The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

held in the city of

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It is the largest art exhibition in the country and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation with support from the

Government of Kerala Government of Kerala is the subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decisio ...

. The concept of Kochi-Muziris Biennale was ideated and executed by Dr. Venu IAS, who was the culture Secretary, Government of Kerala. The exhibition is set in spaces across

, with shows being held in existing galleries, halls, and site-specific installations in public spaces, heritage buildings and disused structures. Indian and international artists exhibit artworks across a variety of mediums including film, installation, painting, sculpture, new media and performance art. Through the celebration of contemporary art from around the world, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to invoke the historic cosmopolitan legacy of the modern metropolis of

, and its mythical predecessor, the ancient port of

Muziris Muziris ( grc, Μουζιρίς, Old Malayalam: ''Muciri'' or ''Muciripattanam'' possibly identical with the medieval ''Muyirikode'') was an ancient harbour and an urban centre on the Malabar Coast. Muziris found mention in the ''Periplus of ...

. Alongside the exhibition the Biennale offers a rich programme of talks, seminars, screenings, music, workshops and educational activities for school children and students. The second edition of the biennale cost about Rs 17 crore, slightly up from the Rs 16.5 crore spent on the first edition. The Kerala government's contribution fell to Rs 3 crore from Rs 9 crore despite pleas for financial assistance. The organisers relied on sponsorship and online crowd funding for meeting the expenses. The number of visitors grew to five lakhs in the second edition, an increase of one lakh from the first edition. The Biennale was visited by more than six lakh people in its third edition.

The Birth of Kochi-Muziris Biennale

In May 2010, Mumbai based contemporary artists of Kerala origin, Bose Krishnamachari and Riyaz Komu, were approached by then culture minister of Kerala, M.A Baby to start an international art project in the state. Acknowledging the lack of an international platform for contemporary art in India, Bose and Riyas proposed the idea of a Biennale (a large scale international exhibition) in Kochi on the lines of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

Kochi Biennale Foundation

The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) is a non-profit charitable trust engaged in promoting art & culture and educational activities in India; primary amongst them the hosting of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. KBF works around the year to strengthen contemporary art infrastructure and to broaden public access to art across India. The Kochi Biennale Foundation is also engaged in the conservation of heritage properties and monuments and the upliftment of traditional forms of art and culture. KBF was founded in 2010 by artists Bose Krishnamachari and

Riyas Komu Riyas Komu born in Kerala is a multimedia artist and curator based in Mumbai. He has invested his time in art education and developing art infrastructure in India. Komu's works are inspired by social conflicts and political movements and topic ...

First Kochi-Muziris Biennale

The First Kochi-Muziris Biennale began on 12 December 2012. The Biennale hosted 80 artists with nearly 50 percent foreign artists, site-specific works and a sustained education programme in the three months. As a run-up to the event, in April, the Durbar Hall Kochi will host German modern artist Eberhard Havekost's exhibition "Sightseeing Trip", held in collaboration with Dresden State Art Collections. The Aspinwall House exhibits the art works of 44 artists spread across the premises. Entry was free till 23 December which was then replaced by ticketed entry at Rs. 50 to help pay for daily running costs. According to artist and Kochi-Muziris Biennale artistic director Bose Krishnamachari support has come in many forms.

Shalini Shalini (born 20 November 1979), also known as Baby Shalini, is a former Indian child artist and actress who predominantly worked in Malayalam and Tamil films. During the 80s, Shalini was the most successful child artist in the Malayalam film i ...

and Sanjay Passi held a INR 25,000-per-head dinner in the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

to raise funds, raising .

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

met with the foundation and has offered help with the website, which received 7.5 million hits in the first month. The Jindals of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, the late

Kerala Congress Kerala Congress is an Indian political party founded at Kottayam, Kerala in October, 1964, by a block of former Indian National Congress leaders led by K. M. George. The party is primarily active in central Kerala. The establishment of Kerala ...

leader T.M. Jacob, R.K. Krishna Kumar of

Tata group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...

, Jayanta Matthews of

Malayala Manorama ''Malayala Manorama'' is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew; it was first published as a weekly on 22 March 1888, and currently has ...

and the businessman Shibu Mathai have all donated. The sites for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale were: # Aspinwall House # David Hall # Pepper House # Moidu's Heritage # Durbar Hall # Cabral Yard # Parade Ground #

Fort Kochi beach Fort Kochi beach is a beach along the Arabian Sea situated in Fort Kochi in the city of Kochi in South India, Kerala state. Points of interests Unique views and point of interests are the so-called Chinese fishing nets (''Cheena vala'', M ...

