Context

Fourth edition of Asia’s biggest contemporary art festival, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – a 108-day event is going on in Kochi since December 2018.

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• The exhibition is being held at nine venues, eight of which are centred around West Kochi and Mattancherry at the confluence of Arabian Sea with Lake Vembanad, the longest lake in India.
• The theme for the ongoing biennale is “Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life,” with Anita Dube, a contemporary artist, as its curator.
• About 100 artists from over 36 countries are participating in the art show known for its photo exhibitions, film screenings, paintings, installations, art education programs, and workshops.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

• Inspired by renowned art festivals like the Venice Biennale, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale is the first biennale of India, providing a platform to showcase new artistic practices of the subcontinent and the world.
• The Kochi Biennale Foundation has hosted the festival since 2012 with the support of the state government and a few businesses.

What is the objective of the Biennale?

• To create a new language of cosmopolitanism and modernity that is rooted in the lived and living experience of Kochi.
• To establish itself as a centre for artistic engagement in India by drawing from the rich tradition of public action and public engagement in Kerala.
• To reflect the new confidence of Indian people who are slowly, but surely, building a new society that aims to be liberal, inclusive, egalitarian and democratic.
• To explore the hidden energies latent in India’s past and present artistic traditions and invent a new language of coexistence and cosmopolitanism that celebrates the multiple identities people live with.
  
  

  Kochi Biennale Foundation It is a non-profit charitable trust founded in 2010 by artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu. It is engaged in promoting art & culture and educational activities in India; primary amongst them the hosting of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The Kochi Biennale Foundation is also engaged in the conservation of heritage properties and monuments and the upliftment of traditional forms of art and culture.  The Foundation works throughout the year to strengthen contemporary art infrastructure and to broaden public access to art across India through a diverse range of programmes.