Looking beyond painting, sculpture

Sudarshan Shetty, the curator of the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016, is in the final stages of preparation for the mega art event. He has been busy meeting artists from across the globe and comprehending their works for the past 14 months. And Sudarshan likes to put that journey down as an enriching experience. “It was good. We had a great time doing it so far,” says the curator.   The upcoming Biennale will have participants converging at Kochi from different places, including Europe, America and Japan.

“We have artists coming from places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. It is not that I travelled to every place to interact with the artists; I have also met a few of artists online,” says Shetty, who believes that the entire journey has been quite rewarding. “I got to meet many artists and delve deep into their works. Raul Zurita was the first artist declared for the Biennale. We invited him to Kerala as the first step. That triggered a chain of events that led me to other artists. The process took more than one year; we are almost at the end of it now,” he adds.

Snapshots from the previous editions of BiennaleAccording to Sudarshan, it is too early to announce the exact number of participants as the finalising process is still going on. However, he assures that there would be around 90 artists for the event. Compared to the previous two editions, the third one will see talents from different fields coming under one roof. “It would be a melange of talents. There would be dancers, theatre personalities and writers alongside those who follow conventional practices such as painting and sculpting,” says Sudarshan. Was it a conscious decision? “Yes,” he says.

“When I began the process, I came up with the sort of curatorial pace that came from my own practice as an artist. But, soon I realised that it could be limited. Hence, I started looking outside. I began communicating with people who are not within the expectation of a Biennale space. This led me to look at various art practices within the contemporary art world,” Sudarshan continues. He is planning to bring those conversations to the Biennale and hopes that would continue even after that. At such a juncture, the first question popping out would be how they would include those practices which are not seen as a part of the biennale world. “That was the very first question we had to face. Of course, there is difficulty in including them. In fact, it was a challenge,” says Sudarshan.

Kochi Muziris Biennale“I see Biennale as a whole world. A lot of artists who could not be in the Biennale will be in the programming. Either they would be talking about their practice or having a conversation with others on their style of work. For instance, we have one event where three or four eminent dancers are coming together for a discussion. It is like generating a conversation. We are in the process of calling them and finalising things. So, I cannot divulge more details,” he explains.

The second edition of the Biennale was titled ‘Whorled Explorations’. The latest edition has taken ‘Forming in the pupil of an eye’ as its title. Sudarshan explains, “It is drawn from the basic idea that when a sage opens his eyes, he assimilates the multiplicity of the world in that moment. It is a confluence of what he sees inside and outside. The concept can also be generic, like an individual looking at the biennale through his eyes.”

Finding artists has not been a Herculean task. “Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari were always there to help me,” says Shetty, who had a great time in Kerala, especially in Kochi. He loves Kerala — its history, long literary tradition and of course, cinema. Shetty has taken cues from the previous editions to zero in on things.  He has not deviated from the Biennale’s mission statement that describes the venture as people’s Biennale. He wishes the 2016 Biennale would get more footfalls. And, he hopes the third edition would bring people closer to art than before.