KMB 2025 an Enriching and Inspiring Experience: Envoys from Britain and Canada

KOCHI:
Paul Thoppil, Canada’s High Commissioner to Singapore; and Chandru Iyer, British Deputy High Commissioner to Karnataka and Deputy Trade Commissioner for Investment, South Asia, today hailed the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), saying the works on display are inspirational, energising and thought-provoking.

The two envoys are currently holidaying with their families in Kochi.

“The portrayal of some of the challenges of our time, climate change and its impact on humankind is energising. Ratna Gupta’s work was interesting in the recycled weave patterns, and Shajith’s landscape of nature and animal were takeaways. It will take at least a week to see the all the art works and I intend to see them in the coming days,” Thoppil said.

Iyer, who was on his first visit to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, said, “The artistic expressions have left a deep impression in my heart. It’s good to see the artists from across the world coming together here.”

Besides the envoys, veterans in art, films and literature and art lovers also thronged the Biennale sites during the last week of this year.

Film director TK Rajeev said, “I am excited with each Biennale just as the film festival, and it tempts us to revisit as each revisit reveals layers of meaning. Every two years, the artists’ attempts show a transition in medium, treatment and visual sensibility delving upon socially relevant issues. I found the works in each venue very interesting and educational as well.”

On Sunday, Kochi Sub-collector Grandhe Sai Krishna; Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra Director and CEO Dr Febi Varghese; and curator, designer and scenographer Rajeev Sethi, and literary critic and educator Prof P Pavithran lauded the art works featured in Aspinwall House and other venues.

Sai Krishna described his first visit to a biennale as “a great experience”.

Dr. Varghese found all the works professional and two to three works based on eco-friendly construction amazing. I have a difference of opinion with the interpretation of the first work in Coir Godown, referring to the Panjeri Artists’ Union, that overproduction in farming is an issue. Today, we have technology to preserve and store. This could be and sold later to increase income. No agriculture produce should be wasted,” he said.

Curator Sethi said it was a kind of serendipity as so many things have come together in a sublime manner. He liked the work of Honolulu-based Bhasha Chakrabarti’s installation on diaspora with cloth as medium. “It’s not just the physical embroidery but also about layers of history, of the past, present and future.”

P Pavithran said the art works aligned with the KMB 2025’s theme, for the time being. “Time was when time and space were separate but today’s concept of time is reflected in the art works. There’s history of invasion, diversity, of national and international bonding that we are experiencing. It is a kind of cultural hybridity experienced more in Fort Kochi,” he added.