Possibilities for a non-alienated life in Kochi

The fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale - a 108-day-long contemporary art festival, organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation started on December 12, 2018, and is slated to conclude on March 29, 2019. 

This year around, the event is curated by eminent artist Anita Dube around the theme of 'Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life'. Dube, who mastered in fine arts from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, is the Biennale's first woman curator. Dube is also the co-founder and board member of KHOJ International Artists’ Association and has contributed words to many publications on contemporary art.

“At the heart of my curatorial adventure lies a desire for liberation and comradeship (away from the master and slave model) where the possibilities for a non-alienated life could spill into a ‘politics of friendship.’ Where pleasure and pedagogy could sit together and share a drink, and where we could dance and sing and celebrate a dream together”, she explains. 

For the ongoing edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Dube has actively sought women artists with no formal training in art, people from the queer community and Dalit artists, among others, and welcomed these aliens of the art world to showcase their work alongside celebrated giants at the Biennale. The artists include- Bapi Das, a former autorickshaw driver from Kolkata, Gond artists Durgabai and Subhash Vyam from Madhya Pradesh, feminist activist artists the Guerrilla Girls and the less represented artists from Indonesia, Kenya, and Egypt. 

"Imagine those pushed to the margins of dominant narratives speaking: not as victims, but as futurisms’ cunning and sentient sentinels. And before speaking, listening to the stone and the flowers; to older women and wise men; to the queer community; to critical voices in the mainstream; to the whispers and warnings of nature. If we desire a better life on this earth — our unique and beautiful planet — we must in all humility start to reject an existence in the service of capital. Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life asks and searches for questions in the hope of dialogue”, Dube concludes.

The Biennale will showcase over 100 projects displayed in public spaces, and galleries across Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, and Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. 

For more details visit their website here- kochimuzirisbiennale.org