Kochi Art, Culture, Literature, Kochi-Muziris Biennale

[Asskicker]

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which was scheduled to conclude on March13, has been extended for four days on public demand.

The international contemporary art exhibition will be open to visitors till 6 pm on Sunday, March 17.

India’s first biennale opened on December 12 last year, introducing audiences to the best of global and Indian contemporary visual art, and at the same time revitalising the traditional art forms of Kerala.

There was heavy rush of visitors, including domestic and foreign tourists, towards the close of the event. The biennale organisers, in response to requests received from several quarters, decided to keep the exhibition open till Sunday.

[kochi_]

Kicked off on the magical date of 12/12/12, initially Kochi Muziris Biennale was a literal confrontation between the conservatives and the reformists in the art world. On the other hand, it also led to a fight between the state government and Biennale team over fund misappropriation.

Acclaimed artists led by sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman came out in the open against the Biennale terming it as one of the biggest scams the art world has ever seen. With pressure mounting from various corners, the state government distanced itself from Kochi Biennale. There were allegations that local artists were kept away from the festival.

Initially, the allegations painted a dirty picture of the festival. However the Biennale foundation, headed by noted artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu, rubbished the allegations, stating that the attempt was to bring in a new art culture.

At the end, the Biennale team was successful in bringing in Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for launching the event.

Initial hiccups apart, the Biennale indeed brought in a new art culture in the state. The festival showcased the creative brilliance of about 80 artists from across the globe. Clearing a string of hurdles and criticisms the art festival attracted many visitors. In the first month itself the Biennale had a total of close to 1.5 lakh visitors.

Adding to the charm, the festival had many celebrities, both from India and abroad, visiting on a regular basis. The film festivals and heritage seminars organised as part of the festival attracted a lot of people. With two days for the festival to end, art-lovers are making a beeline for the spectacle.

Indian Express

[Asskicker]

All these 90 days Kochi-Muziris Biennale Foundation secretary Riyas Komu was interviewed by the national and international media. But on the day the art extravaganza was supposed to end, Mr. Komu turns the microphone to a Kochiite in an exclusive interview to find out what the Biennale means to the city. Nidhi Surendranath listens to Mr. Komu’s conversation with former city Mayor and Fort Kochi Veli councillor K.J. Sohan.

Riyas: Whenever you spoke about Kochi, you always went back to one of Gandhi’s statements that Kochi was “the epitome of adventure.”

Sohan: Gandhi, in this statement, has placed the very essence of the creation, sustenance, and the future of Kochi. The latest of Kochi’s adventures is the biennale. It would sound like a crazy idea to anyone, even to an artist. But somehow or the other, with all the confusion, it came through.

The spirit of adventure brought the Chinese, the Arabs and all others to our shores. The spirit still remains. Of all the commodity boards in the country, the pepper exchange started in Mattanchery was the first. We had online trading when the rest of India was scared of the markets getting conquered. A small town like Kochi went online and took on the world. Fifteen to twenty years ago nobody thought we could sustain the pepper exchange.

Riyas: When events get transformed into history, when a new brave model, as Gandhi suggested, gets created, where do you locate a project like the biennale?

Sohan: See, the biennale venue is a blighted place. It’s a slum. Not a migrant slum like you see elsewhere. Here was the most prosperous core of the economy and the livelihood of the region. People envied the Kochiite at a point. But it was all lost when containerisation and modernisation came. The biennale brings focus on that area.

Riyas: The Biennale has used the complex lineage of Kochi or Muziris as a reference point to bring about a sense of healing or create a new discourse. You were once the first citizen of the city. How do you explore the potential of a project to heal people of a place you call blighted? What did you feel about the biennale as a Kochiite?

Sohan: For the local people, it was a great revelation, an unraveling of their own heritage and understanding their relationship with Muziris. How Muziris died and this city was born is a new idea for everyone in Kochi. Very few people knew about it. This is a celebration of the cosmopolitanism that existed. All these eminent people were pulled to the city. That gives a sense of pride to the people. Everybody said ‘this actor, or that official has come, Sam Pitroda has come, T.K.A. Nair has come – the biennale has brought that kind of attention to the region. People have realized that there is a future here. Everybody will be proud to say ‘I belong to Fort Kochi.’ It has given an element of pride to people who have nothing else to be proud of.

Riyas: We were also talking about the possibility of preserving a zone for art and cultural activities. It would also become a space where all your values are celebrated. Do you see people’s interest in such a space?

