The fifth edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) beginning December 12, 2020 will run for 120 days in view of the increasing public demand for an extended run.
“Due to consistent demand from the people, the 2020 edition of the biennale will be extended from 108 days to 120 days,” said Bose Krishnamachari, founder-president of the KMB at the valedictory of the fourth edition of the biennale at the Durbar Hall ground here on Thursday evening.
The curator of the fifth edition will be announced in the second week of May, coinciding with the start of the Venice Biennale. The curator for the 2021 Design Biennale will be announced here on December 12 this year. About 6.2 lakh art lovers from the country and abroad had visited this edition of the festival, he said.
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Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said in his address that the KMB had helped in taking installation art to the common man.
“People in Kerala have now started referring the garbage piles on our roads as an installation. Even though such a remark is being made in a lighter vein, we should realise that biennale has been successful in opening up the new world of art among the public,” he said.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said that the KMB had also provided new insights into art among hundreds of students and teachers across the State. “This is a big contribution made by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale,” he said.
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Anita Dube, artist and curator of KMB 2018, expressed the hope that she had delivered on the promise to make a biennale inclusive. “To bring marginal existences and practices to the centre of our attention; our imagination and our discourse in an embrace that is not just cerebral but also warm and compassionate,” she said.
Writer and KMB trustee N.S. Madhavan announced the winners of the Tata Trusts Students’ Biennale Awards on the occasion. Umesh Singh, Maksud Ali Mondal, and Akanksha Agarwal won the Tata Trusts Students’ Biennale international awards. Ahamad Muzamil, Anis Wani, Arona Riyaz, Asif Haneef, Mir Lateef, Numair Qadri, Owais Ahmed, Saba Altaf, Tabeena Wani, Ushmayo Dutta, and Zaid Bhat won the national awards for 2018.