Kochi-Muziris Biennale: 30 days to 12/12/16!

Final list for KMB 2016 includes 97 artists working across diverse modes of artistic expression

Kochi, Nov 11: In just one month, on 12/12/16, the largest celebration of contemporary art in South Asia will get underway as curtains rise on the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). Titled ‘Forming in the pupil of an eye’, the Biennale will run for 108 days till 29/03/17.

Over that near-four month period, KMB 2016 will feature the performances and production of 97 artists, cutting across disciplines, forms and styles. The final list includes writers, dancers, poets, musicians and theatre practitioners along with a host of visual artists from 36 countries.

The Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, will inaugurate KMB 2016 at an official opening ceremony at Parade Ground in Fort Kochi on December 12. Prior to the evening function, a flag hoisting at primary venue Aspinwall House will signal the grand opening of India’s only Biennale.

In keeping with the artistic vision of its curator, eminent artist Sudarshan Shetty, KMB 2016 seeks to question the labels attributed to and blur the lines between various modes of artistic expression. The tone had been set as early as last year with the announcement of iconic Chilean poet-revolutionary Raul Zurita as the Biennale’s ‘first artist’.

Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi

There are 36 Indian artists from across the country participating in the Biennale, including some of the leading lights of their respective crafts. KMB 2016 will feature works by master cartoonist E.P. Unny, eminent Malayalam litterateur Anand, renowned graphic artist Orijit Sen, stage performances by Anamika Haksar and Kalakshetra Manipur, Sangam poetry recitals, dance performances and printmaking, among other artistic mediums.

“The final list of artists is but a sampling of the richness and range to be found along the art spectrum. The coming together of, and the conversations between, their diverse approaches, sensibilities, practices, creations and performances as they unfold in Kochi will showcase to the world what the ‘People’s Biennale’ is all about,” Shetty said.

The main exhibition — spread across 11 venues in Fort Kochi-Mattancherry and Ernakulam — will be supported by an ancillary programme of events that includes the Students’ Biennale (SB), a unique exhibitory platform for the works of over 350 young artists from 55 schools across the country and a core component in the Kochi Biennale Foundation’s art education and outreach efforts. The second edition of the SB will be inaugurated by Prof C. Raveendranath, Minister for Education, Government of Kerala, on December 13.

As well, there are conversations, talks, seminars, the Art By Children and the Pepper House Residency exhibitions, workshops, film screenings and music sessions, among other activities.

These are a significant aspect of the multifaceted programme presented by the Biennale. They showcase the efforts of the KBF’s year-round education and outreach activities – made possible with the support of corporate CSR programmes, institutional partners and individual patrons – to augment art education for emerging artists of all ages and foster inclusive debate and discussion on contemporary art.

The Biennale will use as venues restored heritage properties, reclaimed formerly overgrown locations, once-dilapidated godowns, public spaces, and galleries. The venues for KMB 2016 include Aspinwall House, Cabral Yard, Pepper House, David Hall, Durbar Hall, Kashi Art Café, Kashi Art Gallery, M.A.P. Warehouse, Anand Warehouse and T.K.M. Warehouse.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 Participating Artists:

