Whorled Expectations

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Various Venues, Kochi

12 December 2014 – 29 March 2015

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The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is India’s first biennale. Now in its second iteration, the event is establishing itself as an engaging and challenging platform for contemporary art in the region. What distinguishes Kochi from other international biennales is the organisation’s commitment to appointing artists as curators. Prominent Indian figurative painter, Jitish Kallat has curated the second version, which he named ‘Whorled Explorations’.

This 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale invited the selected artists to respond to the local historical linage of Kochi, and its position as a port city in the region over the last few centuries. Fort Kochi is located within the Indian state of Kerala. A state well known for its progressive political history, it possesses the highest levels of literacy in India and was the first state to establish a workers union, and the first to engage with establishing institutional women’s rights. In addition to this, increasingly, many artists now have studios and work directly from Kochi, as space in larger cities like Delhi and Mumbai is becoming more expensive. Historically, from the 11th century Kochi was linked into the expansionist maritime period known as the ‘age of discovery’, when imperialism and globalisation flourished as trade routes opened up. The 14th to 15th centuries saw the emergence of astrologers and mathematicians in the region, who collectively began to make advances in trigonometry and calculus. The combination of a recent history in leftist politics, rise in artistic engagement in the region, historical commitment to education and the geopolitical position as a trade route, make Fort Kochi an ideal location for a biennale in India.

Representations of themes around globalisation and ecological concerns in the exhibition were perhaps too literal in some instances

Mona Hatoum, Undercurrent, 2004. Cloth covered electric cable, light bulbs, computerised dimmer unit, diameter 31.16ft. Installation view, Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Courtesy of the artist and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

Rafael Loazano-Hemmer, Pan-anthem, 2014. Interative sound installation. Installation view, Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Courtesy of the artist and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.