Financial steadiness will keep biennale’s free spirit intact: seminar

Kochi / November 28, 2025

Kochi, Nov 28:  As one of the world’s youngest art events of its kind, the upcoming sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB-6) will keep “flying as a bird that cannot be caged”, but its organisers will require stronger funds for the free-spirited ride to continue, speakers noted at a high-profile cultural festival in the city.

Financial supporters of KMB can best contribute to it by supporting its aesthetics as creative artists typically refuse to fit into stereotypes, experts noted at ‘Resonance and Renewal: The Kochi Biennale Story’ at the inaugural day of the November 27-60 Malabar Hortus. The hour-long session was addressed by top visual artists Bose Krishnamachari (KMB President), Nikhil Chopra (curator of the upcoming edition of the biennale) and entrepreneur-patron Mariam Ram. The discussion was moderated by art critic Sadanand Menon.

Krishnamachari, while also gave a four-minute video presentation about KMB, said the sixth edition, slated to start on December 12, will sustain its additional feature of performances at the festival spanning 110 days. “We will host the show in 22 venues across the city, besides nine collaterals. “The first-ever biennale was in Venice in 1895, and we are into its 130th year,” he recalled at the session on Thursday.

Chopra, in his 15-minute talk, said events as big as the biennale as should not get stuck in binaries such as art that is “good and bad art” or events that are “successful or failed”.  “All that should concern us is truthfulness to oneself. Our mission is to connect with people of all walks and, in the process, demystify concepts around art,” he added.

A brief video screened amid the talk showed KMB-6 biennale venues getting ready for the event that is slated to conclude on March 31, 2026. “Often, the site is the prime inspiration for the artists. It is where imaginations get awakened both for the artist and the viewer,” he noted. “The biennale works are made ‘from’ here, not just ‘for’ here. In two weeks from now, these spaces will be pulsating with life.”

Mariam Ram, who is Managing Director of TNQ Technologies and a trustee of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), said the multi-ethnic nature of Kochi tends to encapsulate the diversity of India as a country. “As much as its cultural richness, Kochi’s reputation as a commercial hub upholds its value as a host for a big-ticket event such as the biennale,” she said. “The event has, from its first edition in 2012, suffered from inadequate funds, but there are new sponsors and benefactors coming since then. It is good that such supporters seldom go for a say in matters related to the aesthetics of the biennale.”

Sadanand Menon, in his speeches of introduction and conclusion, recalled that India’s rudimentary ideas about a new-art festival began with the 1968 triennale in Delhi. “Since then, the festival has reflected upon the evident and tacit links between art and politics. In between, towards the dawn of this century, even that art movement began to fade away. Our getting a biennale in 2012 was the need of the hour; it continues to be so,” he added.

Organised by the KBF, the biennale is curated by Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces, Goa. This time the show has a venue in nearby Willingdon Island as well.

ENDS