Kochi-Muziris Biennale in one day: Make the most of 24 hours at the art showcase in Fort Kochi

There’s always drama at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and not just because the art can be a mixed bag of the inspired and the incomprehensible. We’re a month into the sixth edition and Bose Krishnamachari, president of the biennale, has resigned from his position as well as from the board. Previous editions have been plagued with financial troubles, poor infrastructure and planning, and disputes over artistic freedom. Last month, the curators took down a painting by Tom Vattakuzhy after religious groups decided their sentiments had been hurt.

This year’s theme is “for the time being” and, as always, the curation spans the poignant to the strange. There’s a lot of ground to cover—22 venues and more than 60 artists until 31 March. If you’re strapped for time but want to see the best of the biennale, we suggest book marking this list.

CHERRY-PICKING AT ASPINWALL

If you don’t have the time to explore all of Aspinwall House, head to the Panjeri Artists’ Union’s corner. They’re a group of artists, academics, activists and students concerned with the changing nature of ordinary lives confronted by economic, social and political challenges. Next to it is Dhiraj Rabha’s The Quiet Weight of Shadows, based on his own experience of militancy in Assam, to reflect on resistance, surveillance and displacement. Go across the courtyard to see Bhasha Chakrabarti’s textile art, Diasporic Transcriptions, which evokes ideas of women’s work, the sisterhood that grows around unpaid labour, shared chores and housework.

BAZAR ROAD’S BOUNTY

Old wooden chairs from public institutions across Kerala, repaired by local carpenters, fill a room in Anand Warehouse on Bazar Road, arranged in a half-elliptical shape like you’d see in a durbar of old. The walls are papered with discarded sacks sewn together by women from Kochi. Ibrahim Mahama’s Parliament of Ghosts is a comment on the conversations by those in power even as they neglect the real concerns of people who labour, trade and make a living outside of government institutions. It’s a critique but it’s also a soaring space of joy, and part of an international series by the Ghanaian artist. Across the road, as part of “Edam”, which features the diverse art of Kerala, are the powerful, imaginative paintings Tom Vattakuzhy has done as magazine illustrations for various Malayalam short story writers in the course of his career.

Edam continues at Cube Art Space fur ther down Bazar Road, with a show about the many meanings that can be drawn from the final moments of M.K. Gandhi’s life. A short distance away in Jew Town is Monsoon Collective’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, which shows how clothing has shaped history and identity in Kerala.

LISTENING AT GINGER HOUSE

Walking through a massive antique store with life-sized theyyam figurines and winged creatures to enter Ginger House creates a mood that’s the antithesis to Shilpa Gupta’s Listening Air (2019-23). You’re brought right back down to earth at her first installation, Sound on My Skin, a flapboard that looks like its announcing flight arrivals and departures. Instead, it whirs and flips to show seemingly disconnected words and phrases that you slowly realise are a political statement on the law, blind acquiescence and all the circumstances that lead you to “cancel your protest… for your own safety”.

The truly outstanding work is Listening Air, an installation with protest songs, microphones and speakers, and stools set in a circle. Entering the dark room from the brightness outside creates a sense of apprehension, the kind you’d feel walking into a protest, unsure of what will come to be. Protest anthems from around the world play, Bella Ciao, Hum Dekhenge, No nos moverán, and the unease is slowly replaced with the joyful fraternity and hopeless camaraderie of having a cause that will most likely be crushed. This is a show that demands a lot from the viewer, so a restorative fresh lime water at the sea-facing Museum Hotel café next door is a good idea before dashing off to the next stop.

IDEAS AT ISLAND WAREHOUSE

Opposite the Water Metro station at Willingdon Island is a 20,000 sq. ft space with massive installations by LaToya Ruby Frazier, Marina Abramović and Arti Kadam, reminding us to pay more atten tion to what’s in front of us. The one that truly captivates is Mme, Mmu, Bhumi, Bhumi by South Africa’s Dineo Seshee Bopape. The anthill-like forms made from dung, which also resemble huts, are sacred in her culture, and look very much like the large anthills worshipped in India too. It’s a reminder of shared culture at a time when the world seems more fractured than ever. The Palakkad-based Lakshmi Nivas Collective’s work too has themes of nature and restoration, and invites you to linger a bit.

A MASTER’S RETROSPECTIVE

If a thread of hopelessness runs through the many works about fracture and decay across the many venues of the biennale, Gulammohammed Sheikh’s massive exhibition on the mainland (Durbar Hall, Ernakulam) is a ray of light even as it spells out stark realities. Of Worlds Within Worlds, a grand retrospective of this 87-year-old master’s work, has been on display in Delhi since February and is now in Kochi for the duration of the biennale, courtesy the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. His work is packed with detail, ideas, history, poli tics, literature and all manner of influences—many surreal and fantastical, all of them severe in their commentary—and demands complete engagement from the viewer, yet one leaves soothed by the belief that maybe, just maybe, we can push back against all that’s wrong with the world.