Anita Dube on Curating India’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale

O n the coast of southern India, at the former centre of the spice trade, the city of Kochi is now home to the country’s biggest contemporary art event. The area's mix of warehouses, beaches and heritage waterfront buildings provides a range of eclectic venues for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which opened for its fourth edition on 12 December and is to be curated by Indian artist and art historian Anita Dube. The first woman to take on the role, Dube's programme will bring together works by more than 90 artists, including Akram Zaatari of Lebanon and Shambhavi Singh of India, across 10 unconventional sites, such as the famed Pepper House and a pavilion designed by Dube.

My travels, over the course of a year and to over 30 countries, were an essential part of my curatorial research. It was a privilege to be able to be hosted by international institutions and supporters of the Biennale, and to be introduced to dynamic new artists and practices. At the same time, I was given the chance to meet artists I have long admired, and whose works have informed my own practice greatly.

I think the irreproducibility and specificity of the venues are a huge part of making the biennale what it is. We aren’t working with “white cube” spaces, and that is particularly exciting for a curator – and for the artists. In a sense, the showcased works have never been seen in this way before; they take on a new life. Yes, this can sometimes prove to be a practical challenge for installation and production, but nothing that the seasoned and resourceful team at Kochi Biennale Foundation can’t solve.

Early on, I realised that the exhibition model would not sufficiently address questions of the audience’s active engagement, [so] the structure will be a space for formal programming that accompanies the Biennale exhibition. This is a space for fostering open dialogue, listening and speaking, and even disagreement.

The idea is not so much seeking to include, [which would] reinforce an inside and outside, but to dissipate constructed boundaries as much as possible. I hope this is not a top-down exercise, but, rather, an opening up at large – an open invitation to collaborate and celebrate together. The conceptual and curatorial structure has many points of entry, with fluctuations in tone and flow. I hope this attention to rhythm can energise the exhibition, too. For me, energy and pleasure were essential factors in envisioning the Biennale this year.

The Biennale is not going to be political in a sloganeering sense; sometimes these positions can be too determinate, counter-productive and polarising. But it will be political in that many of the fantastic participating artists are dealing directly or indirectly with social conditions and political systems, offering interpretations, reflections and possibilities for alternative futures. Yes, we are working against fascist alienation and for shared pleasure, for connection, so the Biennale is political in this sense.

There is something about the character of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale that can’t be completely articulated – an openness, a relaxed face, or lack of control, in a sense – that is hard to see anywhere else in the world. This year, in particular, I think the Biennale will stand out because of the eclectic mix of artists, [providing] a really dynamic range. Each visitor, I hope, will actively shape the experience as a whole; I think that, too, will make it special. I can’t wait until the gates are opened so these theoretical aims are realised in unpredictable ways.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India, 12 December–29 March 2019