India's First Biennale Begins on 12/12/12
Presumably they were waiting for the perfect date. After all, you wouldn't want to plan India's first-ever Biennale on just any old day, so the prospect of scheduling a splendidly symmetrical start date of 12/12/12 must have been appealing for the folks organizing Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012. Curated by Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu, the three-month event will include a multitude of media by a vast array of artists, split evenly between participants from India and a wealth of international artists. Sudarshan Shetty, Sanchayan Gosh, and Subodh Gupta are among the former, while the latter includes everyone from Brazil's Ernesto Neto to Amanullah Mojadidi of Afghanistan.
But the artists and their output aren't the only notable aspects of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 — the venues in which the events will unfold make an aesthetic statement all their own. The artistic action will take place in historic properties, some dating back to the 19th century, that have never been open to the public before. The Biennale foundation renovated the 150-year-old Durbar Hall for the occasion, and much of KMB will take place in the spacious environs of the oceanfront structure known as Aspinwall House, a former spice factory sporting some 16,000 square feet of space. The only problem facing the Biennale at this point would seem to be the inherent difficulty in scheduling the second one for 14/14/14.
