to another chat he had in Chennai about Bhakti poetry and how in the dohas (rhyming couplets) there is “the provocative coming together of an image and counter image — such as devotion and detachment”.
Perhaps Shetty’s questions about creating a Biennale, which makes specific sense but is also open-ended and open to interpretation, might have found some initial answers right here in Chennai itself.
Facts about the Kochi Biennale 2014/15
Number of visitors: Approximately 5 lakh visitors
Number of volunteers: 200
Number of days: 108 days
Number of artists: 94 artists from 30 countries
