EC-Rider Travels

We had just the most amazing morning at the Kochi Muziris Biennale a huge contemporary art exhibition taking place across Kochi and indeed in several other cities around the world, at different times of the year. Mariam kindly arranged for us to be guided round the exhibition by the most amazing young guy called Siddharth. Before we started, Mariam’s connections also meant that we were welcomed by the President of the Show, Bose Krishnamachari, which was a huge honour.

Over ninety artists have been invited to exhibit in the show from all over the world, with a strong South Asian presence. The show was curated by Indian-born, Singaporean, Shubigi Rao, who identified some existing works and commissioned others within her central theme ‘In our veins, flow ink and fire’. Though interpreted in very different ways by the different artists, ranging from the very dark to the positively enlightened, it tended to be an artists reaction to conflict, displacement and loss of identity. Something experienced by so many countries and communities around the world and I feel I have really seen first hand, several times over on this trip.

The art is housed in various venues around Kochi, but the majority in a wonderful central venue called Aspinwall House, a 19th-century white-walled series of colonial buildings originally used to store and export spices, tea and other goods from India.

Going round with Siddharth was a complete revelation. His passion and knowledge, of the work, the backgrounds of all the artists and deep understanding of what they were trying to communicate, brought the whole thing to life and in many cases made sense of pieces which would otherwise have been completely lost on me. We both absolutely loved it and our planned two hours soon turned into four. I think the above were my particular favourites:

Arun was of course there to meet us with a nice cool car and cold towels and took us to a rather nice hotel to have lunch. We then drove two hours to the sister hotel of Malabar House right at the other end of Lake Vambanad. Arun gave us the option to take the scenic route, which indeed it was through lots of chaotic, tumble down villages, though definitely less so than in Tamil Nadu and interspersed with some very smart houses. Crazy driving all the way and the most varied road surfaces or lack of, yet!

It was lovely to reach Malabar Purity, a very tranquil place set in a lovely rural setting, overlooking Lake Vambanad. It is very pretty and airy with lots of turquoise which made me smile, from the start. Full of some pretty crazy contemporary art alongside an eclectic collection of antique sculptures and furniture, it has the nicest feel about it. Analida and I have lovely big rooms on the waters edge with our own balconies and think we will be very happy here. I fear I am going to be a little green when I leave her here in a couple of days. Having extended her trip (after day two!), Analida is on a lovely weeks massage programme, though is yet to discover what this involves.

Sanjit, The General Manager, greeted us like long lost friends and particularly Analida! He is also the manager of the Spa and was very keen to take control of exactly what she was eating, luckily not me! There are sadly only a few other couples staying, so we were asked if there was anything we would particularly like to eat – I had heard about mud-crabs (sound disgusting!), so asked if this might be possible – could be an error. Dinner this evening was delicious and then we were both pretty ready for bed.