Sohan: People have already accepted it. At the biennale, you have been very good at identifying these local people. Like the project on the fishermen who died at sea. Even their families had forgotten them. But they have been enshrined at the biennale. And a whole lot of youngsters, like the cycle repairman Venu, Latheef, Nelson – all of them are displayed there. A people who have become slummed relate to these local faces.

The word slum comes from slumber. Slums are sleepy places. Social backwardness is a stage where you do not understand what your needs are. Centuries of domination and killing of your mind make you backward. For those people, when something like the biennale happens, it comes as change. Biennale is a change agent. It has tried to help the people and the city to identify that heritage, culture and cosmopolitanism are the strengths on which Fort Kochi can be built further.

Riyas: How do you think biennale is going to provoke the administration?

Sohan: That is something that remains to be seen. A lot of the installations speak a different language. You will see a perspective different from what we see daily.

The Malayali, in spite of everything, is a very conservative person. One of the characteristics of our society is that we are nurtured on slogans. Slogans are basically emotions. Despite all the slogans, we don’t love change.

The biennale threw up a lot of avenues of change, particularly in the way we look at things. Many of the works are going to provoke people. Even after the biennale is gone, small biennales will go on.

Riyas: What this project also does is to look at a region that was globalised over 3,000 years ago. Do you think the biennale tries to understand globalisation?

Sohan: Certainly. The globalised context of Muziris and the continuing line to Kochi has become visible to people. All those who have come here have made the land their home. Joseph Semah’s installation talks about the 72 privileges given by a Hindu king to the Jewish community. That was so many centuries ago and the spirit still continues here.

Every community is powerful in its own way. The Christian community does the fishing, the Muslim community sells the fish. On Ramzan the Christians don’t go out fishing because the Muslims will be celebrating. On Christmas the Muslims will not sell fish because the Christians have a holiday. These are all inter-connected without anybody talking about it. So it was not just the Maharajas who were receptive to secular ideas. Even the common people had tolerance.

I take pride in saying that Islam came here during the time of Nabi itself. Christianity came here in the first century. Even in Rome, it was accepted only in the third century.

Riyas: Has the biennale popularised contemporary art?

Sohan: Anything you do has no relevance unless the people understand it. You may say you are the biggest artist in the world, but if you go back home and nobody understands your work, what is the point?

Even when you thanked all those involved in the project you thanked the auto drivers and the labourers. That was wonderful. Nobody ever thinks of these people, but they’re very important.

Riyas: What were your favourite artworks in the biennale?

Sohan: One was Amar Kanwar’s work. It brings out some silent, hushed up voices. Displacement is relevant in Kochi’s context too. We built a road to Vallarpadam and we displaced 400-odd families six or seven years ago. Even today only few families have been given a house. These people are bitter, very bitter. But they don’t protest because they know that some minister or leader will take up their cause. This acts as a shock absorber.

Riyas: What were the other works you liked?

Sohan: I liked both the installations done by Vivan Sundaram. The one on Muziris gives its background – how a city was destroyed, about migration and all that.

Even the flag mast of the biennale shows the different levels of support required to run the event.

Riyas: You’ve been part of some of the seminars at the biennale, on urbanism, heritage, and the maritime museum. We had an international seminar on arts writing. These were all going on parallel to the biennale. Do you think these studies have to be taken up by the State?

Sohan: It has to be taken up at all levels. If you walk around the interior streets of Mattancherry, you will find many other spaces like Aspinwall. Ninety per cent of the old godowns are vacant. Instead of building new structures for IT parks you can remodel these buildings and use them. They have to be preserved and revitalized. Otherwise, they will all be demolished.

Riyas: Do you think that cosmopolitanism is also scary in some ways? That it may revive memories of colonialism?

Sohan: India is growing powerful. We have to shed all these complexes. Look at the future. The average age of an Indian is 25 years. Tomorrow is ours if we focus on the right areas.

We have economic power, but not equity. With the cost of one fighter plane, you could install toilets in a lot of houses.

Riyas: Would you recommend that as a concept the next biennale address the complex life of the people or try to revive the lifestyle of a certain region?

Sohan: That is a challenge. All the students from foreign universities did projects here. But they did not look at the core issues of this blighted area. It is a treasure house. But people don’t realize that. Heritage is our main strength. We don’t have to do it for the tourists, do it for the local people. People have to realise that we have a glorious past. These are the ways our fathers have lived. We have to look back to look forward.

