Reclaiming Durbar Hall for Kerala Artists from Biennale

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

 Durbar Hall, Kochi has assumed a festival mood as it stands clad in decorative flags and specially created festival hangings. Art is a religion with many gods that tolerate each other therefore, the Shiva temple next to the famous hall in a way adds to the devotional sentiments of the surroundings. Two artists namely, Manoj Brahmamangalam and Pramod are at work in creating a decorative installation at the entrance of the hall. The Durbar Hall is getting ready for an exhibition of late KG Subramanyan's works from the collection of Seagull Foundation on Kolkata, jointly presented by the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi.

Aksharananda with Manoj Brahmamangalam and Pramod

People going to the temple and making the Durbar Hall ground a thorough fare to elsewhere look at the installation arch being created by the artists. They itch to photograph it. People want art and they could relate to the art that they understand. Even if the visitors of Biennale say that Kerala is yet to prepare itself aesthetically to understand international art, people in Kerala know their art. Manoj and Pramod say that even during the Biennale month they had created impressive installations and people had commented (including the foreign tourists) that their installation was better than what they saw at the biennale.

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

However Biennale authorities blinded by the imperialistic ideologies are not ready to entertain or promote Kerala artists. The artists in the biennale trust themselves say that the Kerala artists are yet to use modern technology to use spectacular art. Being the agents of imperialism and capitalism, the anti-nationalist aesthetics of biennale and the promotion of it have been choking the creative streams for the last seven years. It is high time that we all seek a method to put an end to it.

Aksharananda with Manoj Brahmamangalam and Pramod

The first way is to reclaim Durbar hall from the hands of the Biennale Trust. It has created an MOU with the Government of Kerala that during the Biennale year for four months, the Durbar Hall would be given for the use of the Biennale. The best part of the year is thus taken away from the Kerala artists who are denied opportunities to exhibit there in those months. Biennale being monopolistic in all the possible ways, has taken over all the venues in Kochi- Ernakulam by incorporating them as collaterals. So many itinerant gallery spaces have sprung up in the area to present the Biennale supporters' works as collaterals. Ideologically, dumb and foolishly opportunistic, these galleries function as Biennale's 'benamis' during the biennale months.

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

From my extensive interactions with Kerala artists, I have come to feel thus that a majority of the artists do not want to support biennale because if its undemocratic and monopolistic attitudes. As the government is supporting biennale for purely touristic reasons, the artists are hand tied. Artists being a professional group with no organisation to back them up are left literally helpless in Kerala. They are now being bulldozed by the fascist moves of the biennale. Even the Lalitha Kala Akademi is now feeling its hands tied as the best months of the year are given to Biennale. Both the Lalitha Kala Akademi and the artists in Kerala want to reclaim the Durbar Hall back for the use of the artists.

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

Biennale does not show any sense of responsibility towards the Kerala society as it is purely a tourist oriented business venture. Except for the four months once in two years, the biennale authorities are least bothered about the life of the artists and their art of Kerala. These imperialist agents who promote anti- nationalistic art speak a lot about political art but has kept studied silence in all the socio-political issues that have been taking place in the state since 2012. This studied silence is there to placate the religious and caste based politics in Kerala so that the biennale could make hay while the sun shines. Some of the artists who do not want to be identified informed me that they works for money for biennale because all the avenues in culture today work in tandem with biennale authorities and muscle them down to do menial works. Many work for it only because they do not have any source of income.

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

Artists in Kerala are very disturbed about the way Biennale is monopolising cultural spaces and aesthetics. They also feel that the government should realise the folly in supporting the biennale. "Biennale is cultural fascism" says an artist. "But we cannot say /biennale should not take place because the artists are involved there too. We need healthy art environment facilitated by the government so that we could make artistic statements via our works that would be a counter visual narrative against the biennale culture," requesting anonymity he says. Today artists in Kerala are in a mood to reclaim Durbar Hall for themselves.  " The government has given them a lot of money. It has offered them permanent venue also. Now government should give Durbar Hall to artists, and pump in money in all the regional and District art centres so that Kerala's tourism will develop in a  decentralised fashion. We cannot tolerate Biennale's monopoly" says another artist. 

Durbar Hall Ernakulam

The Government should gauge the mood of Kerala's art scene. More than 80% of the artists are not interested in biennale. Even the tourists say that they would like to see Kerala art and culture not he installations that they have seen in their countries. The government should stop funding the Biennale and let it take place as a private initiative. And it should be given only logistic support during the biennale months. The rest of the money should be channelised via Lalitha Kala Akademi and District Tourism Promotion Council and create healthy environment for Kerala artists to flourish. Kerala government  should not support any thing that kills the pride of the state and the national feeling in the name of internationalism. Let the call for reclaiming Durbar Hall for Kerala artists be the first step towards that.