At Kochi Biennale, Art Slows Time

When the present is shaped by both memory and anticipation, how does one begin to contemplate “for the time being”?

At the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which opened its sixth edition in Fort Kochi, the theme unfolds like a slow tide.

In a landscape where centuries of trade, migration, and layered sovereignties continue to seep into everyday life, the act of foregrounding the present moment becomes charged and luminous. Here, the ‘now’ is not a passing moment but a dense, breathing stretch of time—shaped by what has been and alert to what may come.

Over the two-and-a-half months of the Biennale, artists, performers, and audiences are invited to inhabit this expanded present, within Kochi’s old warehouses, sunlit courtyards, and salt-tinged waterfront.

An Idea in Motion: ‘For the Time Being’

This is the sixth edition of the Biennale, and its theme, ‘for the time being’, at first glance appears almost at odds with the previous edition’s motto—though the organisers don’t see it as a departure, but a continuation.

“The theme struck a chord with us when Nikhil Chopra, the curator, presented it,” says Bose Krishnamachari, president of the Kochi Biennale Foundation. To him, the choice feels less like a break and more like an organic evolution, a deepening of concerns already present in the Biennale’s history.

For Chopra, the theme mirrors how he has long approached performance and space—by entering the present moment fully while carrying traces of history, memory, and personal ritual.

“My work has always unfolded in real time, in front of people, allowing the present to stretch, to gather meaning,” he says. “For the time being” becomes less a slogan and more an invitation: to slow down, to inhabit time rather than measure it, to see how the immediate moment expands when one pays attention.

In Chopra’s view, the Biennale becomes a living organism in which artists, sites, and audiences are co-creators of this shared present, shaping it through encounters, gestures, and durations.

‘Curation as an extension of my performance’

“As a performance artist, I experience this curation as an extension of that performance — the longest performance I have ever done,” Chopra says, when asked about the line between curating a Biennale and creative work at the intersection of live performance, theatre, and painting.

“This is the biggest test I am facing as a human; the human aspect is always being tested when I become part of any community,” he adds, emphasising how the role of curator demands the same vulnerability, presence, and attentiveness that shape his artistic work.

For him, this Biennale is not a spectacle but a lived process — a space where art and life blend seamlessly. “Success is the acceptance of what you have,” he says, suggesting that the theme ‘for the time being’ emerges precisely from this ethos: an insistence on being present, receptive, and open to the moment as it unfolds.

Building Friendship Economies

The curators speak often of wanting to move beyond the Biennale and build what they call “friendship economies.” This, they insist, is not a metaphor but a mode of practice — a way for artists and practitioners to work with one another while also nourishing each other’s processes.

These “friendship economies” are, in essence, creative synergies, and the Biennale treats them as central rather than incidental. Instead of a singular author or a solitary artistic voice, the Biennale foregrounds relationships: art that grows through partnerships, shared labour, and long-term friendships.

According to Chopra, such collaborative practices create an ecosystem that begins in the Biennale’s immediate neighbourhood and gradually extends outward, influencing communities, geographies, and audiences well beyond Kochi. This ripple effect, he suggests, that gives the Biennale its vitality: a network of connections that holds space for the present while imagining new futures.

According to Krishnamachari, this edition of the Biennale features a set of collateral projects presented by nine institutions and artists, each expanding the thematic field in distinct ways.

Among the highlights is a presentation by abstractionist Shobha Broota, whose quietly powerful visual language offers a meditative counterpoint to the Biennale’s emphasis on presence and temporality. Equally prominent is painter Naina Dalal, whose works bring an intimate, tactile sensibility to the programme.

One of the most ambitious collateral projects is the Durga Puja Art Living Museum, which connects the public art traditions of Bengal with the cultural rhythms of Kerala, forging a conversation between the two port cities of Kolkata and Kochi.

Emperor’s New Clothes by Monsoon Culture explores the link between the personal and the political, situating individual experience within broader socio-cultural narratives.

Monsoon Culture aims to bring together artists, activists, and historians to reinterpret Kerala’s long-standing ethos of cultural harmony.

Aswin Prakash, who leads the project, describes it as an attempt to rebuild bridges between communities through shared memory, artistic exchange, and the monsoon’s metaphor of interconnectedness.

The Students’ Biennale, curated collectively by the Secular Art Collective, Anga Art Collective, and a group of independent artists, brings together approximately 70 projects from nearly 150 art schools nationwide. It runs parallel to the leading exhibition, offering a platform for emerging voices and extending the Biennale’s pedagogical reach.

The main Biennale itself showcases the works of 66 artists from 25 countries, spread across multiple venues and supported by a constellation of collateral programmes. “The venues, new formats, and partnerships are a testament to our responsibility to nurture public engagement,” Krishnamachari says, noting how the expansion of the Biennale’s footprint signals its evolving relationship with the city.

Among the special exhibitions is Of Worlds Within Worlds, featuring the works of Gulammohammed Sheikh and curated by Rubina Karode, which meditates on layered realities and narrative multiplicities. A photography-based installation, Six Stations of a Life Pursued, serves as a poignant tribute to the late Vivan Sundaram.

“Time in Kochi is an interesting conversation,” Chopra reflects, linking the Biennale’s theme to the city’s many-layered histories. “Being a port city, many things come here and go — nothing is permanent. You can feel several times in the ‘now’ here.”

For those working within the Biennale, he suggests that “for the time being” becomes an expanded present — one that gathers the past to make sense of the present and gestures toward the future.