Old ‘Radical Movement’ artist and filmmaker feels KMB ’14 is crucial to society
Kochi, Mar 2: The Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) has a “very crucial role in society in addressing new global realities and developing a discourse with people in the globalised world,” said artist Madhusudhanan.
“We do not need to compare ourselves to other biennales or model ourselves on even important exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale,” noted the award-winning filmmaker, whose work ‘Logic of Disappearance’ at Aspinwall House has sparked huge interest.
“We have to develop our own discourses with people and we have made a good start in this direction,” said the artist, who was among the prominent founders of the Radical Painters’ and Sculptors’ Association during the 1980s.
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| Artist Madhusudhanan |
Madhusudhanan, who changed his medium from painting to film, noted that “KMB ’14 has many meaningful works that address global realities”. He was particularly moved by Australian artist Fiona Hall’s ‘Curve Ball’, which also features at Aspinwall House.
Madhusudhanan’s work consists of 90 charcoal drawings depicting several historical incidents and characters, as if seen in quick flashes of light. “There was a lighthouse on the shores of my birthplace and these drawing have been created as image fragments made visible by its sweeping light,” said the artist, who has the credit of writing the manifesto for the left-leaning Radical Movement among artists.
“Madhu's works are an archive of a ruptured ideology and its larger impact in our life,” said KMB ’14 director of programmes Riyas Komu. “These drawings reflect his knowledge on cinema, and use the same visual language to retrieve and revive an ideology from its darkness. It opens up great possibilities to immediate a discourse on communism and humanism. “
The point of creating the ‘Radical Movement’ was to make art more accessible to people, but after the suicide of the movement’s chief architect K P Krishnakumar, Madhusudhanan switched over to the film medium which he felt reached out to wider audiences. His 2008 Malayalam film ‘Bioscope’ won several awards and travelled the world.
“My installation at KMB ’14 also seems to have reached out to people and I have been called personally by many,” he said. “This did not happen with art before.”
Madhusudhanan, who visited the Biennale over the past week, commended the efforts of KMB ‘14 director Bose Krishnamachari, Komu and curator Jitish Kallat, saying ‘they have put their lives into the biennale, and it can be seen in the exhibition.’
“It is not routine work,” said the artist, who divides his time between his home in Kerala and Delhi. “It is not like bringing an exhibition in Europe. Here, they are building a culture and an institution that we are not used to, but is something we need.”
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