# Kashi Art Gallery # Jew Town Road Godown # Rose Street Bungalow # Cochin Club # Gallery OED https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/art/a-brush-with-new-colours/article5192998.ece # David Horvitz

Reactions and Controversies

According to

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

, Kochi-Muziris Biennale was the best biennale they had ever seen. The biennale accrued 150,000 visitors in its first month and 250,000 visitors in its second, averaging a thousand visitors a day (as high as 5,000 daily and 10,000 on weekends, early January). Local people have stepped up, on an individual level, realising what the biennale has done for them, socio-economically and culturally, and in terms of putting Kochi on the international culture map. McKinsey and companies have expressed their interest in studying the Biennale to know its economic effects. According to Karthyayani G. Menon, director of

Jehangir Art Gallery Jehangir Art Gallery is an art gallery in Mumbai (India). It was founded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir at the urging of K. K. Hebbar and Homi Bhabha. It was built in 1952. Managed by the Committee of Management, the entire cost of this mansion was ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, Kerala – unlike Mumbai,

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

had not been in the forefront in encouraging artists and giving them good platforms but now she hoped that the biennale would mark a change to that situation. Many eminent artists in Kerala raised concern over the alleged lack of transparency in the way the funds were spent by Kochi-Muziris Biennale foundation. At the same time many known contemporary artists of the state of Kerala had come out in support of the event as it could help in enhancing the image of Kochi. With the 2016 demonetization of the Indian economy, several artists and the organizers of the Biennale had to overcome a struggle to get things in place for the opening of the exhibition. However, the Biennale received a boost when at the official opening, the government of the southern state of Kerala promised $1.1m funding and support for a permanent venue to cement its place as the Venice Biennale of South Asia. Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan Pinarayi Vijayan (; born 24 May 1945) is an Indian Communist politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, serving since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving sec ...

, who is the leader of the Left Democratic Front government and long-time secretary of the

Indian Communist Party The Indian Communist Party was a small communist group in India, led by U. Krishnappa from Karnataka. In May 1985 ICP merged into the Communist Organisation of India (Marxist-Leninist).Singh, Prakash. ''The Naxalite Movement in India''. New De ...

in the state, said the Biennale matched Kochi's multi-layered history of settlement by Arabs, Chinese, Jews, Portuguese, Dutch, English and different migrant communities from India. Vijayan announced 75m rupees in funding for the Biennale, the highest sum a state government in India had given an arts event. His government would support a permanent venue for the "mega-prestigious" event that had been the key to the success of the Kochi Muziris Biennale, he said. The fifth edition of the Biennale was mismanaged by the organisers leading to a last-minute postponement which led to stranded visitors who had travelled from all the way across the globe. The Biennale has also faced accusations of

modern slavery Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 46 mil ...

, including non-payment of wages, and non-attribution of workers' contributions to artworks.

First Urban Space Dialogue in Kochi

In March 2015, the Kochi Muziris Biennale Foundation partnered with Center for Public Policy Research, Cochin for the first Urban Space Dialogue in Kochi to advocate for the need for creating urban spaces in Kochi. The Dialogue featured Nuru Karim of Nu.De; Raj Cherubal of Chennai City Connect Foundation and advisor to CPPR; Dr Dhanuraj, chairman, CPPR; Jitish Kallat, curator of biennale 2014–15; Bose Krishnamachary and Riyas Komu founders of the Biennale.

The Third Kochi-Muziris Biennale

The third edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale opened on 12 December 2016 and is curated by Sudarshan Shetty. Sudarshan was declared curator of the 2016 Kochi-Muzirs Biennale by the Minister for Culture, K. C. Joseph at an event in the State capital Thiruvananthapuram on 15 July 2015. He was unanimously chosen as curator by an Artistic Advisory Committee appointed by the Kochi Biennale Foundation for the third edition. The Committee comprised artists

Amar Kanwar Amar Kanwar was born in New Delhi in 1964 where he continues to live and work as a filmmaker. Kanwar studied at the Department of History, Ramjas College, Delhi University (1982-1985), and at the Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia Millia ...

Atul Dodiya Atul Dodiya (born 20 January 1959, in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, India) is an Indian artist. Biography Atul began exhibiting and selling his work in the early 1980s following his graduation from Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai where he received a B ...

