The fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) beginning on December 12 will feature a dynamic range of artwork, along with curated programming in the fields of cinema and performance art, and seminars and workshops.
Curated by eminent artist Anita Dube around the theme ‘Possibilities for a non-alienated life’, the 108-day Biennale to be held across nine venues will have a total of 95 artist projects. Kochi is hosting the art event four months after the State was ravaged by the floods, affirming the State’s resilience, according to a press release from the Biennale Foundation.
The core ideas of collaboration and the complementary exhibition are a result of Dube’s curatorial travel, intense research, and diverse dialogues with artists and scholars across continents. “While preparation has been key,” Dube pointed out, “my vision for the Biennale can only be actualised with the active participation of the public. We are working at full capacity to create the structures that I hope everyone can claim, by listening, sharing, and speaking.”
Dube, as the Biennale’s first woman curator, said ‘Possibilities for a non-alienated life’ hopes to be a space of openness and celebration.
“It will be so not only through the fantastic range of artwork on display, but through the varied programmes as well as the Biennale Pavilion as a knowledge laboratory,” she added.
Bose Krishnamachari, president of the Biennale Foundation, said Dube was a “thinking artist” with a profound sensitivity towards materials, incorporating everyday objects derived from informal, craft and industrial sources and spaces.
“Her oeuvre features both knowledgeable consideration and skilful melding of the sensibilities and styles of abstractions with real, contemporary concerns. This will without a doubt be reflected in her curation,” added Krishnamachari, who was a co-curator of the first Biennale, held in 2012.
A team of 20 dedicated art mediators will give guided tours of the exhibition every day free of charge in both English and Malayalam.
The ongoing two-month Graffiti Residency, part of the Pepper House Residency, has brought life to the public walls of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry.
The Biennale will conclude on March 29, 2019.
