THE RETURN OF THE KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE

Curator Shubigi Rao on putting together the fifth edition of the biennale through the pandemic

Ninety artists, with almost 40 new commissions, will come together for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022, which launched a decade ago as India’s first biennale of international contemporary art.

Curator Shubigi Rao, the Mumbai-born Singaporean contemporary artist and writer, conceived of the fifth edition in 2019, but it had to be postponed twice due to the pandemic. Rao says the theme, “In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire”, comes from her “unshakeable conviction in the power of storytelling as strategy, of the transgressive potency of ink, and transformative fire of optimism and action. Song permeates the biennale—voices raised in joy or community, or lament and mourning—sound flows through the spaces of the venues. I made the deliberate decision to work with fewer venues, choosing instead to bring together, rather than disperse.”

Alongside artworks from India, Australia, Kenya and beyond, there will be talks, Artists’ Cinema screenings and workshops, all held in and around Fort Kochi. Excerpts from an interview:

Has the pandemic changed the curation of this edition, from the process to what you feel the audiences are looking for?