KOCHI: Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac on Sunday said the state government had decided to make Aspinwall House, the home of Kochi Muziris Biennale(KMB),in line with the government’s budgetary announcement.
“As the first step, the government has cancelled the lease on a portion of the Aspinwall House. Negotiations are under way to acquire the rest of the property in a time bound manner by paying a reasonable amount,” he said, after going on a guided tour of the Aspinwall House, one of the main KMB venues.
Further,Isaac said,”The Biennale, which has become a fixture on the global cultural calendar, would be maintained as Kochi’s permanent art and culture asset.The city will join the other major destinations worldwide in housing an iconic international event. We can even utilise this space to stage various art and cultural activities during the non-Biennale years.”
The minister undertook a day-long tour of the Biennale venues in Fort Kochi and Mattanchery, taking in the works on display and interacting with the Sunday crowd at Pepper House, Anand Warehouse and TKM Warehouse.
“When I first allocated funds for the Biennale six years ago as the Finance Minister in the then V S Achuthanandan-led LDF Government, there was a lot of controversy about spending so much money on an art event rather than on the art schools,” Isaac said.
“Today, there is near-unanimity on the importance of the Biennale. It exposes Keralites to the best in global contemporary and it is good for the Malayali artists as well. In its third edition, there are few dissenting voices,” he said.