Art News: Anita Dube declared curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018

Anita Dube declared curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018

Kochi, March 29: Anita Dube, one of India’s most provocative and versatile contemporary artists, was announced here today as the curator for the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) beginning December 2018. The selection is in keeping with the Biennale’s long-standing tradition of being an artist-led exhibition. 

The reveal – made by Culture Minister Shri A.K. Balan during the KMB 2016 closing ceremony at Durbar Hall Wednesday evening – followed the unanimous decision made by a high-powered panel of renowned artists and prominent personalities to bring Dube’s unique artistic insights and sensibilities to the Biennale – the largest celebration of contemporary art in South Asia. 

“Through three editions, the KMB has gained a reputation for being one of the most important exhibitions of its kind around the world. It is an honour and a very big challenge to be declared curator of this wonderful platform. I am delighted that the jurors thought I can deliver. I accept the responsibility with excitement and humility. It is early days yet and my thoughts will no doubt undergo several changes going forward, but I view this as an opportunity to do something special,” said Dube, who was present at the function.

Dube takes over from Sudarshan Shetty, whose vision for the third edition of India’s only Biennale saw 97 artists from 31 countries showcase their production – across a variety of forms, styles and disciplines – over a 108-day period starting 12/12/16. Spread out across 12 venues, KMB 2016 received more than six lakh visitors.

Based out of the National Capital Region, Dube is renowned for her conceptually rich, politically charged works. An art historian and critic by training and a visual artist in practice, she has been widely exhibited across the Americas, Europe and Asia, including at the first edition of the KMB in 2012. Dube’s practice uses found objects and industrial materials, photography and ‘word architecture’ to critique contemporary socio-political realities.

Her aesthetic idiom, in many ways, reflects her background as a member of the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association – a short-lived but hugely influential collection of artists and art students who rebelled against what they perceived to be the commodification of art in India.

In fact, Dube’s selection comes nearly three decades after she wrote the manifesto of the group’s seminal exhibition ‘Questions and Dialogue’ held in 1987 in the western state of Gujarat – that called for an explicitly radical, socially and politically conscious approach to art making. The group focused on inexpensive materials and found objects to produce works that resisted commercialisation and connected with working-class audiences.

Describing Dube as a ‘thinking artist’, KMB co-founder Bose Krishnamachari said, “Anita’s sensitivity towards materials, incorporating everyday objects derived from informal, craft and industrial sources and spaces, is profound. As is her wordplay and use of mediums, gestures and imageries – all of which will make for varied experiences and resonances in a space as adaptive and accommodating as the Biennale. Her oeuvre features both knowledgeable consideration and skillful melding of the sensibilities and styles of abstractions with real, contemporary concerns. This will doubtless be reflected in her curatorial vision.”

Krishnamachari, who is also President of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) – the organisers of India’s only Biennale, was part of the ‘Artistic Advisory Committee’ that selected Dube as curator. The other panelists were KBF Secretary Riyas Komu, Velu Vishwanadhan, Sarat Maharaj, Ravi Agarwal, Dayanita Singh, Sadanand Menon, Kavita Singh and V. Sunil.

“Anita’s selection not only reinforces our commitment to having artists at the helm, but also our mission to address contemporary social-political-cultural concerns. Anita is a strong proponent of making art accessible to the public through effective political and social engagement. This is precisely what the Biennale tries to do,” Komu said.

Dube is also a board member at KHOJ, an international artists’ association she co-founded in 1997 in New Delhi. Over two decades, the initiative that began as a modest annual workshop has become one of the most important platforms shining a global spotlight on South Asian art, organising and hosting international ‘itinerant’ workshops, residencies and exhibitions.

Besides KMB 2012, she has been represented in various national and international biennales and festivals such as ‘Biennale Jogja XI’ (Indonesia, 2011), ‘Against Exclusion’ 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2009), ‘iCon: India Contemporary’, Venice Biennale (Collateral event, 2005), ‘Yokohama Triennale’ (Japan, 2001) and the ‘7^th Havana Biennial’ (Cuba, 2000).

Dube was also a participant in the groundbreaking 2009 exhibition, ‘Indian Highway’, an itinerant collective show curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones and Gunnar B. Kvaran, which represented the growing importance of the sub-continent’s creative panorama – especially the vibrancy of its contemporary art scene – and the economic, social and cultural developments in the region over the past 20 years.

