Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an international exhibition curated by Shubigi Rao (b, 1975, Mumbai), an artist, writer, and filmmaker working with histories and lies, literature and violence, ecologies and natural history, libraries and knowledge hierarchies. Her films, art, and books critically, wittily, and poetically scrutinise current and historical flashpoints and crises of displacement of people, languages, cultures, and knowledge bodies. Her immersive and tongue-in-cheek work ranges from creating archaeological archives of garbage, writing How To manuals for building a nation and a culture from scratch, discovering and diagnosing peculiar forms of urban malaise where digital dandruff and pixel dust accumulate like lint and cloud the contemporary brain, building immortal jellyfish, to pseudo-museums regenerating mechanisms of knowledge accumulation, storage, and destruction.
In this talk introduced and moderated by Keith Whittle, Shubigi Rao (a hybrid event hosted at ATU Letterkenny) shed light on her diverse artistic practice and her experiences as the curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which took place from December 2022 to April 2023. Shubigi’s work spans various disciplines, including archaeology, neuroscience, libraries, archives, histories, literature, violence, ecology, and natural history. Her diverse interests inform her approach as a curator, emphasising the need for inclusivity and the foregrounding of underrepresented artists and practices. As the biennale’s curator, she navigated the challenges of organising an international art exhibition in Kochi, a city known for its cultural pluralism and lack of infrastructure.
Rao gave an overview of the history of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (the first recurrent exhibition of international contemporary art in India). It began as a government initiative when the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Government of Kerala approached two artists – Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari – to help organise an international platform for art in India. To establish itself as a new centre for artistic engagement in India by drawing from the tradition of public action and public engagement in Kerala, the location of Kochi, and its rich tradition of arts. It seeks to balance the interests and independence of artists, art institutions, and the public and to explore ideas of cultural pluralism, globalisation and multiculturalism. As the biennale’s curator, she navigated the challenges of organising an international art exhibition in Kochi, a city known for its cultural pluralism and lack of existing infrastructure. Rao explored and questioned in her talk the loosely self-organised autonomy of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the specificity of the site and its participatory and relational mission.
Read >> Shubigi Rao
Watch >> Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Watch >> Venice Art Biennale 2022
Kochi-Muziris Biennale governing body was well aware that Rao, an artist interested in disrupting the zones of exclusion entrenched in contemporary art, systems and geopolitics, was going to use the opportunity to curate artworks circulating locally and internationally that do not equally belong to contemporary art as a global aggregate of current artistic concepts, practices, and traditions that distinguish between local artistic experimentation and the international art market closely linked to North America and Europe.
Recent solos include exhibitions at Ngutu Kaka Gallery, New Zealand (2024), Rockbund Art Museum, China (2023-2024), and Rossi & Rossi Gallery, Hong Kong (2023). Upcoming shows include the 16th Sharjah Biennale (2025), and a year-long solo at Bildmuseet Sweden (March 2025- Feb 2026). Rao represented Singapore at the National Pavilion in the Venice Biennale (Arte) in 2022. She was also the Artistic Director for the 2022-2023 Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Shubigi’s publications include Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory of the Banished Book (2022), Pulp II: A Visual Bibliography of the Banished Book (2018), Written in the Margins, (2017), Pulp: A Short Biography of the Banished Book, (2016), Bastardising Biography (2005), 3 pseudo-encyclopaedia under the joint title No Cover No Colour (2006), and Useful Fictions, (2013). Her publication History’s Malcontents: The Life and Times of S. Raoul (2013), chronicled 10 years of artwork and writing under the pseudonym S. Raoul.
Curated by Keith Whittle in partnership with ArtLink and hosted by Void Gallery. Funded by Arts Council Ireland
