Kochi-Muziris Biennale is free from management worries: KBF Chairperson

KMB-6 can mark a paradigm shift for future editions, says Dr Venu V

Kochi / December 8, 2025

Kochi, Dec 8: A recent clean-up of the account books and prudent recruitment of senior hands have lent the upcoming edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) an organisational sturdiness of lasting value, according to Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) Chairperson Dr Venu V.

The newly-streamlined management structure can provide long-term solutions to a lingering dearth of finances that tended to strain the reputation of the once-in-two-years cultural extravaganza in Kerala’s commercial capital, he said ahead of the sixth edition of biennale starting on December 12.

The 110-day event, held by the KBF, will run till March 31, 2026.

A year ahead of KMB-6, the Foundation began fixing issues related to  basic management, recalled Dr Venu, who took up as the KBF Chairperson in September 2024, a month after retiring as Chief Secretary to the Government of Kerala.

“We hired top professionals to fill in the much-required posts starting from CXOs. This augmented our prime mission of establishing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and adhering to professional accounting standards,” he said.

“Not that there were financial irregularities. It’s just that the KBF had no immaculate system capable of meeting the requirements for annual auditing,” said Dr Venu, who has been associated with the KMBs in various capacities from the debut edition in 2012.

“That way I did have a ‘vested interest’ in putting the whole machinery in order,” he said. “The previous biennale (KMB-5) could have been a better event, if the administrative and monetary issues hadn’t precipitated to the extent they did by then.”

Once the KBF verticals widened and revamped majorly in its first such exercise as a 2010-registered charitable trust, the Foundation amended its Trust Deed and brought clarity as well as responsibility to the authorities. The exercise also included cleaning up the finance and accounting practices. “It is sad and unacceptable that the foundation was leading a hand-to-mouth existence all through its five editions even as the biennale kept gaining a global reputation for its artistic merit,” said Dr Venu.

To him, the auditors, too, did a “fantastic” job. “Our restoring order also sent out a positive message to potential benefactors of the KBF. Their confidence effectively unclogged the system; funders and supporters began coming in a big way — particularly the Kerala government and TATA Trusts,” Dr Venu said.

The upcoming edition will feature 22 venues, which is the highest by far for KMB. The 2023 edition had a  total of 14 venues. The KBF had no issues accepting this swell in the number, after KMB President Bose Krishnamachari and curator Nikhil Chopra were through with their painstaking preparatory explorations to choose the artists for the sixth edition.

The 22 venues, besides seven others hosting the collaterals, will mean a steep rise in the time for the visitor at KMB-6, pointed out Dr Venu. “A proper view will require no less than three days,” he said.

What’s more, unlike in the previous editions, this biennale has a decent share of its exhibits in venues beyond the massive Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi. Besides the customary Durbar Hall Gallery in downtown Ernakulam, KMB-6 has spread to a new venue: Willingdon Island, which has a creek dividing it from the mainland.

This, Dr Venu noted, will imply boating trips to complete the KMB-6 circuit. “It will be an added attraction, more so with the city’s brand-new Water Metro,” he said, citing the air-conditioned transport that connects various parts of the coastal city.

The KBF chief, who has had an impressive stint with Kerala Tourism, underlined the need to make the travel industry more aware of its business potential during the biennale season. “We are set to meet the stakeholders, including the Kerala Travel Mart, to highlight how imaginative packages catering to tourism around the biennale can be of symbiotic benefit. The hospitality industry, including homestays and resorts, too can have a good time,” Dr Venu added.

ENDS