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Curator Shetty busy
meeting artists across globe in run-up to concept
New Delhi, Sep 21: India’s only biennale looks set to turn a new leaf with the 2016 curator of the global contemporary art festival currently exploring the prospect of blending literary and performing arts sensibilities into its upcoming edition in a big way.
Even as the aesthetics of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) are in a nascent
stage now when its third chapter is 15 months away, Sudarshan Shetty, the
curator, is busy meeting musicians and dancers besides artists around the globe
in his bid to shape up the concept of the grand Kerala event that has already
gained international repute.
“I won’t make a mission statement at this stage, but I can tell you that it
will be even more a ‘people’s biennale’ this time,” the middle-aged Mumbaikar said about his perception about KMB-3,
slated to begin on December 12 next year. “The two editions of the biennale we
had so far were outstanding in their conceptualization and execution. It would
be tough to raise the bar further. But it’s interesting—and that’s what is
expected of me.”
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| KMB-3 curator Sudarshan Shetty, flanked by KBF Trustees (from left to right ) Sunil V, Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari at a Kochi Biennale Foundation function in Delhi on Saturday (Sept 19) evening. |
The Mangalore-born contemporary artist, famously known for his enigmatic
sculptural installations, recalled a well-known Ratan Thiyam statement, noting
that the sexagenarian experimental Manipuri theatre-person always used ancient
stage dynamics in contemporary context, thus proving that tradition never
implied staleness.
“Tradition is not like water in a stagnant pool,
but it is like a waterfall. This is a famous statement of Ratan Thiyam. I am
greatly inspired by it and it will be reflected in my curation,” he added.
It is with this rearview that Shetty has been
touring the world as the artistic director of the third KMB. “I just am back
from travels across Europe,” he revealed. “Shortly, I will be leaving for the
East…to China and Japan.”
Pertinently, Shetty had himself been a participant
in the debut KMB of 2012—thus having known the pulse and seen the growth of the
pioneering festival since its start. While the over three-month-long first
edition had 80 artists from 23 countries, the second, which concluded in March
this year, featured 100 main installations by 94 artists from 34 countries on
display for 108 days.
So, will there be a striking rise in the number of
artists for the 2016 KMB? “See, there won’t be a huge rise in the venues at the
biennale. Nor can a notable jump in the number of artists be counted as a
defining scale of eminence. I can still say that street art and students’
participation would be one of the focal features of the upcoming edition,”
pointed out the 54-year-old alumnus of Mumbai’s prestigious Sir JJ School of
Art.
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| KMB-3 curator Sudarshan Shetty |
Last weekend, Shetty was in the
national capital at a get-together of the artistic fraternity across the
country. A ‘Meet The Curator’ function convened by the Kochi Biennale
Foundation (KBF) on Saturday evening saw him being formally introduced to a
crowd of select invitees that included the Who’s Who of Indian art, culture,
literature, cinema and academics, besides a fair sprinkling of representatives
from various embassies and consulates.
KBF founders Bose Krishnamachari
and Riyas Komu, speaking at the function, ran through the history of their
struggles ahead of the first KMB where the two Mumbaikar-Malayalis were
co-curators.
Komu, in his 30-minute power-point presentation,
also shed light at the evolution of the aesthetics of the biennale, the
subsequent enrichment of its editions and the history of growth of its
patronage and worldwide recognition.
The KBF also acknowledged huge
support from the patrons and supporters, including the state government, for
making the biennale happen. “We thank everyone for making it
happen and do seek support from all to continue it as a project ‘serving
people’ through art,” he added.
The other speakers were artists Jitish Kallat (also
the artistic director of KMB-2), art patron Kiran Nadar, top bureaucrats
Amitabh Kant and Venu Vasudevan, veteran visual artists Gulammohammed Sheikh,
Vivan Sundaram and Subodh Gupta and KBF trustee Sunil V.
Shetty’s name as the KMB-3 curator and
artistic director was announced to the world on July 15, nearly a month after a
high-powered panel of artists and prominent personalities made their unanimous
decision. He was selected after a month-long deliberation by a panel under KBF
comprising artists Amar Kanwar, Atul Dodiya, Bharti Kher and Jyothi Basu, art
critic and curator Ranjit Hoskote, gallerist Shireen Gandhy and patron Ms
Nadar, along with KBF trustees Krishnamachari, Komu and Sunil.
