Sentinels Of A Non-alienated Tomorrow

Kochi-Muziris Biennale’s first woman curator Anita Dube presents more works of women and queer artists to initiate a dialogue between the heard and the unheard

- Riddhi Doshi

The ongoing edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale has been particularly challenging. The devastating Kerala floods and the stepping down of Co-Founder Riyas Komu for being named in the MeToo Movement was troublesome for the event and its team.

Nevertheless, like every year, this year too the biennale fought all odds to present to the people of Kerala and art lovers from across the world 94 projects curated by artist Anita Dube. “At the heart of my curatorial adventure lies a desire for liberation and comradeship (away from the master and slave model) where the possibilities for a non-alienated life could spill into a ‘politics of friendship.’ Where pleasure and pedagogy could sit together and share a drink, and where we could dance and sing and celebrate a dream together,” says Dube. The KMB theme summed up in the title The Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life searches for questions in the hope of a dialogue between the heard and the unheard.

BlackBook presents the highlights of the 108-day event (December 12 to March 29), which includes more women and queer artists as a symbolic gesture, in response to a long tradition of exclusion in the arts, and in cultural narratives, explains Dube.

Message from the Atlantic Passage by Sue Williamson, from Cape Town, South Africa