[kochi_]

The first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale will draw to a close here on Sunday. The Biennale flag which was unfurled on 12/12/12 at Aspinwall House, the main venue of the event, will be lowered at 6 p.m., signalling the conclusion of the three-month contemporary art festival. Scheduled to close on 13/03/13, the event was extended by four days to accommodate visitors crowding in on the last few days. The next edition of the biennale will begin in the city on December 12, 2014, said artist Riyas Komu, secretary of the Biennale Foundation.

Works by 89 artists from 23 countries were featured at the 14 venues of the biennale. According to the organisers, Rs.15 crore was the total expenditure of the art event that attracted close to four lakh visitors.

Venues of the Biennale that had been opened to the public for the first time just for the event will now go back to their slumber. The art, however, does not stop with the official closing ceremony.

PROGRAMME FOR ARTISTS

Pepper House at Mattancherry will now host an international residency programme for artists and art students, office-bearers of the Biennale Foundation said at a press meet here on Saturday. “Artists from all over the world can come here and work as part of the programme. Our artists will also get a chance to go abroad,” said Bonny Thomas, cartoonist and foundation trustee.

Mr. Komu, curator of the biennale, said art projects started as part of the biennale would continue in the city. A statue of Chinnathambi Annavi, the founder of Chavittu Natakam, is coming up at Gothuruth. Artist Anto K. George is working on the sculpture on a piece of land allotted by the Holy Cross Church in Kadalvathuruth.

The foundation has also started work on a film about the city’s problems. It will be completed in about nine to 10 months, said Mr. Komu.

Over 70 per cent of the artworks exhibited at the biennale were created for the event, touching upon the history and politics of the city and Muziris. Many of these will now move on to art galleries all over the world. Subodh Gupta’s installation featuring a traditional boat will be showcased at Hauser & Wirth gallery in London. Amar Kanwar’s ‘The Sovereign Forest’ will be exhibited at the Sharjah Biennial that opened earlier this week.

As the biennale concludes, a ‘Thank You Walk’ will be taken out from Aspinwall House to the Parade Ground at Fort Kochi after the biennale flag is lowered.

A music concert at Vasco da Gama square featuring bands Kaav, Backwater Blues, Third Eye, and Green Folio will close the first edition of the event.

The Hindu

[Prasanth_KCV]

Kochi Biennale is world-class & good fit for Google


Kochi: As a contemporary art event The Kochi-Muziris Biennale compares with the best in the world in terms of the quality of artists and the works showcased, according to the Head of Google India, Rajan Anandan.

Anandan, who was visited the Biennale with his family today, said he was impressed by the scale and scope of the event. “It is massive and it is world-class. I have been to art events elsewhere around the world and this ranks among the best.”

Google, which enjoys a reputation for innovation and creativity, is already big on art. Its collaborative Art Project provides an online space for works housed in partner museums.

An event like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale would make a good fit for Google, says Anandan. “We would be proud to associate with something that has so much value. It is the kind of project that needs to be promoted internationally.”

Andandan, whose wife Radhika is an art collector, said the Biennale, especially the street art appears to have transformed the Fort Kochi area. “I love Kerala and I’ve been to Fort Kochi before; that was four of five years ago,” he said. “This time it’s so much more colourful and vibrant; the street art is fantastic and there are so many people around.”

He said the Biennale was also a triumph in organisation. “You need a special kind of commitment and effort to put together a project this big. I think the organisers of the Kochi Biennale have pulled it off wonderfully.”

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in Kochi. It is the first Biennale being held in India. The exhibition, set in spaces across Kochi, Muziris and surrounding islands, began on December 12, 2012(12/12/12) and will conclude on March 13, 2012 (13/3/13).

http://keralaitnews.com/23/kochi-bie...fit-for-google

[Prasanth_KCV]

A floating installation next to Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi is dedicated to fishermen from Fort Kochi who lost their lives at sea. The artwork, which carries photographs of the fishermen, was created by Sandeep More, Nilesh Vishwakarma and Deven Bane, three Mumbaikars who had volunteered for the Biennale. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle4516493.ece

[Asskicker]

The Kochi-Muziris biennale will draw its curtains on Sunday. As part of the closing ceremony, the biennale flag will be lowered at the Aspinwall house, the main venue of the contemporary art exhibition.

Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies K V Thomas, Mayor Tony Chammani, Former Minister for Culture M A Baby, Hibi Eden MLA and Dominic Presentation MLA will be present on the occasion.

Riyas Komu, the secretary of the Kochi-Muziris biennale Foundation, said that the three-month long exhibition has outlived the controversies it generated. He said that the exhibition has been successful in imprinting Kochi’s name in the art arena.

