Kerala: Nikhil Chopra, HH Art Spaces curators for Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025-2026

Kochi (Kerala) [India], November 20 (ANI): The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KGF) on Wednesday announced artist Nikhil Chopra and his team, HH Art Spaces, as the curators for the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), a major international contemporary art event.

The selection was made by a committee of art world professionals, including Shanay Jhaveri, Dayanita Singh, Rajeeb Samdani, Jitish Kallat, and Bose Krishnamachari.

The event will begin on December 12, 2025, and will continue for four months until March 31, 2026, featuring 60 artists and artistic practices from India and across the world.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan introduced Chopra at a press conference in Kochi as the curator for the event. Chopra is known for his work in performance, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and installation, and his artistic practice explores themes of identity, politics, history, and the body.

Chief Minister Vijayan further extended a welcome to Chopra and his team, HH Art Spaces, based in Goa, and invited people from Kerala, India, and globally to attend the event, which aims to promote art, community engagement, and dialogue.

"We invite the people of Kerala, the nation, and the world to join us in celebrating this spectacular event that fosters the spirit of art, community, and dialogue," Vijayan said.

KBF was established in 2010 by artists for artists as a non-profit, charitable trust set up in Kerala, South India, to promote art, culture, heritage, and education. The Government of Kerala has been a principal supporter of the Kochi Biennale Foundation.KBF's mission is to promote artistic and cultural education through engagement and dialogue with exhibitions of diverse and inclusive art practices. KBF aims to catalyse Kochi and its surroundings with contemporary art and ideas and to work towards the restoration and conservation of heritage properties and monuments and the revival of traditional forms of art and culture.KBF hosts the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), India's largest contemporary art festival that is presented biennially in the historic port city of Kochi, on the Malabar coast of India.KMB draws from Kerala's rich multicultural history, including the fabled Chera harbour of Muziris that traded with the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean regions. In the recent past, Kochi was ruled and influenced by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial cultures and has been home to a number of ethnic communities, including Jews, Konkinis, and Gujaratis. (ANI)