Threads of sensitivity at Kochi Biennale

By Riddhi Doshi

Photography: Courtesy Kochi-Muziris Foundation

Read Time: 2 mins

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IAnD talks to three Biennale artists to discover the creative processes behind their works for the thematic ‘Forming in the pupil of an eye’…

The thematic of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale looks at merging multiplicities as much as it endorses the continuous creative processes of artists. This ongoing ‘seeking and finding’ weaves a common thread among the 97 works by artists from 30 different countries over the three-month long festival.

 

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For Italy-based artist, Daniele Galliano, approaching the biennale theme was about exploring the journey - a journey of the way an art work is created and how artistic ideas emerge and materials found, while on an actual trip.

 

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For 108 days of the biennale, Galliano will setup his studio called ‘Bad Trip India’ and repaint one found painting of unknown artists collected from his home town Turin’s flea market. “The idea is to interact with fellow artists and viewers and see how they become part of my work,” says Galliano. “So their stories, manifested in vivid manners by my mind, will be portrayed on the repainted canvas.” In a way, it talks of story on a story and how stories will continue until the end of the time and perhaps, even thereafter.

 

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At another venue, Albania-based artist Endri Dani shows a series of photographs, taken over the last four years. In each picture, the artist stands at the entrance of buildings (just as tall as the artist himself), built in the communal era. “I use my body to reflect about the past and communism,” says Dani. “I am trying to explore my co-existence with my past and relate my body with the architecture of my place.”

 

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Elsewhere, what looks like a large unit of a textile industry is Romania-based artist István Csákány’s installation titled ‘Ghost Keeping’. “My work centrally plays on the idea of how we are haunted in the now by our past,” says Csákány.

 

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Made using building materials, the work concerns ideas of memory and monumentalism. While the machinery is all there, there aren’t any workers. “I am distancing these ghosts from contemporary and the present. It is also a critique of the system of today, which didn’t manage to sustain the iconic textile industry in many cities of the world.”