‘Lokame tharavadu’/ ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’/ ‘World is one family’ is the call of the time as the world has been under the threat of Covid pandemic for the last fifteen months, and people across the geographical borders are forced to be isolated from their family or community. Realising the need to reach out to the artist community in this time of despair, the Kochi Biennale Foundation, Kerala, has hosted the show ‘Lokame Tharavadu’ with 267 Malayali artists living and working in different parts of the globe. Curator Bose Krishnamachari, the man whose name has now become synonymous with colossal art projects, has conceived the exhibition
with the inspiration drawn from the Malayalam verses by Vallathol Narayana Menon. The curatorial framework of the show revolves around the idea of home, family, community,togetherness, identity, belongingness, memory, nostalgia, migration, displacement and so on.
The ensemble of artists ranges from the most venerated names such as A.Ramachandran, KS Radhakrishnan, Valsan Koorma Kolleri, Jyothy Basu, Namboothiri, Alex Mathew and T. V. Santhosh to the young and established artists like Jitish Kallat, Gigi Scaria, Sujith S. N., Madhu Venugopalan, Suresh K. Nair, K.P. Reji, Sajan Mani, Om Soorya, Aami Atmaja, Indu Antony and many more. Accommodated in six different venues in Alappuzha and Ernakulam, Kerala, this large-scale exhibition has put together diverse practices, languages and concerns of the artists whose roots are still in the culture of Kerala.
The show will end on 30th June, 2021.
On this special occasion of International Day of Families, Desee Art echoes Vallathol Narayana Menon’s verse “Lokame Tharavadu” or World is one family.
Image courtesy: Kochi Biennale Foundation
Explore more artworks that we have curated for you:
