Kochi: In an era of “manicured, spic and span galleries,” the Kochi-Muziris Biennale is a refreshing experience, for which it does not exhibit “art for art's sake”, opines two art students from Gujarat, who were part of a 50 member team visiting Biennale for the first time.
For the group of nearly 50 fine arts students from Gujarat, the out-of-state field trip to the ongoing third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) has proven to be an eye-opening experience.
Taking in the artworks and soaking in the 'authentic feel' at India's only Biennale, the students from Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda, many of whom were on their first visit here, found both diversity of perspective and avenues for experimentation in their individual artistic expression.
"It has changed my existing notions and views of what art could be. The way the Biennale has been curated shows how intricately engaged the artworks are with the exhibition space," said Pujashree Burman, a Master of Visual Arts student, who especially enjoyed the works of Desmond Lazaro and Liu Wei.
"The visual quality on display has given me so much pleasure," he added.
KMB co-founder Bose Krishnamachari invited the group to take a walk through the venues and spaces and explore the multiplicity of styles, forms and viewpoints as intended by this edition's curator Sudarshan Shetty.
The students, from a number of disciplines within the Faculty of Fine Arts said the authenticity of the Biennale set it apart from other art events and art spaces in the country, a KMB release said.
"The Biennale feels uncontrived and non-commercial unlike the rest of the industry. How raw and real the sites are and how this rawness interacts with the works: this has been a very different experience from the other art fairs and gallery spaces I have visited so far," said Ragini Chawla, a third year BVA student from the painting department.
BVA students Aadya Swaroop Naik and Stuti Bhavsar said, the Biennale felt like a more "refreshing, immersiing experience compared to manicured, spic and span galleries."