Kochi Biennale 2012
Having seen, in 2011, Biennale Jogja XI (Indonesia), which was Jogjakarta’s first international biennale, and which included Indonesian and Indian artists, the Kochi Biennale, India’s first, was highly anticipated. The experience of it began right at Kochi airport on the day of the opening. Upon arrival, I saw a man holding up the Biennale insignia awaiting official delegates, so I thought I’d be clever and hustle a free ride into the city. Trying (and failing) to convince him that as a critic, I was indeed ‘a guest of the Biennale’, I stood waiting for the actual delegates to gather. Within minutes of being introduced to an author, a prominent Kerelan philosopher and a Tibetan artist, I found myself in conversation on displacement, notions of the ‘promised land’ and identity politics. Dubbing ourselves the ‘Convergence of the Lazies’, as each of us professed faux-pretence at being either a writer, an artist, a journalist or a philosopher, as we drove on the conversation traversed the Exodus, negation of tokenism in contemporary Tibetan art, the history of Muziris, Bob Marley, Subodh Gupta and WWII.
None of us were aware of any formal Biennale itinerary or agenda for the opening and the next few days, but no matter. I met Bangladeshi artist Dr. Shahidul Alam at the hotel lobby, who good-humouredly pointed out that he was as yet not aware of which venue his work would be installed in. But the full extent of the disarray would soon make itself evident in the lack of artist list, maps, wall texts, labels, catalogues and program scheduling. However, after casting aside this mild irritation, the Biennale then became one of discovery, happy accidents in identifying ‘art’