KOCHI: Over 50 invited artists of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale have written an open letter expressing their “concern and shock” at the way the Biennale has unfolded this year, and emphasized the need to “urgently overhaul the management for its survival”.
While artists expressed their solidarity with this edition’s curator, Shubigi Rao, saying she has “worked through challenges well beyond her purview as curator”, the letter published in e-flux.com, a reputed Brooklyn, New York-based platform of artists, also called for a complete reform of the Biennale’s conduct, and the current team in charge.
The letter also revealed that at a meeting on December 13, a group of 40 artists present in Kochi met with trustees, advisors, and management of the Biennale Foundation and “emphasized the need to urgently overhaul the management as well as the approach and intention of the Biennale Foundation, for the sake of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale’s survival”. The artists also appealed to the Board to conduct a thorough review of the current Biennale concerning the many issues raised.
TNIE reached out to Bose Krishnamachari, president, of KMB, for his response. He said he needs time to respond to the article. “I cannot rush,” Krishnamachari said. Some of the artists who have signed the open letter included Ali Cherri (Lebanon/France), Ana Hoffner (Austria), Anushka Meenakshi, and Archana Hande (India), Basma Alsharif (Palestine/Berlin), Claudia Martínez Garay (Peru/Netherlands), Debbie Ding (Singapore), Forensic Architecture (United Kingdom), Gabriela Löffel (Switzerland), Gabrielle Goliath (South Africa), Haegue Yang (Germany/ South Korea), Hilde Skancke Pedersen (Norway), Iman Issa (Egypt/US), Massinissa Selmani (Algeria/France), Melati Suryodarmo (Indonesia), Sandip Kuriakose (USA), Vasudevan Akkitham (India), Ximena Garrido-Lecca (Mexico City), Yohei Imamura (Japan) and Zina Saro-Wiwa, (UK/Nigeria/US).
“The experiences of the invited artists from this year and past editions offer an opportunity to radically transform the KMB as an event and institution — changes that are clearly, urgently needed,” the open letter said.
The artists said the way the KMB is currently organised hinders the artistic process, and closes opportunities for artists rather than enabling them.
Regarding the problems with the last-minute postponement of the Biennale’s main exhibition, the artists said they were overwhelmed by many problems as they arrived in Kochi. “As artists arrived for installation in the weeks and days prior to the opening, we were overwhelmed by many problems: shipments delayed in transit and at customs past the opening day; rain leaking into all the exhibition spaces, impacting equipment and artworks; a lack of steady electrical power; a shortage of equipment; and an insufficient workforce on all production teams.
Artists were drawn into daily struggles with the Biennale management, whose organisational shortcomings and lack of transparency had made a timely and graceful opening impossible long before it was postponed. The considerable challenges that participating artists would encounter upon arrival were never communicated, so none of us could make an informed decision as to whether to travel to Kochi or indeed to even participate under the circumstances. While artists produced projects in good faith, our commitment to the Biennale was not reciprocated, and responsibility for the many problems that surrounded it, was evaded,” the letter said.
Some of the problems highlighted by the artists are: shockingly poor communication; opaque financial planning and last-minute fundraising; an absence of capable people at the appropriate time, despite the curator’s and artists’ constant calls to find them; production staff continually moved between various main Biennale and collateral and “invited” exhibition sites; and an unrealistic imaginary of an ideal Biennale.
‘NECESSITATE REFORM OF BIENNALE’S CONDUCT, CURRENT TEAM IN CHARGE’
The letter published in e-flux.com, a reputed Brooklyn, New York-based platform of artists, also called for a complete reform of the Biennale’s conduct, and the current team in charge. Meanwhile, they expressed their solidarity with the edition’s curator Shubigi Rao, citing she was worked well through challenges