“At midnight and 1 a.m., as the rest of Kochi sleeps, carpenters are hammering away at nails at Aspinwall House. The space is definitely reawakening,” says Jitish Kallat, curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014.
Aspinwall House, which is the main venue for the contemporary art exhibition, is a site of frenzied activity just days before the Biennale begins at noon on 12/12/2014. Artists, volunteers, and workers are putting up exhibits that thousands of people will view over the next three months. Works by 94 artists from 30 countries will be featured at the Biennale. At the centre of it all is Mumbai-based Malayali artist Jitish Kallat.
The exhibition is tied together by Kallat’s title of ‘Whorled Explorations,’ conceived “as a temporary observation deck to view the world hoisted at Kochi.” The theme surfaces repeatedly as one considers the Biennale as a whole and in parts. Exactly 100 projects are on show at the Biennale across eight venues. Mr. Kallat suggests viewing them in a spiral of sorts, from the first installation on the left of the entrance at Aspinwall House to the final work at Durbar Hall art gallery.
ADVERTISEMENT
Alongside the contemporary art exhibition will be a series of other events that will engage the public in a conversation about art. A four-month long festival of Kerala’s traditional performance arts runs parallel to the second edition of the Biennale. Changampuzha Park is hosting a Kathakali festival featuring four slow-paced ‘Kottayam plays’ that began here on December 8 and will go on till the 11. Over four months, art forms such as Nangiarkoothu, Chavittu Natakam, ghazals, a Mappila festival will all take the stage in Kochi and Thrissur.
Yet another feature of the festival is the Students’ Biennale, as part of which 15 young curators will bring works by art students across the country under one roof.