Bharti Kher Bharti Kher is a contemporary artist. In a career spanning nearly three decades, she has worked across painting, sculpture and installation. Throughout her practice she has displayed an unwavering relationship with the body, its narratives, and ...

and Jyothi Basu, art critic Ranjit Hoskote, patron Kiran Nadar, gallerist Shireen Gandhy along with KBF trustees Sunil V,

and Bose Krishnamachari. The exhibition is concurrently staged at 12 venues and featured 97 works as well as 20 events. Sudarshan Shetty was born in Mangalore in 1961, with his family moving to Bombay within a few months of his birth. He has since been based in Bombay. His works have been exhibited in solo and group shows in India and abroad, including at the

Gwangju Biennale The Gwangju Biennale is a contemporary art biennale founded in September 1995 in Gwangju, South Jeolla province, South Korea. The Gwangju Biennale is hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the city of Gwangju. The Gwangju Biennale Found ...

(2000),

, London (2001), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2001),

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris (2011), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012). The list of artists at the 2016 KMB can be found on th
Kochi Muziris Biennale website

The Fourth Kochi-Muziris Biennale

The fourth edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale opened on 12 December 2018 and is curated by Indian artist

Anita Dube Anita Dube (born 28 November 1958) is an Indian contemporary artist whose work has been widely exhibited in India. Early life Dube was born on 28 November 1958 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India to a family of physicians. She completed her B. A ...

The Fifth Kochi-Muziris Biennale

In May 2019, it was announced that

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, Ind ...

artist and writer, Shubigi Rao would curate the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale from December 2020 to April 2021. Rao had previously exhibited at the fourth Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018, the sole Singaporean representative. Titled "In our Veins Flow Ink and Fire", the first announced artist list involved 25 participating artists and collectives, featuring names such as Arpita Singh, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency,

Iman Issa Iman Issa (born 1979) is an Egyptian multi-disciplinary artist whose work looks at the power of display in relation to academic and cultural institutions at large. Issa has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her most notable sh ...

Joan Jonas Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, and one of the most important artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Melati Suryodarmo Melati Suryodarmo (born 12 July 1969) is an Indonesian endurance art, durational performance artist. Her physically demanding performances make use of repetitive motions and often last for many hours, sometimes reaching "a level of factual absur ...

Samson Young Samson Young (born 1979) is a Hong Kong artist, working primarily in the mediums of sound performance and installations. Early life and education Samson Young was born in Hong-Kong. He received both his BA degree in Music, Philosophy and Gende ...

, Slavs and Tatars, Thảo Nguyên Phan, and

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is t ...

. Both Kochi-Muziris Biennale founder Bose Krishnamachari and Shubigi Rao would be jointly featured on the 2019 edition of the ''

ArtReview ''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013. History Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...

'' Power 100 list for their work on the Biennale. “In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire” finally opened on December 23, 2022 after being postponed twice due to Covid-19 and then again in early December 2022 due to “organizational challenges.”

Gallery from past editions

Image:Kochi-Muziris Biennale.jpg, "Fish cemetery" by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Image:What does the vessel contain, that the river does not.JPG, "What does the vessel contain, that the river does not" by

Subodh Gupta Subodh Gupta, (born 1964) is an Indian contemporary artist based in New Delhi. His work encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, photography, performance and video. Early life and education Gupta was born in Khagaul, a small town in B ...

Image:Viewers seeing the ship of tarship by prasad raghavan3.JPG, "The ship of Tarshish" by Prasad Raghavan Image:Curatorial Note.jpg, Curatorial note from Sudarshan Shetty Image:Pyramid - an exhibit.jpg, "The Pyramid of Exiled Poets" by Aleš Šteger Image:Stop over.JPG, "Stop over" by Sheela Gowda Image:Francesco Clementes peper tent at kochi muziris bienelle2014.JPG, "Pepper Tent" by

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various art ...

Image:Pk sadanandan in KM biennale 2016.jpg, P. K. Sadanandan working on his

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

Image:Visitors at Backbone by Santha muddaya.jpeg, "Backbone" by Shanthamani Muddaiah Image:Visitors at Logics of disappearence by KM Madusudanan.JPG, "Logics of disappearance" by K. M. Madhusudhanan Image:Black gold.JPG, "Black gold" by

Vivan Sundaram Vivan Sundaram (born 28 May 1943) is an Indian contemporary artist. His parents were Kalyan Sundaram, Chairman of Law Commission of India from 1968 to 1971, and Indira Sher-Gil, sister of noted Indian modern artist Amrita Sher-Gil. He is marr ...

References

External links

* * * https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/no-plans-of-postponing-the-kochi-muziris-biennale-at-the-moment-bose-krishnamachari/article31268689.ece