Abhishek Hazra (Performance, India), Abir Karmakar (Painting, India), Achraf Touloub (Drawing and video, Morocco/France), AES+F (Video and photo, Russia), Ahmet Öğüt (Installation and video, Turkey/Germany), Aki Sasamoto (Performance, installation and video, Japan/USA), Aleksandra Ska (Installation, Poland), Aleš Šteger (Poetry, Slovenia), Alex Seton (Installation, Australia), Alicja Kwade (Sculpture and installation, Poland/Germany), Anamika Haksar (Theatre, India), Anand (Sculpture and book release, India), Avinash Veeraraghavan (Embroidery and video, India), Bara Bhaskaran (Drawing, India), Bob Gramsma (Site-specific sculpture, Switzerland), Bharat Sikka (Photography, India), C. Bhagyanath (Drawing, India), Camille Norment (Sound and performance, USA/Norway), Carl Pruscha and Eva Schlegel (Architecture, Austria), Caroline Duchatelet (Video, France), Charles Avery (Drawing and painting, UK), Chittrovanu Mazumdar (Sculpture and installation, India), Chris Mann (Sound and video, Australia/USA), Dai Xiang (Scroll, China), Dana Awartani (Drawing and embroidery, Saudi Arabia), Daniele Galliano (Painting, Italy), Desmond Lazaro (Installation, UK/India), Dia Mehta Bhupal (Photography, India), E.P. Unny (Cartoons, India), Endri Dani (Photography, Albania), Erik van Lieshout (Performance, Netherlands), Éva Magyarósi (Drawing and video, Hungary), Eva Schlegel (Installation, Austria), François Mazabraud (Installation, France), Gabriel Lester (Installation, Netherlands), Gary Hill (Video, sculpture and installation, USA), Gauri Gill (Photography, India), G.R. Iranna (Sculpture and installation, India), Hanna Tuulikki (Sound, word, drawing and other media, UK), Himmat Shah (Sculpture, India), István Csákány (Installation, Hungary), Javier Peréz (Video and sculpture, Spain), Jonathan Owen (Sculpture and drawing, UK), K.R. Sunil (Photography, India), Kabir Mohanty (Video, India), Kalakshetra Manipur (Theatre, India), Katarina Zdjelar (Video, Netherlands), Katrīna Neiburga and Andris Eglītis (Installation and video, Latvia), Khaled Sabsabi (Video, Lebanon/Australia), Lantian Xie (Installation, UAE), Latifa Echakhch (Visual art, Morocco/Switzerland), Leighton Pierce (Video, USA), Lisa Reihana (Video and photographs, New Zealand), Liu Wei (Sculpture, China), Lundahl & Seitl (Interactive performance, Sweden), Mansi Bhatt (Photography, India), Martin Walde (Installation, Austria), Mikhail Karikis (Video, Greece/UK), Miller Puckette (Sound installation, USA), Naiza Khan (Installation, Pakistan/UK), Nicola Durvasula and John Tilbury (Piano performance and object installation, UK), Orijit Sen (Graphic arts, India), Ouyang Jianghe (Poetry and installation, China), Padmini Chettur (Dance and video, India), Paweł Althamer (Performance and sculpture, Poland), Pedro Gómez-Egaña (Installation, Colombia/Norway), P.K. Sadanandan (Mural painting, India), Prabhavathi Meppayil (Installation, India), Praneet Soi (Drawing, sculpture and performance, India/Netherlands), Rachel Maclean (Video and film, UK), Rajeev Thakker (Architecture, India), Raúl Zurita (Poetry and installation, Chile), Ravi Agarwal (Video, sculpture and sangam poetry performance, India), Remen Chopra (Installation, India), Salman Toor and Hasan Mujtaba (Painting and poetry, Pakistan/USA), Samooha (Architectural installation and social project, India), Sergio Chejfec (Text installation, Argentina/USA), Sharmistha Mohanty (Poetry and installation, India), Shumona Goel and Shai Heredia (Video, India), Sirous Namazi (Installation, Iran/Sweden), Sophie Dejode and Bertrand Lacombe (Outdoor installation, France), Subrat Behera (Printmaking and lithography, India), Sunil Padwal (Drawing, India), T. Shanaathanan (Drawing and installation, Sri Lanka), T.V. Santhosh (Painting and sculpture, India), Takayuki Yamamoto (Sculpture, Japan), Tom Burckhardt (Installation, USA), Tony Joseph (Architecture, India), Valerie Mejer Caso (Installation, Mexico), Voldemārs Johansons (Video and sound, Latvia), Wu Tien-Chang (Installation, Taiwan), Wura-Natasha Ogunji (Drawing, Nigeria), Yael Efrati (Installation, Israel), Yang Hong Wei (Scroll, China), Yardena Kurulkar (Photography and installation, India), Yuko Mohri (Installation, Japan), Zuleikha Chaudhari (Installation and performance, India)

Storytellers descend on IGNCA for Kathakar International festival

 Schoolchildren get introduced to Japan’s Kamishibai and Kerala’s Tholpavakuthu

New Delhi, Nov 11:  Stories from faraway lands like Japan, China and Mongolia as well as from inside India were the focus of a bunch of storytellers who took turns to take children and adults alike on imaginary trips, they are unlikely to forget anytime soon.

 

A performer from Japan's Spice Arthur 702 enact Kamishibai
, a traditional Japanese theatre at Kathakar which began today at IGNCA
in New Delhi. The event brings together storytellers from India and abroad

The sixth edition of the Kathakar - International Storytellers Festival, a three-day event which began at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) here, opened with a narrative on the life of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaha, concentrating on his actions as a child.

On day one, storytellers from Japan used traditional Kamishibai ‘paper theatre’, to narrate popular Japanese tales to an audience of schoolchildren.

