BOSE KRISHNAMACHARI RESHAPING INDIA'S ART LANDSCAPE

As an artist, curator and president of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, he has championed new voices and redefined how the country engages with contemporary culture.

- BY SANJANA RAY PHOTOGRAPHS BY NEERAJ PRIYADARSHI

WHEN SOMEONE WALKS into the GQ Men of the Year party wearing a baroque-print shirt, technicolour frames and canary-yellow sneakers—at an event fittingly themed ‘maximalist’—it’s hard not to look.

Artist and curator Bose Krishnamachari has a presence that fills the room long before you hear his voice.

This is about a fortnight before the opening of the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, one of India’s largest contemporary art festivals, now spread across 30 locations in Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and Willingdon Island. Being the president of this exhibition, you’d expect to see exhaustion or nerves on him. Instead, Krishnamachari, now in his 60s, moves through the party with kinetic energy. I watch him converse with musicians, actors and artists without losing momentum. His tenacity, after all, is one of the reasons the Kochi Biennale has become a global art landmark. A constant appetite for reinvention is another.

Spearheading the ‘People’s Biennale’

First held in 2012, the Kochi Biennale showcases the best of Indian and international artistry across mediums—painting, sculpture, film, and performance art. The festival channels the region’s storied, cosmopolitan legacy—from the ancient port of Muziris to the modern metropolis of Kochi.