Why this Internationally famend artist simply made historical past on the Venice Biennale
4 min learnNew DelhiUp to date: Could 8, 2026 08:48 PM IST
In a yr when the Venice Biennale is witnessing a robust presence from India, together with its Nationwide Pavilion, it appeared solely becoming that the announcement of the curator for the subsequent version of the nation’s personal biennale was made within the metropolis of canals. On Could 8, Jitish Kallat, president of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), introduced that the biennale’s seventh version, which is able to open in Kochi in December 2027, will probably be curated by French-Algerian artist Kader Attia. He would be the first worldwide curator of the biennale because it started in 2012.
Talking about Attia in an announcement issued, Kallat acknowledged, “Kader Attia brings to the biennale inventive depth, curatorial openness and a robust pedagogic sensibility. The committee was drawn to the poetic vary and generative potential of his proposal, and to the versatile curatorial framework it provided for bringing a number of inventive practices, histories, and publics into significant relation in Kochi. Attia had beforehand participated within the 2014 version of the KMB and we stay up for the methods by which his curatorial imaginative and prescient will take form in Kochi.”
Attia was chosen by a committee chaired by Kallat, which included artists Shilpa Gupta and Rirkrit Tiravanija, gallerist Amrita Jhaveri, Khoj director and curator Pooja Sood, BDL Museum director Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and KBF trustee Mariam Ram. On the 2014 version of the biennale, curated by Kallat, Attia had exhibited his work Independence Disillusionment which explored the complicated legacy of colonialism within the Center East and Africa. In December 2025, he additionally delivered the inaugural Vivan Sundaram Memorial Lecture in Kochi.
Kader Attia with Jitish Kallat. (Photograph Credit score – Hélène des Rieux, 2027)
On his appointment because the curator of the subsequent version of KMB, Attia famous, “Ever since I visited Kochi for the primary time, I’ve dreamed of coming again and constructing connections between the numerous intertwined influences which are on the core of this culturally multi-layered metropolis. I’m thrilled to have the chance to convey this want to life on the dimensions of a biennial, along with the improbable group of the KMB, for its seventh version. Desires restore us, like artwork… and the biennale, in addition to Kerala, will give us the space-time to reclaim our sovereignty over our goals.”
Considered one of India’s most prestigious artwork occasions, the sixth version of the biennale, curated by artist Nikhil Chopra and his group HH Artwork Areas, concluded in March 2026. In January, this yr, it’s co-founder Bose Krishnamachari additionally resigned from the posts of president of KMB and member of the Board of Trustees of Kochi Biennale Basis (KBF).
By the way, Attia’s work is presently exhibiting on the Venice Biennale.
The 1970 France-born artist and curator is greatest recognized for exploring themes of colonialism, reminiscence, id, migration and the conceptual and materials apply of restore — “how the act of mending reveals as a lot because it conceals”. Winner of prestigious awards such because the Joan Miró Prize (2017), Prix Marcel Duchamp (2016), Cairo Biennale Prize (2009) and Abraaj Capital Artwork Prize (2009), he was additionally curator of the twelfth Berlin Biennale (2022), and his works are within the collections of Sharjah Artwork Basis; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Fashionable Artwork, New York; and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, amongst others.
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Dr Venu V, Chairperson of the KBF, acknowledged in a launch, “The sixth version of the KMB was exceptional in some ways. It reaffirmed the biennale’s position as a vibrant house for dialogue, creativeness and inclusiveness. The announcement of the brand new curator, Kader Attia, marks the start of a contemporary inventive journey — one that can proceed to problem, encourage, and join international voices with our native realities. We’re dedicated to constructing on this legacy with new concepts, deeper engagements, and daring inventive explorations, whereas remaining rooted in Kochi’s distinctive cultural cloth.”
Receiving assist from the Authorities of Kerala in addition to arts councils, embassies, philanthropists and company sponsors, amongst others, the earlier editions of the biennale have been curated by artists corresponding to Kallat (2014-2015) Sudarshan Shetty (2016-17), Anita Dube (2018-19) and Shubigi Rao (2022-23). Its first version in 2012 was curated by its co-founders Riyas Komu and Krishnamachari, who had initially ideated the occasion in 2010 with the then tradition minister of Kerala, MA Child.
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