Dressed in their country’s native costumes — Yukata, a traditional Japanese summer dress; kimonos; and Hakama, a kimono in a trouser style — the Spice Arthur 702 troupe regaled the audience with oral storytelling accompanied with hundreds of picture book images and music.

Three performers took to the stage to enact the 12th century theatre style from Japan, with the narrator recreating stories of Issun Samurai-  an old Japanese fairy tale. A dash of sci-fi was added to the mix with a narration of a Star Wars saga, using Japanese music and singing. They rounded off their performance with the story of Hikkyaku Hana-chan, featuring a Japanese Maharajah.

 

A performer from Japan's Spice Arthur 702 enact Kamishibai,
a traditional Japanese theatre at Kathakar which began today at IGNCA
in New Delhi. The event brings together storytellers from India and abroad

Flying pictures, loud and realistic sounds, and music and singing accompanied the Japanese performance.

“I use a combination of Manga (comics) with pastel crayons to create the images that go into the story. Often it takes me more than a month to create 200 images for one story,” said Pyonky, the artist who handles the paper during the show. A narrator narrates the story using voice effects, while Pyonky manages the paper and a musician provides the music.

A shadow puppetry troupe from Kerala enacted a portion of the Kamba Ramayana via the ritualistic art form of ‘Tholpavakuthu’

“Although we have performed in Delhi before, this is the first time were did a daytime perfomance. Usually the tholpavakutthu is done using leather puppets which cast shadows from behind a dark background screen,” said K Vishwanatha Pulavar of the Tholpavakuthu Sangam. 

Sarah Rundle, a professional storyteller from the UK used no props and relied on her voice and animated gestures to narrate stories from the Silk Route. Those included the story about a “boy who drew cats” and another one from China about a woman and her pig, where she got the audience to sing along with her.

“I absolutely love to tell stories. This is the second time I am performing at Kathakar. Children are the same everywhere; give them a good story and they are hooked,” said Sarah.

 Kathakar runs for three days in Delhi before moving on to Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Children listen raptly to a performance at Kathakar 

“With every edition, the festival is getting better. This is the first time we are featuring a Japanese group. When it began the idea was to showcase the traditions of storytelling in all cultures and civilisations including contemporary stories.  India is also known as a land of stories and what better than to showcase its diverse stories,” IGNCA Programme Director Smt Mangalam Swaminathan said.

She said this year the festival, a collaboration with the NGO Nivesh, is being expanded to Bengaluru for the first time.

Highlights of the festival over the next two days include a ‘Qissebazi’ by poet-actor Danish Husain from Mumbai and Jatak Katha age-old folk tales from Rajasthan by Delhi-based contemporary storyteller Jaishree Sethi. There is a panel discussion on the ‘Contemporising Stories’ on Saturday.

Additional performers at Kathakar include Namesh Bhardwaj, Shaarvari Somayagi and the students of Swamy Vivekananda Education Society from India, Gilles Abbot, from UK whose work is rooted in Viking and Celtic myth and Katy Cawkwell also from the UK whose work has included appearances at Royal Opera House and the British Museum beside international festivals.

While morning sessions are exclusively marked for school students and need to be pre-booked, those in the evening are open to the public. Entry is free and seating is on a first-come- first-served basis.

"We usually hold festivals all across the country where we invite authors from various countries to come to India. Nowadays children rarely live with their grandparents and such oral storytelling is on the decline. We hope that children get to listen to a range of stories across different cultures. It is an attempt to open the world and imagination to the children especially the underprivileged,” said Prarthana Bisht from Ghummakkad Narain, one of the organisers of the festival. 

Misako Futsuki, Director of Arts & Cultural Exchange, The Japan Foundation, adds, “We are very happy to invite Spice Arthur since we hardly have a chance to invite a storytelling group from Japan. We have traditional storytelling in Japan, although it's disappearing in this fast changing world. Spice Arthur is trying to make it more lively and exciting with their original interesting way of storytelling. It's rapid, rhythmical and entertaining with interesting stories. I'm sure, people in India will love them!”

Another first is the festival’s partnership with BookASmile who are the Supporting Partners for the festival. Farzana Cama Balpande, Head- BookASmile said, “Listening to stories is such an integral part of childhood. In the days before screen media overtook our imaginations, we depended on stories narrated by our parents, grandparents or relatives. This indigenous art gave depth and dimension to our thoughts as we grew up. BookASmile is delighted to support Kathakar in their endeavour to take enriching stories to children across Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.”

