The Walls of Kochi come Alive through Street Art

Kochi, Dec 4: If wall-paintings are the most effective way to announce the approach of the subcontinent’s biggest contemporary art festival, then the murals coming up in different parts of the city best exemplify the spirit of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, which is organising the Kochi-Muziris Biennale beginning next week.

The Maharashtrian artist, Parag Sonarghare, painting the picture of ‘Eyes’ that banks on realism on the walls near Fadi Auditorium on Bazaar road.

Providing an unexpected visual treat, huge and colourful street murals are getting ready in the run-up to the fourth edition of the Biennale beginning on December 12.

These works of art are part of an ongoing graffiti project of the Foundation’s Pepper House Residency. The two-month endeavour gives street artists an opportunity to engage the public through their art, as well as bring often discarded spaces to notice.

 Nepal based artist Kiran painting ‘Hands’ on the walls of the Warehouse opposite to Mohammed Ali Warehouse in Mattancherry as part of the Graffiti Project.

Eight young graffiti artists from across the world are researching and creating street art in public spaces all over the neighbourhoods of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Massive wall paintings have been part of the Foundation’s efforts since the Biennale’s first edition in 2012, but this is the first time they have formally invited graffiti artists for the assignment.

The project began on October 25 and will conclude on December 20, a week after the start of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018, curated by artist Anita Dube. While most of the art will be complete by the Biennale’s opening, early visitors might be able to see the talented artists in action.

The paintings are in response to the artists’ experience of the surrounding areas, according to Foundation president Bose Krishnamachari, who co-curated the first Biennale.

According to the Foundation’s Programmes Coordinator Nibedita Mishra, the graffiti projects will enhance the city’s engagement with the fourth Biennale that features 94 artist-projects. “These paintings on the walls of the Biennale city bring Kochi-ites closer to the world of art. They will not just be visually attractive, but thought-provoking as well,” she added. “Some of the works will fit well with the theme of the upcoming Biennale as well.”

The graffiti artists-in-residence are Shanto Antony, Nikhil K C, Kiran Maharajan, Luanna Senna, Tito Senna, Parag Sonarghare and Do and Khatra (Siddharth & Nikunj).

Portuguese artists Luanna Senna and Tito Senna working with colourful geometric patterns on the walls of the Mohammed Ali Warehouse.

Shanto, who is Kerala-based, is painting on the western wall of Santa Cruz School, while Nikhil is working at the ESI Hospital Wall and M K Mattancherry Wall.  

Kiran, from Nepal, is painting ‘Hands’ on the walls of the Warehouse opposite to Mohammed Ali Warehouse in Mattancherry.

Portuguese artists Luanna and Tito are working with colourful geometric patterns on the walls of the Mohammed Ali Warehouse.

Parag Sonarghare, a Maharashtrian, is painting on the wall near Fadi Auditorium on Bazaar road and on the wall of T K Krishnan Nair Shop also on Bazaar road. His painting includes the picture of ‘Eyes’ that banks on realism. 

Do and Khatra, comprising Gujaratis Siddharth and Nikunj, are painting on the walls of Fort Kochi Police Quarters.

Kerala based artist, Nikhil KC, painting at the M K Mattancherry Wall as well as at the ESI Hospital Wall. 

Biennale’s unwavering bond with Kochi’s Cabral Yard

Kochi, Dec 03:  Among its dozen-odd venues the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) has had on an average in each of its three editions by far, there is none like Cabral Yard that has changed contours and even function at the subcontinent’s biggest contemporary art festival which is readying for the next show.

A particularly verdant rectangular plot of 1.6 acres in Fort Kochi, it had featured pivotal installations in the first two chapters of KMB (2012 and ’14), while the 2016 edition saw its plot house a pavilion that hosted performing arts programmes that ran alongside the biennale. This time, starting December 12, Cabral Yard will house a multi-functional structure that doubles as a ‘knowledge laboratory’ as envisioned by KMB 2018 curator Anita Dube.

The Kochi_Muziris Biennale 2018 Pavilion under construction at Cabral Yard, Fort Kochi.

With its undulations, this plot is situated by the bend of the road that runs alongside Aspinwall House, invariably the main KMB venue. The yard got its name after Pedro Álvares Cabral, the first Portuguese sailor who reached Kochi way back in 1500 AD. The Cochin king accorded a warm welcome to Cabral the sailor along with his fleet (after facing hostility up in Malabar’s Calicut). So much so, the Portuguese subsequently got the consent to set up a base in Kochi, where they launched a spice factory.

Five centuries later, a similar kind of bond has existed between Cabral Yard and KMB. For the record, the property was acquired in 1904 by Aspinwall & Company. The 1867-founded commercial enterprise built there a hydraulic baling press for coir yarn.

Today, Cabral Yard, as a property of real-estate major DLF, is in the midst of yet another construction. The upcoming Biennale Pavilion will be the venue for Biennale lectures and workshops besides letting the visitors perform extempore in a free-spirited way. It will also be the place for the KBF’s novel project called ABC, that is Art By Children, which aims to groom younger talents. KMB 2018 has 10 venues.

The pavilion for the first and second KMB was built in Aspinwall House. Into the third, the curator, Sudarshan Shetty, thought it important for its visitors to not gather thickly in just one venue but get spread across venues instead. Result: Cabral Yard became the plot for the pavilion.

The Kochi Biennale Foundation, which organises the KMB, finds the pavilion an important space. “It is where people gather and participate/view a lot of activities. Cabral Yard fits well into such demands,” says Bose Krishnamachari, founder-president of the KBF. “It holds talks, screens films, display exhibits, holds educational and entertainment activities and much more.”

This time, the Pavilion will see people hanging around, sitting and conversing in a freer way than usual, according to Bose, also a co-curator of the first KMB. It will have two food courts: a community cafe by the Kerala government’s women-empowering Kudumbasree volunteers and by Edible Archives that is essentially an infra project. Besides, Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn will be holding a six-hour daily workshop for 30 days inside the Cabral Yard.

At the inaugural 2012 KMB, Cabral Yard was the site for the works of two artists: Mumbaikar Shetty and US-based Afghan-origin Amanullah Mojadidi. In the next edition, Valsan Koorma Kolleri transformed the terrain with his work ‘How Goes the Enemy’.

In 2016, the plot accommodated two artworks (by artists Katrina Neiburga, Andris Eglitis, Sophie Dejode and Bertrand Lacombe) besides the Pavilion (built by Tony Joseph).

Overall, Cabral Yard depicts the varied quests of people over the centuries. In the medieval times, it was a plot for explorers on a conquest and then a commercial venture (courtesy English trader John H Aspinwall), while in the KMB decade the land brims with the spirit of artistic experimentation.