Art News: Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014

Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014 is less than 100 Days Away

Kochi is gearing up to host the second edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale, as the organisers of the 108-day
mega art event starting on December 12 are busy with the preparations for the much-acclaimed mega art festival that is slated to conclude on March 29, 2015.

Jitish Kallat, the curator and artistic director for the biennale being organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), said the second edition would feature around 85 artists from over 28 countries. Some of the key artists have already made site visits, and they include Franceso Clemente, Sir Anish Kapoor, Christian Waldvogel, K G Subramanyan, Sudhir Patwardhan, Ghulammohammed Sheikh and Namboodiri, among others.

Kallat said it was a “rewarding moment” for him when conversations with artist-colleagues, concretize into projects on the ground in Kochi. “The embryonic form of the project is taking shape,” he noted. “The exhibition brings together art-works that picture versions of the world referencing history, geography, astronomy, time and myth, interlacing the terrestrial with the celestial.” Kallat had been engaged in a year-long research trip to select the artists for the much-awaited second edition.

KBF president Bose Krishnamachari said the foundation has retained most of the venues from last time. “But we will have a few additional venues and projects in a few public spaces. And we are looking forward to an engaging project put up by Kallat,” he added.

KBF has been organising several talks and cultural programmes as a run-up to the Biennale. Riyas Komu, Director of Programmes, said the KBF has always been mindful of the larger participation of the people to engage them with contemporary art. “To amplify it this time, we will be having several Programmes including the Student’s Biennale, Children’s Biennale, Artists’ Cinema project and various Cultural Programmes that will run parallel to the Biennale,” he added.

*Excerpts from Press Release '100 Days Away, Biennale 2014 Braces Up For Bigger Success'

Bose says ‘NO’

(By Nalini S Malaviya)

Bose Krishnamachari, an artist, curator and a recently turned gallery owner, wears many hats with panache, and is now in the news for his solo exhibition that is currently on at 1x 1 Art Gallery, in Dubai. The title of the exhibition NO is unequivocal and emphatic, in characteristic style. Interestingly, in his curated shows too, the titles are clear and uncluttered. Based in Mumbai, Bose is a familiar and critically acclaimed name in contemporary art.

LaVA

Amongst his notable shows that come immediately to one’s mind is LaVA, (laboratory of visual arts), an installation, which was exhibited in Bangalore about four years ago at Gallery Sumukha. LaVA is essentially a mobile library that contains books, DVDs and CDs on a range of visual art practices such as cinema, architecture, design, fashion, cultural studies and philosophy, along with some of his collection of art objects. The archival project relooks at dated systems of disseminating information and knowledge and aims to redefine access.

NO

It is part of our vocabulary incessantly and has a powerful connotation, but how we choose to interpret it can make all the difference. According to Bose, “In Indian agnostic philosophy there is a constant denial of the apparent to reach out to the implied truth… The notion of ‘NO’ played up here therefore becomes a juncture of negotiation with the reality.” And, thus the artist elects to convert the negative monosyllable into a tool for positive change, and has expanded the concept to encompass wider issues of war, politics and identity in the artworks.

The exhibition features Stretched Bodies installations, a shelf Roots + Map = Mondrianity, White Ghost and the Red Carpet, No + No = Yes, Minus + Minus = Plus, Long Live! (Andy Warhol), Long Live! (Gandhi)and a few other works with equally intriguing titles. Following his maxim of going ‘maximum’, the Stretched Bodies series is a psychedelic set of paintings with maximum colour, texture, line, form and accidents. The Mondrian inspired shelf, an architectural work, which appears to be a map or a tree traces the journey of an artist in search of the ‘roots’ and extremities of existence. “The classificatory mode of mapping and grid creation puts events, imagination and ruminations into a system of global knowledge, which the artist would love to deal with again and again in his works (as seen in LaVA),” he explains.

In essence, the exhibition is about reaffirming faith in oneself, introspecting and being able to stand up for one’s beliefs. At the same time, ‘NO’ as a whole is a re-looking at history. Though contemporary art does not anchor itself much on history, Bose recognizes that any art produced at any point of time cannot move away from history. The works presented in the show speak of history of the contemporary world, history of both war and peace, of both justice and injustice and above all the human beings’ die-hard fight for equal rights to live and justice.

Bose who was guest curator at ARCO Madrid 2009 is currently curating a ‘show within a show’ called the Indian Highway which is going on in Denmark.

(Published in Bangalore Mirror)