 

a traditional shadow puppetry group from Kerala

Storyteller Katy Cawkwell said, "For me, it's a great opportunity to visit India for the first time and share my stories more widely. New audiences always mean I find something new in the material myself and I am curious to find out what will emerge. I am also excited about coming to the Kathakar festival and hearing storytellers from other countries: international festivals are often rich sources of inspiration for my own work."  "This is my first time at Kathakar, but I have heard from other UK storytellers how the audiences are much more enthusiastic participants in the story, so I have chosen stories where there is an element of this,” she said.

The festival aims to support the government of India's Right To Education Act which mandates reading and libraries for all schools. The idea for the festival is to travel to children and areas where they do not have access to books, stories and reading. The festival works with private as well as state government schools including the municipal and state government schools as well as NGOs. Books are also donated to schools to start class libraries where there are none.

The festival so far has been addressed by the likes of (Late) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Margaret Alva, Sunil Shastri, Mohit Chauhan, Nandita Das, Sushma Seth, Emily Gravett, Joanne Blake, TUUP, Joseph Baele, Xanthe Gresham, among others. The main organizers of the festival are the NGOs Nivesh and HHACH.

Kathakar will be in Bengaluru on November 14 and it will travel to Mumbai on November 17.  

Acclaimed artist Riyas Komu to launch ‘URU Art Harbour’ in Mattanchery on Nov 12

·         Art Harbour to foster cultural dialogues and encourage local artists

Kochi, Nov 10: Aiming to foster cultural engagements between the artists and local community and create a robust platform for mirroring the multi-cultural values of port-city of Kochi,  internationally acclaimed artist and Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) Secretary Riyas Komu is all set to launch ‘URU Art Harbour’ at Kochangady in Mattanchery. 

The centre, which will shape up as a vibrant, meaningful and interactive hub for arts, culture, literature, cinema, and philosophy, will be inaugurated on November 12 (Saturday) at 4 pm.

Uru Art Harbour

“URU seeks to be a space, and create ways, in which cultural production, artistic practices and creative forms constitute and manifest the nexus between the aesthetic, the metaphysical, the political, the economic, the moral and the ethical, intended in their widest senses,” said Riyas, a Mumbai–based artist.

“We can list ‘N’ number of talented people from Kerala who are pursuing their passion for art and culture. However, they are not able to return to their homeland and settle down with their activities. My effort with ‘URU Art Harbour’ is to provide a platform for cultural dialogues for artists as well as local community,” said the artist. “It is a dream project of mine; I am elated that it is finally coming to fruition.”

The centre’s activities will include book publishing, artist residencies, workshops, film screenings and seminars. Also, art exhibitions, music performances, theater, and other cultural interventions will be part of its activities.

“URU, anchored in Kochi, is rooted to the cosmopolitan and multi-cultural values that the city has celebrated and been a living embodiment of over several centuries,” he said.

 “Kerala artists have the capacity to convert their intense life experience to art form. However, they fail to elevate themselves to national or international level artists. URU will be a platform for them. Any creative stuff, including financial and political interventions, will be encouraged at ‘URU’,” noted the artist.  

Poet Kalpetta Narayanan and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member M.A. Baby will jointly release a volume on the philosophy of Sree Narayana Guru, “Guruchinthana-Oru Mukhavura” during the inaugural ceremony.

A preview of K L Leon’s painting and a musical concert by ‘Olam’ will be held as part of the inaugural event on November 12. This will be followed by a film screening ‘Kesari’ directed by K R Manoj and a discussion panelled by M V Narayanan, Sunil Ilayidam and C S Venkiteswaran. Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016 curator Sudarshan Shetty will also speak.

The venue will host an art exhibition by URU Residency artist K P Reji and sculpture exhibition by K.P. Raghunath on the inaugural day. N S Madhavan, J Devika and Anitha Thampy are the dignitaries participating at launch of URU Art Centre.

Komu is a multimedia artist and activist working towards developing India’s art infrastructure. His critically-acclaimed political works have been exhibited extensively in India and abroad, including several key works on Kerala’s political and cultural history. 

Get set to enter story land with Kathakar Storytellers Festival

New Delhi, November 09: As the days turn shorter and chillier heralding the onset of winter, time is ripe to pull out the woollens and settle down with a cup of piping hot chai to listen to captivating stories, from lands far away and closer to home.

