10 Installations To Not Miss Out At The KMB 2016
- 24 Mar 2017
- Susmitha Suresh
- Features
Ever since the Kochi Muziris Biennale first made its mark in 2012, being a first of its kind in India, it has become a part of what makes up the very essence and soul of Kochi. The third edition which began on 12th December 2016 ends in less than a week on 29th March 2017. With over 97 works spread over 12 locations around Kochi, a week is not really enough to completely explore and understand the complexities of all the exquisite works and performances of art from around the world. But according to the many experts and laymen who visited the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016, the following are the ten best.
Sea of pain, Raúl Zurita
Waddle knee deep through the waters and explore the meaning of meaninglessness in this immersive installation by Chilean poet Raúl Zurita. Dedicated to Galip Kurdi, the brother of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian baby whose lifeless body was washed ashore, the photo of which circulated the world calling the refugee crisis to attention. Even as one finds amusement at first while walking through the water, the journey back after reading the poem will leave you reflecting on life as such. It’s no wonder it’s one of the highlights of the Biennale.
FWD Media
Room For Lies, Sunil Padwal
A room that inspires thought and feeling. The two room installation is a mixture of thoughtfully chosen, seemingly commonplace knick-knacks, drawings, and photographs from the artist's home city of Bombay. There is a sort of thought that reverberates onto you as you walk inside. It makes little to no difference whether you understand art or not, the installation invokes a feeling, a strange sense of nostalgia that the artist has captured on his iPhone in numerous candid shots that adorn the walls of one of the rooms, along with the random sketches and objects that seem worthless, but are alight with the tales of a lost time. If only you listen.
FWD Media
Defile, AES+F
Eery, creepy, lifeless, beautiful art. This installation has corpses dressed up in high fashion couture and photographed. AES+F consists of 4 Russian artists, Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky and Vladimir Fridkes. They coupled the temporality of fashion with the permanence of death to express their thoughts on death, love, beauty and everything related to it through their art. The bodies are in their early stages of decomposition, but it's clear that they're dead, giving a creepy, haunting effect to the high fashion they adorn.
FWD Media
Dance Of Death, Dipin Damodharan
Light Bulbs that hang from the ceiling, blinking in a seemingly random pattern. Behind the flickering lights, the artist seeks the answer to the question of life and death. Though invisible to the human eye due to its high flicker fusion rates, the bulbs commemorate the day the artist was born. As time passes, the flickering fades, till the audience is left in total darkness. Dipin Damodharan, the artists behind the work, might have wanted to show how life flashes before our lives before we finally fade out into darkness.
12 Stories, PK Sadanandan
This beautiful mural was drawn with colors made from natural pigment. A mural takes a long time to complete. This one by PK Sadanandan took a month to be sketched. You would have found the artist and his volunteers painting on the walls in the first few months of the Biennale. Approach them, and they’re more than willing to explain the story behind the work. It depicts the story of ‘Parayi Petta Panthiru Kulam’, that is the 12 kulams or families that were born out of Parayi, the ‘paraiah’ women.
Auditioning the Plaintiff. Rehearsing the Witness: The Bhawal Court Case, Zuleikha Chaudhari
A case to remember. This curious installation is an interactive experience by Zuleikha Chaudhari. Feel the grass beneath your feet and take in the ambience of the room as you stand witness to the visual and audio performance of a performance rehearsal. With inspirations taken from real life accounts and testimonies, it feels as though you are trapped between the realms of reality and the actual performance.
FWD Media
The Pyramid for Exiled Poets, Aleš Šteger
The main venue of the Biennale this year was Aspinwall House. And the Pyramid that sits at the centre draws your eyes and your curiosity almost the very moment you enter the place. The Slovenian writer Aleš Šteger dedicates this work to some of the most controversial poets ever known like Brecht, MiÅ‚osz, and Alighieri. Inside you walk through a circuitous passage with overlapping voices of poets, living and dead, that seem to come from everywhere, reciting their verses and then some. The pyramid is covered with cow dung cakes, making the whole experience something that invokes all the senses.
FWD Media
Dream Stop, Gary Hill
A video installation at the Durbar Hall as part of the KMB 2016, by Gary Hill, an American artist. Lesser said the better in of this visual ordeal. It is a beautiful experience one can carry with themselves and reminisce on. The artist gives you a way to view yourself in multiple dimensions as you are caught through 37 spy cam's concealed in a large circular, dream catcher like aluminium frame that hangs from the ceiling. It transforms the whole room into an alternate space of dreamlike ambience where images overlap and come together.
FWD Media
Dwelling Kappiri Spirits, Gabriel Lester
A tilted room in the middle of nowhere, lace curtains that seem paused at some moment of a great gust, the hanging smoke of a seemingly endlessly burning cigar. Put your head inside and you'll feel the world tilt. It's a wonder how they made or brought the installation to where it is. The whole thing slightly gets you losing your balance and you wonder how art can affect you in ways that are more than just a feeling or vibe that overcomes you. This freeze frame moment by the Dutch, multidisciplinary artist, Gabriel Lester, is a tribute to the legend of Kochi’s abandoned 'Kappiri Muthapans’ (African slaves).
Sourcemouth: Liquidbody, Hanna Tuulikki
This is yet another interactive piece. The artist behind it is a Scottish artist Hanna Tuulikki who collaborated with the Kutiyattam exponent Kapila Venue. It's a three-screen film showed at Pepper house in Fort Kochi with influences from a gestural sequence known as Nadi Varnana in Kutiyattam. There are three interlinked films, one which showcases her silver painted figure in an expressive dance imagery. The second one is a close-up of her eyes and the third of her disembodied lips. They are not played together. It’s a mystical experience worth your time.
The Extra:
Symphony of a Missing Room: An Imagined Museum, Lundahl & Seitl
A much talked of experience that we’re giving as a plus one to the list. It takes the concept of a guided tour a level higher. Participants are blindfolded and guided along by a guide while indulging their other senses to the max. It's a fun feeling and something you can actually immerse in completely at the KMB 2016.
FWD Media
As the day pass by so does another year of Biennale. This year, the crowds were much bigger and more vibrant. It’s still not too late to be a part of the magic. It's much more than just another hype that comes and goes. The Kochi Muziris Biennale is everything a creative heart would need. If anything, one could even say Kochi has become more art literate because of it, paving way for great artists to emerge with growing encouragement, support and respect for the art and the artist, that has bloomed within the people of Kochi.
Photos from Various Sources
