Say someone brings you a bouquet of flowers. You get a vase and one by one intuitively place each stem inside, allowing an arrangement to unfold on its own. It was on this level, as lead curator Nikhil Chopra suggests, that the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was not curated so much as created.
On a stroll through the largest contemporary art biennale in south Asia, creation takes centre stage. Against the backdrop of the coastal city’s lush strip of backwaters and the historic Fort Kochi, works by 66 artists animate Kerala’s grand colonial warehouses and bungalows where art feels less installed than encountered.
The idea, as the biennale’s title For the Time Being suggests, is to enter, be present and exit, said multidisciplinary artist Chopra, who curated the show with artist-led organisation HH Art Spaces which he co-founded in 2013.
“This allowed us to use time in a way as material, as clay or wood or charcoal, where we would invite time into each and every one of the artworks we were presenting and be present in the moment.”
In our age of distraction, the biennale offers no instant gratification. Take Birender Kumar Yadav’s installation Only the Earth Knows Their Labour on the exploitative brick industry’s forgotten labourers, or Kulpreet Singh’s Indelible Black Marks, where a video plays in a straw-walled enclosure, showing as sheets of canvas are dragged poetically across scorched fields, mimicking farmers ploughing the land.
“There are a lot of factors that contribute to the pollution in Delhi, but it’s easy to blame on farmers,” said Singh, 40, who was born into a farming family in Punjab.
Now in its sixth year, half of the artists at the show are Indian and Keralan, a quota which Chopra and the curatorial team dedicated much of their time. Not a single international flight was taken to scout invitees, boasted Chopra. Instead, they leaned on relationships the Goan collective forged with artists over the past decade.
“There’s a certain very excited sense of freshness that people approach an invitation from the subcontinent,” said Chopra. Among this year’s international invitations include Marina Abramović, Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama and Argentinian artist Adrian Villar Rojas.
“We live in a bit of a jaded world which is overstuffed with art, music, cinema, theatre,” said Chopra. “We are spoiled for choice to such an extent that I think that the world is really interested in ideas and voices from this side of the economic hemisphere.”
The emphasis on the show’s intuitive approach was made clearest by Kolkata-based artist Jayashree Chakravarty. Since moving to Salt Lake in the 80s, she has observed as nearby marshlands transformed to concrete. What we’re left with is Shelter: For the Time Being, memorialising a natural world in retreat.
“I’m a silent observer,” said Chakravarty, 69. “Whatever I’m observing, I’m trying to bring back in my work.”
Resembling capillaries or intricate webs, large suspended scrolls made of cotton fabric, jute fibre and seed pods invite visitors to inhabit and illuminate the works, begging a question Chakravarty keeps asking herself: How can we bring nature closer?
The curators knew they had to be agile in an environment rich with mould, patina and moisture, and made it so the artists, too, would understand the conditions of spaces hard to exhibit art in. In 2018, Kerala was devastated by summer monsoon flooding. This year, Chopra said the biggest challenge came in “starting from zero”, renovating derelict places and repairing roofs as the biennale is without a permanent home.
The show is expecting a million visitors, with more than 80% hailing from within a 500km radius. It has strived to maintain its reputation for being a people’s biennale (tickets cost between Rs 100 to 200, or less than £2), and all walks of life could be seen thronging the show, as well as the Student’s Biennale and dedicated “non-judgmental” Art Rooms which host workshops led by artists.
Kochi, formerly known as Cochin, sits between the Indian Ocean and the Western Ghats. But the communist-led state is not just uniquely placed geographically. It has passed through the hands of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, and remained a melting pot of cultures and religions: within walking distance of the show are the Santa Cruz basilica, Paradesi Synagogue and the Dharmanath Jain Temple.
“Kerala has always been a place for critical thinking. It’s a very self-aware place to be,” said Chopra, who took part in the 2014 biennale. “People do see and find value in a cultural outing as opposed to say a joy ride or a picnic,” he said, before correcting himself. “This is a picnic among the art.”
