Kader Attia to Curate the 2027 Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Source Art Asia Pacific by Yuqian Fan
The Kochi Biennale Foundation has named Algerian French artist, curator, and scholar Kader Attia as curator of the seventh edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which is scheduled to open in 2027. Born in Dugny in 1970 and based between Berlin and Paris, Attia examines the ongoing ramifications of colonialism through installations, films, sculptures, and archival research, often articulated through his long-term engagement with the concept of “Repair.” He is a professor of time-based media at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and has been recognized with the Marcel Duchamp Prize in Paris (2016), the Joan Miró Prize in Barcelona, and the Yanghyun Prize in Seoul (both 2017). In 2022, he curated the 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. In a statement, Attia said he looks forward to drawing on Kochi’s layered cultural histories to frame both art and dreaming as forms of “repair,” adding that both the biennial and Kerala offer “the space-time to reclaim our sovereignty over our dreams.”
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A collector’s guide to Ganesh Pyne

Source Christie's
As a teenager, Pyne discovered the paintings of the Bengal School, established in the late 19th century by Sunayani Devi and Abanindranath Tagore. This nationalist modern art movement promoted a romantic, symbolist style based on Indian mythology, using ink wash and tempera. ‘You can see their influence in his early paintings of the 1950s,’ says Avari, ‘but very quickly Pyne starts to move on. The works become more existential in theme, reflecting the post-colonial crisis of identity India was experiencing at the time.’ Pyne’s paintings are metaphysical and suffused with a primeval darkness. ‘There’s a “lost world” quality to them that is timeless,’ says Avari. Ganesh Pyne was once described by the journalist and film-maker Pritish Nandy as a man who ‘radiated a mysterious quality’. He was an intensely private artist who rarely gave interviews, which meant clues to his personality were often sought for in his paintings, charged with the supernatural. ‘He raises the ghosts of the past,’ said the actor Barun Chanda in the documentary A Painter of Eloquent Silence.
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