Biennale to host 4-month cultural fest mirroring Muziris heritage

Kochi, Nov 22: The upcoming Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) will feature a four-month-long performing-arts festival showcasing the country’s rich heritage across region and centuries, by pooling in 650 artistes and collaborating with 25 cultural groups.

An array of theatre, dance, music, percussion and literary programmes cutting across different cultural aesthetics of India’s south and north from ancient to medieval to modern times will unveil from next week in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts that trace a cultural commonality to the long-lost port of Muziris which currently borders them.

Kochi Biennale Foundation announces details of culture segment of upcoming 2nd edition. Addressing Nov 22 press meet: From left, Director of Programmes Riyas Komu, Curator Jitish Kallat, Culture Segment Curator Keli Ramachandran, mizhavu drummer V K K Hariharan, Nangiarkoothu performer Usha Nangiar, Chavittu Natakam scholar Fr Gilbert Antony Thacheri

Also dotted with seminars and meet-the-artist sessions, the cultural segment of KMB’s second edition will begin with an innovatively conceived thayambaka ensemble on November 29 and dish out a string of art forms ranging from classical to folk to contemporary across central Kerala, North Malabar, Canara and eastern India before culminating in end-March with a theatre festival, the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) said today.

The 108-day KMB starting December 12 will thus, also, host Kathakali, Nangiarkoothu, Chavittu Natakam, ghazals and a Mappila Festival from Kerala besides Yakshagana of Karnataka and Chhau dance from Jharkhand — in 10 venues, top Biennale organisers and performing-arts fete curator ‘Keli’ Ramachandran told a press conference, which was also attended by mizhavu drummer V K K Hariharan, Nangiarkoothu exponent Usha Nangiar and Chavittu Natakam scholar Fr Gilbert Antony Thacheri besides KMB’s Riyas Komu and Jitish Kallat.

A special interactive sequence, titled ‘A Day with the Artist’, will feature both veterans and prodigies in the field of Kathakali (Kalamandalam Gopi), Melam ensemble (Peruvanam Kuttan Marar), Nangiarkoothu (Sarojini Nangiaramma and Usha Nangiar), Thampi Payyappilly (Chavittu Natakam), Sanjana Kapoor (contemporary theatre), V K K Hariharan (mizhavu drum) Payyannur Ramachandran (Theyyam) and Kalamandalam Rammohan (Kathakali makeup and costume) besides child prodigies in the fields of chenda (Anand Marar, Killikkurissimangalam Sreehari, Karthik P Marar), Chavittu Natakam (Jojo John) and Koodiyattam (Sreehari M Chakiar).

Komu, who is KMB Director of Programmes, said the cultural segment this time highlighted festivals as a mirror to tradition than showcasing individual artistry which was the chief feature of a similar endeavour in the 2012 edition of the biennale. “No other biennales of the world give prominence to performing arts as we do at Kochi-Muziris,” he added.

Thrissur-born K Ramachandran, who has been running the ‘Keli’ cultural forum in Mumbai for the past quarter century, said his curation sought to ensure that the upcoming festival presented the essence of each art-form. “Today’s art world often faces dilution in the name of improvisation and fine-tuning. KMB’s cultural segment is a strong check to this trend,” he added.

The inaugural evening at Changampuzha Park in suburban Edappally on November 29 will feature traditional as well as novel ‘kooru’ rhythmic passages in a trio thayambaka show by young chenda artistes Panamanna Sasi, Sukapuram Dileep and Udayan Namboodiri.

The same venue will see a December 8-11 Kathakali festival featuring four slow-paced ‘Kottayam plays’ also known for their weighty choreography. Kalamandalam Gopi (as Arjunan in Kalakeyavadham) will be the star performer at the event which has Bakavadham, Kalyanasougandhikam and Kirmeeravadham as the other stories penned during the 17th century.

Contrastingly, Biblical themes come into deep focus at a festival of Chavittu Natakam stomp drama with roots in the Latin Catholic community of coastal Kerala dating back to the 16th century. The five-day ‘Chuvati’ festival at Gothuruthu near Paravur will start on December 26.

The Mahabharata will again come into focus at a three-day Women’s Classical Theatre Festival beginning January 27 at RLV College, Tripunithura. Draupadi (Usha Nangiar), Gandhari (Dr Indu G) and Subhadra (Kalamandalam Sangeetha) will be the characters presented in Nangiarkoothu that has 1,500 years of antiquity.

South Canara’s pre-classical Yakshagana will find stage in February, courtesy an Udupi-based troupe that will present ‘Chakravyuha’ with Abhimanyu (of the Mahabharata) as the protagonist.

On March 1 will be a show of tribal martial dance Chhau in the Saraikela style by Gopal Dube and team. A week later, KMB will have a Mappila Festival (March 7-8), mirroring and echoing the Islamic aesthetics in Kerala.

‘Goshree Peruma’, which is a permanent KMB feature exploring the cultural anthropology of Kochi, will this time focus on the literary possibilities of the region. The March 13-15 event will also host Chavittu Natakam, Band of Kochi and Ghazals (by Umbai) besides seminars and open interviews.

A March 21-22 theatre festival on veteran Thuppettan (Subrahmanian Namboothiri) will be punctuated with symposia on the contributions of the Malayalam playwright, staging of his plays, screening of a documentary on him besides a face-to-face with the rustic octogenarian.

Kallat, who is KMB 2014 curator, spoke about how the locals and visitors to the biennale could engage with it through a variety of cultural and intellectual platforms beyond the central ‘Whorled Explorations’ exhibition he has curated, featuring the works of 94 artists from 30 countries. “While the cultural segment adds to their reaching out, the shows also ensure reinterpretation of traditional arts in a contemporary context,” he noted.

Mizhavu Hariharan said his scheduled interaction with the biennale audience would strive to alter the general impression that rhythm is all about keeping the time. Usha Nangiar, his wife, spoke about her struggles to conceive and present mythological characters hitherto untested in her millennium-old art.