“Until the biennale, our country was not able to host contemporary artists. The biennale proved to be instrumental in elevating art to another level,” he said.

If there was sufficient fund, the event could have been extended to other areas.

“The biennale had a financial burden of `7 crores. Due to unwanted controversies, we could not extend the biennale to other areas. We had to cut down on many projects like public art, legacy sculptures and outreach programmes. Apart from the `5 crore grant, we ran the show with help from various art institutions and sponsors. Still we are happy that the biennale has had a huge impact on the artistic fraternity,” he said.

Bose Krishnamachari, the president of the Kochi-Muziris biennale Foundation, said that the next edition of the biennale would open on December 12, 2014.

“An advisory committee will be formed to designate the new curator for the next biennale,” Bose said.

Bonny Thomas, the trustee of the Kochi- Muziris biennale foundation, said that the foundation will move ahead with its activities. He added that ‘Pepper house’, one of the venues of the biennale, will be converted into an international residence to host programmes related to arts.

The foundation is making a film on issues that have been plaguing Kochi for long. “It would be completed in about seven to ten months,” he said.


Nammude Kochi oru sambhavam thanneyanu

[Prasanth_KCV]

So long Biennale, see you in 2014



Kochi: When the Kochi Muziris Biennale comes to a close on Sunday, it will be nearly 4 lakh visitors who have had a taste of the country’s art extravaganza.

Nearly Rs 15 crore has gone into this event which began on 12.12.12 involving 89 artists, half of them from 22 countries, and preparations will begin soon for the next biennale in 2014, say the organizers.

Despite the event running into a controversy even before it started with a section of artists turning against it and a severe fund crunch, the event succeeded in placing Kochi on the global art map, according to co-curator and artist Bose Krishnamachari. “Even several of those who opposed it initially, came and hailed the attempt,” he added.

It was around 500 foreign tourists daily at the biennale, besides renowned curators, art historians, critics, collectors and artists. It succeeded in “not only breathing fresh air into art and culture, but also made a significant socio-economic impact by boosting cultural tourism,” said Bose. Some of the works displayed here like those of Kanwar, Ernesto Netto and Angelica would be on display at the Sharjah biennale starting on April 13, said co-curator Riyas.

“There is a new tradition of narration created, a new biennale legacy and the works would be travelling like gypsies,” he added.

The duo admitted that there was a severe fund crunch. The previous government had sanctioned Rs5 crore and an equal amount was expected from the present government which has initiated a vigilance probe into the fund utilization. While there was no word about the probe, practically all in the government had visited the biennale and hailed the efforts put in, they added.

The biennale foundation which spearheaded the programme would soon begin preparations for the next biennale. “Though the exhibition of the present biennale comes to a close, social intervention programmes which include camps for students would continue. One of the venues, Pepper House, will be venue utilized for international residency programmes which would include global exchange of artists,” said biennale research co-ordinator Bonny Thomas.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/13031...e-see-you-2014

[mohammedirshad06]

Thats exactly how Kochi grew.... We grew mostly because of Private initiatives... Even the promised funds never reached on time... Just see this... The previous govt promised a whopping 100 crore for the Biennale and just see what peanuts the govt gave, despite of the fact, right from Central Ministers to International VVIPs attended and hailed as a landmark......

The spirit of Kochi's enthusiasm to such private ventures further gets strengthen with the attitude of Biennale foundation....

I hope, atleast before next edition, DLF and Travancore Royal Family must consider redeveloping Aspinwall House into a world class gallery..... Aspinwall itself can be a title sponsor, as within these 3 months, the brand Aspinwall as so strongly made expressed across India and outside......

[sree_ec]

Joy and hope in Kochi


A few weeks ago I went to Kochi for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an incandescent string of art exhibits put together by the passion and energy of two artist friends, Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu. Take a bow, gents - it was easily the best art event I had ever been to anywhere.

While there were dozens of amazing artworks, the piece that really took my breath away was a film/sound installation on the upper floor of Moidu's Heritage, a dilapidated warehouse that backed into a network of canals, which had been used to transport spices from the hinterland to Cochi for export. It certainly hadn't been used for decades and it showed.

As I carefully climbed the stairs, I could hear the most beautiful melodic whistling coming out of a darkened room. Rather than a bird, it was a Black guy in a blue shirt sitting in a cab. He was whistling to himself, not even smiling, deep in his own world - he went on and on and on, changing tune from time to time. It was hypnotic, so much so that I didn't even notice the heat till a bead of perspiration ran down my back and disappeared, laughing, between my buttocks.

