Artists Abhishek Hazra and Zuleikha Chaudhari are back again at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) with their their respective performances ‘Submergent Topologies (Episode 2)’ and ‘Auditioning the Plaintiff, Rehearsing the Witness: The Bhawal Court Case’.
These performances, which will play out at Aspinwall House over the week ahead, were among the stage, dance and music performances that dominated the opening week of the Biennale, said a press release here on Saturday.
Guided tours
Mr. Hazra began the second round of his mobile lecture performance on Sunday with two ‘guided tours’ around the Biennale’s primary venue, offering provocative alternative readings on the artworks in the exhibition and their relationship to the spaces they inhabit. His 30-minute performance will be on twice daily, at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., till February 10 – with a break in the schedule on February. There will be 12 tours in all.
From Sunday and continuing till Wednesday, two performances of Ms. Chaudhari’s stage production will be on offer in two-hour instalments daily – from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. – at her space in Aspinwall House.
This time, the lecture tour will cover parts of the venue that were not included in the first episode, according to Mr. Hazra. “There will be variations in the narrations this time around depending on the sounds and the nature and number of people I am surrounded by. My performances will evolve in relation to the changes at the Biennale,” he said.
The second round of performances came on the back of the positive feedback received from the last visit, Ms. Chaudhari said. “People who missed out on the last set have told me they wanted to come back when the performances are on,” she added.
Four 30-minute performances will be packed into the two-hour slots daily with looped video and voice-over in the interim period. Following the repeat performances, a video and sound installation will remain at Aspinwall House to serve both as a platform to present archival footage and document the facts of the case for visitors.
