This is an archive article published on October 15, 2018

‘We need to be more inclusive’: Anita Dube

Artist Anita Dube, curator of the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, talks about questioning hierarchies and breaking stereotypes

5 min readOct 15, 2018 12:50 AM IST

Anita Dube Neeraj Priyadarshi

In your curatorial note for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale you share this: the desire for liberation and comradeship where the possibilities for a non-alienated life could spill into a ‘politics of friendship’. Can you elaborate.

In recent times, media has taken over our lives and we are all constantly looking into our screens. We are communicating a lot but actually not communicating. This is one of the reasons why changes in society are happening so rapidly. I feel one of the reasons for the rise of the right-wing is that they have been working at the grassroots. They have a live community, apart from mobilising through technology. The liberal resistance has not been able to mobilise, except in small numbers. The world is becoming alienated. This is what I want to work against. It is about identifying the core problems. It is important for me to think that the Biennale is in this moment, in 2018, and what are the things that I would like to address at this moment in history. The second important question is, who is my audience? It is not just the one percent that is travelling and looking at art the world over. This is a public event. There is a curious audience that has a level of literacy where they want to look at culture as a window. Six lakh people attended the last Biennale. The aim is not to put out a spectacular show. I am not looking at the star system.

Is there a tendency to look at the stars?

That’s how it has been. The capital circulates within that one percent. It is about time we talk differently, or else things will slide further. I know it is a 108-day event, I am trying to set up small models that might be taken up elsewhere. I think the future is micro, in intense well-articulated micro events, and building a strong network of these. I am looking at practices in the margins, from the obvious political margins, Dalit artists, queer artists, to even contemporary women artists, whose works I admire but haven’t perhaps been in the limelight as much. The Biennale will be like a symphony. It will be open to all kinds of mediums. People can make their choices. We need to open up practices, be inclusive.

I was reading that during your travels for the Biennale you focussed on the South of the equator.

There are artists from the US, but yes, there a strong representation from Africa, Latin American artists. Unfortunately, I could not travel to Brazil and Argentina. There is a lot of Indian diaspora — I think that is important because they leave the place but carry the nostalgia. They are harbingers of this kind of fusion, and have potential to forge languages that are futuristic. We have artists such as Chitra Ganesh and Shirin Neshat.

KP Krishnakumar’s Boy Listening

Your own art is very political. Will the Biennale also be dominated by political works?

Art is about thinking of different things and in the Biennale there will be a strong sense of thinking artists. Politics is not something that I am looking at directly. Sloganeering politics can be counter-productive, you can become totally alienated and be stereotyped. Look at how JNU and Marxism have become bad words. It’s a wonderful university; Marxism is a theory, philosophy. The regressive forces can just brand you and kill your voice. In the Biennale, I am not doing politics like that. I am consciously refraining from making it one that carries the strings of being a political biennale. I want to wean people off from this logic of stereotyping.

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Do you think you have additional responsibility as the first woman curator of the Biennale?

It is tremendous responsibility. This is also perhaps the first time when there will be more women than men. I don’t think that has happened anywhere. Only two artists will be repeated from the earlier editions — William Kendrick and KP Krishnakumar. So I am also working with artists who may not have been considered uptil now.

What is your curatorial vision?

I am imagining the Biennale in two parts. The exhibition is just one aspect. The other aspect is a pavilion, where things will happen in the evening, including programmes and performances. During the day it will be a conversation space. Anybody is welcome to share what they want, there will be lectures and slides. Everybody is a curator. I want to give up my authority. It will be a major knowledge laboratory. It is the biggest classroom possible. It will open the audience and younger artists to a much bigger vision than just mine.

Did the recent floods in Kerala derail things. Also, did it affect the line-up?

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When it happened, there was a dilemma, should we go ahead or postpone it. Many projects were on the verge of completion. Some artists decided to respond to the floods more directly. We are talking to a music band, Oorali, to travel through coastal Kerala with their bus and thank the fishermen who helped rescue people during the floods.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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