Biennale foundation to chose curator for 2016 edition

The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) will choose the curator for the third edition of the country's only biennale, an art extravaganza, coming up next year-end, by holding this weekend a top-level meeting that would ensure "transparency" in the key selection process.
A high-powered Artistic Advisory Committee comprising nine members including KBF trustees, artists, scholars and patrons, will meet in New Delhi on May 30 to decide on the person who would be curating the next Kochi-Muziris Biennale slated to begin on December 12, 2016, a release here said.
The Saturday deliberations will be attended by KBF President Bose Krishnamachari, Secretary Riyas Komu and Trustee Sunil V, besides art critic Ranjith Hoskote, promoters Kiran Nadar and Shireen Gandhy and artists Atul Dodia, Jyothi Basu and Bharati Kher.

The 2010-founded KBF, which is a non-profit organisation headquartered at Kochi, had formed the panel recently to ensure transparency in the process of selecting the curator.
"The new artistic advisory board consists of eminent and respected personalities from the world of art; and not just KBF officials," Krishnamachari said.
Added Komu, "That ensures a continuation of the transparent process to select the new curator. It won't be a unilateral decision."
The KBF's first such committee had met in 2013 and chosen Jitish Kallat as the curator of the 2014 KMB which lasted for 108 days before concluding on March 29 this year.

That body comprised art historian Geeta Kapur, Bhau Daaji Laad Museum director Tasneem Zackeria Mehta, artists Sheela Gowda and Balan Nambiar, Gujral Foundation's Feroze Gujral and curator-gallerist Abhay Maskara, besides Krishnamachari and Komu.