I looked around to position myself by a fan just as the film stopped and another one started on a perpendicular wall. This was of a woman in a swimming pool splashing the water with her hands. She was smiling enjoying herself, and kept altering the rhythm as she splashed. At some point, I sensed, more than heard, her "music" enhanced by some real percussion playing below her. That's when I realised the whistling, too, had been enriched by a subtle instrumentation working underneath. After this movie ended, it flipped to the next wall - a blind man playing an electronic hand-held organ on the metro in Paris - and then the next. It was truly magical.

But, as much as the Biennale, there was another aspect of Kochi that delighted me, though in a completely different way. I have always loved Kochi because, like Venice and Istanbul, public transport is largely water-based. To enjoy this, we had taken a ferry to the Biennale, which was in Fort Kochi, and my jaw dropped at the fare: two - that's right, two - rupees a person, one way. Fortunately, my wife had some coins.

The quality of the service was excellent and remarkably - this is India, after all - on time. It got me thinking that this was how public service used to be. When I was a kid - granted that was a long time ago - even the BEST was cheap and reliable. Those were the defining hallmarks of public service.

And, indeed, most public servants were also reliable and trustworthy. People entered politics or the administrative services to make a difference, and not to their own wallets. This may seem hard to believe judging both from individual experience with and what we read about the public servants we have today.

I was discussing this with an elegant gent I met at a conference recently. He was quite a scholar in a range of humanist areas and he told me that the reason most people in "our time" - he was about my age - had much stronger civic and civil values was that we learned them (in many cases, literally) at our grandmothers' knee through stories extracted from the epics. These provided the underpinnings of our substantially better civil and civic behaviour.

Today, he feared, that source is fading. With more nuclear families and a much more hectic pace of life, most people have little time to sit with grandma; indeed, sometimes, grandma doesn't have time herself. Is it any wonder, then, with our anchor to history and mythology largely lost, that society has turned so bleak?

I had to agree with him - it may be old-fashioned, but the truth is that fundamental values begin at home. Circumstance in many forms - selfishness, apathy, the apparently all-pervasive corruption - constantly threatens these values to where the entire social fabric appears faded and tattered.

But the good news - and there's always good news if you look - is that the fabric is ultimately regenerative and, in India at least, we appear to be turning up from the bottom. One example of a renewed attraction for core values is the amazing popularity of books by three contemporary writers - Ashok Banker, Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi - all of which are built around stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Their books are literally flying off the shelves. It seems that people know, even if subconsciously, that this is where they will find a framework for civic and civil renewal.

Perhaps, the Biennale will be a linchpin of this change - be sure to go there in 2014!

[Malayaali]

Biennale installation sold for a fortune in London

Artist Subodh Gupta's installation featuring a traditional
boat was sold in a show held in London for Rs.4.40 crore.

Two months ago art critics at the maiden Kochi Muziris Biennale said it was priceless. But today, we know exactly what the price of this installation is. To be specific, it is $8,00,000 (Rs. 4.40 crore) — the price at which Indian artist Subodh Gupta’s installation featuring a traditional boat was sold in a show held in London, reported London-based Financial Times. Abu Dhabi-based Guggenheim museum has bagged the popular installation.

The installation was moved to the Hauser & Wirth Saville Row Space Gallery in London after being exhibited at the Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi as part of Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

The installation named “What does the vessel contain, that the river does not,” searches for the inner meaning of Sophism and was inspired by the words and philosophy of the renowned 13th century Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi.

The genesis for the installation occurred to the Delhi-based artist during the course of his boat journey from Fort Kochi to Kottappuram after being invited to Kochi for its maiden biennale.

Mr. Gupta converted the idea into reality with the help of traditional boat makers of Ponjikkara Island in Kochi backwaters. It had a length of 21.35 metres, a width of 3.15 metres and a depth of 1.1 metres.

The boat was shifted from a yard belonging to Johnson of Ponjikkara in Ponnarimangalam to the Aspinwall with the help of boat-making labourers Simon D’silva and friends. The traditional boat-making method was adopted in the making of the installation

The installation, which was completed by arranging everyday items ranging from bed, table, chair, fan, to cycle, pillow, gas cylinders and utensils was considered symbolic of the spices trade linking Kerala history and that of Kochi with Muziris. Among other things it also symbolised the human race’s tendency to migrate.

Though buying and selling was not part of the biennale, the interest and popularity the installations mustered as part of the event help artists to exhibit and sell them in various parts of the world.