 

Jaishree Sethi during a performance

From Kamishibai ,the paper theatre art once a phenomenon in Japan, to shadow puppeteering from Kerala and tales from China, Mongolia, Turkey and Iraq on the Spice Route, traditional oral storytelling is in focus for the 6th edition of the ‘Kathakar - International Storytellers Festival’, which brings together raconteurs from the UK, Japan and India for three days starting November 11.

This is also the fourth year that the festival is being hosted by The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA). The event from November 11- November 13 is being held in collaboration with NGO Nivesh.

Participating storytellers include Sarah Rundle, Katy Cawkwell and Giles Abbott from the UK and Spice Arthur 702 Kamishibai group from Japan.

Tholpavakoothu Sangam from Kerala

Poet-actor Danish Husain from Mumbai brings with him Qissebazi while the Tholpavakoothu Sangam, a troupe from Kerala will narrate the traditional the Kamba Ramayana through shadow puppetry. Delhi-based contemporary storyteller Jaishree Sethi is set to bring alive the Jatak Katha and age-old folk tales from Rajasthan.

There is a session devoted to the life story of Deendayal Upadhyaya and a panel discussion on the ‘Contemporising Stories’.

Katy Cawkwell from UK would be a part of Kathakar 2016

Morning sessions are exclusively marked for school students and needs to be pre-booked while those in the evening are open to the public. Entry is free and seating is strictly on a first-cum, first-served basis.

The festival travels next to Bengaluru on November 14 and to Mumbai on November 17.

Giles Abott with the Students attending the storytellers festival at IGNCA in 2015

KBF hosts novel collaborative project on Kerala-Gulf links

First leg of ‘Trans-Indian Ocean Artists Exchange’ project to run concurrent to KMB 2016

Kochi, November 7: An ambitious collaborative project, comprising works by artists from either side of the Arabian Sea, will make its first run in parallel with the upcoming third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), starting on 12/12/16.

 Dutch curator and artist Mo Reda is the project lead
for the Trans-Indian Ocean Artists Exchange.
He will curate an exhibition of the works by the two
Emirati artists at Pepper House, Fort Kochi, starting 12/12/16.

The ‘Trans-Indian Ocean Artists Exchange’, an initiative by Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) in collaboration with Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, and Dutch artist and curator Mo Reda, aims to build on the historical forms of traffic between Kerala and West Asia and explore the possibilities of developing new forms of exchange based on contemporary art and culture.

As part of the four-phase project, Emirati artists Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and Mohammed Kazem are currently finishing a two-month residency at Pepper House, Fort Kochi. This will culminate in a display of their works at the Pepper House Residency Exhibition, which will run in concurrence with KMB 2016.

“Each city, each place has its own feel, its own atmosphere. Being in residency in Kochi has put me in touch with the spirit and materials of the city. I feel like I have struck a friendship with Kochi. This will be reflected in my work, which will be built of paper and rock,” said Ibrahim, a pioneering artist whose work has been exhibited across the world, including in Venice, Bonn, Havana, Cairo and Moscow.

Emirati artist Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim is currently
finishing a two-month residency at Pepper House, Fort Kochi.
This will culminate in a display of his works at the
 Pepper House Residency Exhibition, which will run
parallel to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016.

“Working in residency here has been an opportunity to interact with the various elements of Kochi’s social life, the movement of its people and its natural environment. Both my art practice and project captures these elements and gives them visual context,” said Kazem, who will show both an installation and photographs in December’s exhibition.

Kazem, who co-curated the 2007 Sharjah Biennial, has presented his work in Venice, Singapore, Dubai, and Beijing.

In early 2017, two Indian artists – to be selected from respondents to an open call that will be issued next week – will make the return journey to Sharjah to work in residence at Maraya Art Centre. The artists will research historical ties, current realities, and future possibilities while looking back at centuries-long economical and cultural involvement between the two regions.

The works of all four artists will then be shown at exhibitions independently curated by Reda.

“Being in residency while implementing a project naturally stimulates the exchange of ideas and knowledge. The artists do their own research, exploration and have their moments of serendipity,” said Reda, who is working with the philosophical theme of ‘Solipsism’ for the Kochi exhibition.

Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem will show both
an installation and photographs of Kochi at the Pepper
House Residency Exhibition, which will run in concurrence
with KMB 2016. 

On expectations for the project, KBF Secretary Riyas Komu said, “The existing narrative is primarily shaped by Kerala sending manpower to the Gulf and receiving capital in return. In this initiative, we are looking to see how the situation plays out when the exchange involves artists and the economic imperative is intercepted by an aesthetic imperative.”