An environment of sensitivity

Curator Shubigi Rao, announces her first list of names for the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) slotted for this December 2020

Singapore-based Indian-origin artist and writer Shubigi Rao, known for her complex and layered installations, is the curator of the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). So far, the Biennale has been taking place on December 12, and its 2020 edition seems to be slotted for this date as well, should everything go well and the country recovers enough from its COVID 19 pandemic lockdown to facilitate travel. The selection committee unanimously decided to appoint Rao for her “exceptional acumen and inventive sensibilities” to curate the upcoming biennale.

A video still from Ali Cherri’s Mount Lebanon
( The art-work is representational and not actually in KMB)

Rao has been spoken about as a polymath whose primary occupation is that of a visual artist. Besides, she is also a writer and theorist who deals with the study of languages, libraries, and archives, as well as subjects such as archaeology, neuroscience, and natural history. She has an uncanny knack for finding the connections between these varied fields, which results in complex and layered installations.

The art-works is representational and is not actually in KMB

Now Rao and her team have announced their first list of artists with known names and many artists who we are hearing of for the first time. At the top of the list is well-known Kolkata born painter Arpita Singh, who is currently based in New Delhi with her partner painter Paramjit Singh, and their daughter artist Anjum Singh. Arpita is known for her paintings that employ the aging female body as a metaphor for what ails society. She has pushed the ‘visual lexicon’ of the middle-aged woman further than almost any other woman artist and her recent solo at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), was outstanding.

Artist and poet Cecilia Vicuna at Museno Nacional de Bellas Artes, Chile

Ali Cherri is a video and visual artist based in Beirut and Paris. His videos largely explore the violent history of earthquakes and tsunamis in Lebanon, which is situated on the site of several major geologic flaws. His work is extremely relevant because they analyze the seismic conditions of a country that has also been subject to numerous ‘manmade conflicts’.

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale curators and selection committee

Cecilia Vicuña (Santiago, Chile, 1948) is a Chilean poet and filmmaker based in New York and Santiago, Chile. Her work is noted for reflecting themes of language, memory, dissolution, extinction, and exile. Critics also note the relevance of her work to the politics of ‘ecological destruction’, ‘cultural homogenization’, and ‘economic disparity’.

Shubigi Rao, current curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2020

Other artists include Collective Ayllu, Transgresorxs, DAAR, Gabrielle Goliath, Iman Issa, Joan Jonas, Martta Tuomaala, Melati Suryodarmo, Mithra Kamalam, Pio Abad and Frances Wadsworth Jones, Priya Sen, Richard Bell, Sahil Naik, Samson Young, Seher Shah, Slavs and Tatars, Tao Nguyen, Phan, The u-ra-mi-li project, Thuma Collective, Vasudevan Akkitham, Yinka Shonibare and Zina Saro-Wing.

Rao has reportedly said that her selection is invariably based on her appreciation of artists who are sensitive to their material, environment, and realities, and whose practices maintain artistic integrity, or fidelity, to their stated intentions.

Well, we remain strapped in and listening keenly to find out more about the upcoming KMB and its exciting news.

(Kochi-Muziris Biennale, currently slotted for 12/12/20 – 10/04/21)

Text by Georgina Maddox
Image courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery, KMB, Irbraaz.org

Find out more about the Artist and Gallery:

https://www.shubigi.com/

https://www.saffronart.com/artists/paramjit-s

https://www.saffronart.com/artists/anjum-singh

https://www.knma.in/

https://www.alicherri.com/

http://www.ceciliavicuna.com/

http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/about/

https://www.gabriellegoliath.com/