ANNUAL REPORT 2016 -17 ANNUAL REPORT 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2017 AES+F’s video installation Inverso Mundus (2015) at Anand Warehouse CONTENTS 06 INTRODUCTION 08 KOCHI BIENNALE FOUNDATION 10 BOARD OF TRUSTEES 12 KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2016 14 ARTISTS OF KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2016 22 KOCHI BIENNALE FOUNDATION PROGRAMMES 30 AUDIENCE 32 HIGHLIGHTS 46 CSR SUPPORT AND KOCHI BIENNALE FOUNDATION 46 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 47 CONSTITUTION OF INTERNAL COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE 48 AUDIT & ACCOUNTABILITY 70 KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2016 SPONSORS, PATRONS & SUPPORTERS Front Cover: Abir Karmakar’s painting Home (2016) at Kashi Art Gallery 4 5 INTRODUCTION The Kochi Biennale Foundation is the statement ‘Forming in the Pupil of an Ours is an effort tethered to the idea of Art By Children was an artistic interven- honoured to present the annual report Eye’, and asking a central question: What learning and growing from experience. tion into public schools in Kerala that of the Foundation for the year 2016-2017. does it mean to be together in time – Every edition teaches us new lessons, as reached out to 100 schools across the Of course, as always, the audited balance to be contemporary? we grapple with new challenges. The state. The team at ABC also created sheet of the Foundation for the year levels of support, trust and faith our on-site workshops at the Biennale, 2016-17 is an integral part of this report. Ninety-seven artists from 31 countries, Patrons, Partners and Supporters provide bringing vast numbers of schoolchildren more than 100 works of installation, us with gives us a great deal of strength to into Aspinwall House every day. The three editions of the Kochi-Muziris painting, sculpture, video, and perfor- keep growing, and getting stronger. Biennale, since 2012, have ensured that mance. It was a mammoth effort, and one We believe in the positive impact and It is the support of artists, art lovers, the Kochi now occupies a prominent position that we couldn’t possibly have importance of the access to art, and that is general public, patrons, our partners, the in the global art calendar. The Biennale accomplished without an outpouring of what keeps our efforts going and growing, Kerala government, and all other support- has exhibited more than 300 artworks by help and support. This year the Kera- creating an interest and participation in ers, that made all of this possible. I am over 250 artists from all over the world, la government was greatly supportive, contemporary art that spans the audience hopeful that we will have your continued and hosted more than a million visitors. providing us with their promised funding spectrum—from experts to amateurs. backing. On behalf of everyone at the The third edition has been a landmark in of Rs. 7.5 crore in three phases, pre-, Kochi Biennale Foundation, thank you. itself, from every point of view: in terms of during, and post-Biennale. We’ve been KBF’s Programmes, run by the Director audience participation, artistic representa- encouraged this year by the greater of Programmes and Biennale co-founder Bose Krishnamachari tion, government support, scale and participation of corporates in our exhibi- Riyas Komu, conducted two exceptional President, Kochi Biennale Foundation intent. Under the curatorship of tion, and we hope to see an increase in editions of marquee education and Sudarshan Shetty, the 2016 edition of that going forward. Sudarshan’s Biennale outreach programmes: the Students’ the Kochi-Muziris Biennnale has been an was supported this year by an exceptional Biennale and Art by Children. The all-round success. This year’s Biennale programming line-up scheduled virtually Students’ Biennale reached out to 55 expanded on the many intentions with every evening at the Biennale Pavilion. institutions across the country, and which KBF set out to create this platform, Talks, folk, classical and contemporary produced over 400 works of art by a new in that it encompassed ever more ideas performances, films, book launches, and generation of art practitioners; the and people into its fold. Sudarshan linked of course a seminar on ‘Why We Need learning of this edition was also together various forms of artistic expres- Art’ inaugurated by the Honourable discussed and noted in an art education sion, explaining his curatorial impulse with President, Pranab Mukherjee. conference to cap the edition. Meanwhile, 6 7 KOCHI BIENNALE FOUNDATION Kochi Biennale Foundation is a non- MISSION STATEMENT posit alternatives to political and cultural people and local traditions, practices and profit charitable trust engaged in promoting discourses emanating from the specif- discourses that are shaping the idea of art & culture and educational activities in The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to ic histories of Europe and America. A India. These share a lot with the artistic India; primary amongst them the hosting invoke the latent cosmopolitan spirit dialogue for a new aesthetics and politics visions emerging from India’s neighbour- of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. KBF