Take 3

(Moments from Kochi-Muziris Biennale)

Kochi -Muziris Biennale is Indias first biennale and has been running in Kochi, Kerala (India) between
December 12, 2012 and March 13, 2013. This is the third part of a three-part essay that was e-
published on Hyperallergic in 2013. This particular instalment was turned down by the publishers for
unfathomable reasons.

Walking into Moidus Heritage on Kochis beachfront was an experience by itself! The derelict,
colonial mansion once served as a coir trading post but now showcased diverse artworks from all
corners of the world -- Saudi Arabian Ahmed Maters unusual treatment of the Hajj pilgrimage
focused on the love story between Adam and Eve and the India-Hijaz connect. A mammoth work
that spans 4 LCD screens, two large format video projections and a series of blow-ups, Maters work
reflects the complex movements of millions through an elaborate ritual, conducted on an
infrastructure defying the human scale of the pilgrimage. Upstairs, Australian Angelic Mestis 4-
channel video installation, Citizens Band takes us on a different pilgrimage of sounds as cultures
meet, hybridize and undergo shifts in Australias urban spaces. A blind man singing a haunting
Central Asian tune on a train, a traditional string instrument being played outside a station, a woman
thumping the water of a swimming pool to a mesmerizing bongo beat or a cabdriver whistling his
way through a popular tune snippets of lives and places brilliantly woven together through distinct
musical experiences.
Snippets, this time visual, build up the massive digitized pieces of the eminent Rashid Rana in
Aspinwall House. Taking forward his practice of building up apparently innocuous images with
photographs of thousands of billboards spread across his native Pakistan. Playing on the
macrocosmic through the microcosm, Ranas massive C Prints from his Language series were further
supplemented by a digitally created video loop, Anatomy Lessons that depicts an erotic exchange
between two people the figures created from 1296 pieces of a stage video on Lahores wrestlers.
Each individual wrestlers actions therefore turn into component cells of two bigger, macrocosmic
figures that juxtapose masculinity and pornography through a process of transfiguration. Incisive
and challenging, the artworks acquire confrontational fervour when viewed against the backdrop of
Pakistans strict censor laws.
Multiplicity of images was also pivotal to Atul Dodiyas Celebration in the Laboratory that celebrates
some of the contributors that have made Indian modern and contemporary art, significant.
Overwhelmingly personal, these candid portraits of different people (many of them friends),
depicts my personal view of the Indian art scene exactly like a large joint family, says the label. Hung
around an abandoned laboratory, the hundreds of portraits (and occasional texts) form an
interesting genealogy ranging from Van Gogh and Rabindranath Tagore through Anish Kapoor and
Raqs Media to the newest kids on the block today, Dodiyas rendering is eccentric yet perceptive --
of the mind-space that gives substance and structure to the project called Indian contemporary art.
Instances of which can be found now not only in the exclusivist gallery spaces and hallowed
precincts of museums, but have begun a happy encroachment into more democratic, public spaces
as well. Street art and graffiti have begun their slow crawl across Indias walls and chowks of which
a few were found strewn across the Fort area of Kochi in celebration of the Biennale -- elaborate
graffiti pieces appearing even on the walls of Aspinwall be it acerbic explorations of Kochis
colonial and recent history, or the horrors of war. Students from the local art schools and even from
as far away as Hyderabad have lent their minds and hands to these, I hear!
Moving back to Moidus Heritage, I find Brazilian Ernesto Netos gigantic installation has taken over
an entire ceiling. Life is a River (2012) has spices hung inside locally sourced cotton fabric sculptures
sea breezes coming in through the window chase the heavy aroma and gently sway the primal
forms reminiscent of male and female genitalia. Its sheer scale makes an impression, but far less
than Clifford Charless five-room occupancy at Aspinwall, where he takes us through the labyrinth of
his mind in Five Rooms of Clouds, each room devoted to installations that explore a variety of states
of being be it Detritus, where he confronts the end of painting, or the Room of Profound Essence
which takes you on his travels and associated memories and their aromas. Or the ones that
investigate the morass of communist symbols, leadership and power or the alienation of the body
and thereafter, labour. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale has indeed brought us an exciting weave of
international artists and artworks!