After the pandemic, now the global art industry is slowly getting back to business with physical exhibitions, art fairs and biennales. The India Art Fair was back in New Delhi on 28th April 2022 and now the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale is set to open on December 12, 2022.
Initially slated for December 2020, the biennale was postponed by a year citing the pandemic. It’s going to be curated by artist and writer Shubigi Rao, who was the sole Singaporean representative to exhibit at the forth Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018. The theme of the forthcoming biennale is “In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire”. In a curatorial note, Shubigi said, “This edition of the biennale will embody the joy of experiencing practices of divergent sensibilities, under conditions both joyful and grim. There is optimism even in the darkest absurdity, and this is what leavens the direness of our time.”
In the fifth edition, the Kochi Biennale has teamed up with The Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation to introduce the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation/ Kochi-Muziris Biennale (DBF-KMB) Award for South Asian artists participating in the Biennale and the recipient of the award will get the opportunity to present their solo show at UK’s Hayward Gallery in HENI Project Space. According to a press note by Kochi Biennale Foundation President Bose Krishnamachari, the DBF-KMB Award has been created to support artists at a crucial juncture in their professional development thereby creating a new pathway for cultural exchange between South Asia, the UK and Europe.
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The list of over 80 artists and collectives, and over 45 new commissions in the biennale features names such as Arpita Singh, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR), Iman Issa, Joan Jonas, Melati Suryodarmo, Samson Young, Slavs and Tatars, Thao Nguyen Phan and Yinka Shonibare.
It will run for four months till April 10, 2023. The first edition was held from December 2012 to March 2013 and was curated by Krishnamachari and artist Riyas Komu.