works of the modern metropolis of Kochi and rooted in the Indian experience, but hood. The Biennale also seeks to project around the year to promote national its mythical past, Muziris, and create a receptive to the winds blowing in from the new energy of artistic practices in the consensus on investment in contemporary platform that will introduce contemporary other worlds, is possible. subcontinent. art infrastructure and to broaden public international visual art theory and prac- access to art across India.The Foundation tice to India, showcase and debate new The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to was registered on 4-8-2010 under the Indian and international aesthetics and art establish itself as a centre for artistic explore the hidden energies latent in Indian Trusts Act, 1882. experiences and enable a dialogue among engagement in India by drawing from the India’s past and present artistic traditions artists, curators, and the public. rich tradition of public action and public and invent a new language of coexistence Kochi Biennale Foundation seeks: engagement in Kerala, where Kochi is and cosmopolitanism that celebrates the a. To promote art, culture and educational The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to located. The emergence of Kerala as a multiple identities people live with. The activities in India; primary amongst create a new language of cosmopoli- distinct political and social project with dialogue will be with, within, and across them the hosting of Kochi-Muziris tanism and modernity that is rooted in lessons for many developing societies identities fostered by language, religion Biennale on biennial basis the lived and living experience of this owes also to aesthetic interventions that and other ideologies. The Biennale seeks b. To organise national and international old trading port, which, for more than six have subverted notions of social and to resist and interrogate representations of art and culture exhibitions in India centuries, has been a crucible of numer- cultural hierarchies. These interventions cosmopolitanism and modernity that thrive c. To promote and support traditional art ous communal identities. Kochi is among are immanent in the numerous genres and by subsuming differences through co-op- forms the few cities in India where pre-colonial practices of our rich tradition of arts. In a tion and coercion. d. To promote art education through traditions of cultural pluralism continue world of competing power structures, it is schools and colleges to flourish. These traditions pre-date the necessary to balance the interests and The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to be a e. To promote preservation of heritage Enlightenment ideas of cultural pluralism, independence of artists, art institutions, project in appreciation of, and education properties and buildings globalisation and multiculturalism. They and the public. about, artistic expression and its relation- f. To use art for promotion of national can be traced to Muziris, the ancient city ship with society. It seeks to be a new and international brotherhood and that was buried under layers of mud and The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to space and a fresh voice that protects and co-operation mythology after a massive flood in the 14 reflect the new confidence of Indian projects the autonomy of the artist and her g. To promote art for comfort and solace th century. The site was recently identified people who are slowly, but surely, build- pursuit to constantly reinvent the world we of the public in general and the and is currently under excavation. It is ing a new society that aims to be liberal, live in. disadvantaged in particular necessary to explore and, when neces- inclusive, egalitarian and democratic. The h. To conduct national and international sary, retrieve memories of this past, and time has come to tell the story of cultural seminars its present, in the current global context to practices that are distinct to the Indian 8 9 BOARD OF N S Madhavan IAS CURATORIAL ADVISORY Writer, IAS (Retd.) TRUSTEES Trustee COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2016 Bose Krishnamachari Sanjna Kapoor President Theatre Personality, Amar Kanwar Curator \ Artist Co-founder of Junoon Atul Dodiya Trustee Bharti Kher Riyas Komu Jyothi Basu Secretary Ranjit Hoskote Curator \ Artist Kiran Nadar APEX ADVISORY Shireen Gandhy Bonny Thomas COUNCIL Bose Krishnamachari Treasurer Riyas Komu Writer \ Cartoonist K V Thomas Sunil V Chairman, Public Accounts Sunil V Committee, Government of India, Joint Secretary Member of Parliament Executive Director, KOCHI-MUZIRIS Motherland JV Pvt. Ltd BIENNALE 2016 TEAM M A Baby Former Minister of Education & Sudarshan Shetty Tasneem Zakaria Mehta Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala Trustee Curator and Artistic Director Honourary Director, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum Bose Krishnamachari HONOURARY Biennale Director Jose Dominic ADVISORS Trustee Riyas Komu Director of Programmes Managing Director, CGH Earth Adoor Gopalakrishnan Auteur Lizzie Jacob Trustee Anish Kapoor KOCHI BIENNALE (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Artist Govt.