India’s Biennale Effect A politics of contemporary art

India’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale has been described as one of the most significant newly emergent biennales, alongside Shanghai, Sharjah and Dakar. However, there have been few sustained and critical studies of these events as specific sites of production and reception of contemporary art. This book, engaging with the Kochi Biennale, provides detailed examination of what the editors term as the ‘biennale effect’ — a layered contestation of place, economics, art and politics. It presents a close reading of the unique context of the biennale as well as sets out a broader critical framework for understanding global contemporary art and its effects. Replete with illustrations, this book will serve as an important and rare resource for scholars and researchers of contemporary art, art history, visual cultures, and media studies.

Introduction I Is Art Enough? 1. The Biennale Effect 2. Effects of Mobility, Visibility and Connectivity 3. The Cultural Politics of ‘Whorled Explorations’ 4. ‘The Biennale was Not the Issue’ An interview with Riyas Komu II Making Work 5. Making a Biennale: Art Interrupted 6. Curation in/as Dialogue: the Correspondence of Jitish Kallat 7. Painterly Explorations and the Social Gestus of Contemporary Art 8. End of Empire III Beyond the Event 9. ‘A People’s Biennale’: A Democracy of Visual Culture? 10. Analogue and Digital Audiences 11. Towards a New Art Education 12. Regional Effects - From Triennale to Biennale, from Festival to Summit

Robert E. D’Souza is Head of Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK. Sunil Manghani is Reader in Critical and Cultural Theory, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK.