Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025
Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), South Asia’s longest-running continuously organized contemporary art biennale, is set to open its sixth edition, ‘For the Time Being’. Now under the management of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), the highly anticipated event will be open for 110 days from December 12, 2025, to March 31, 2026, offering a huge and thrilling experience to art lovers as well as the general public.
The new iteration will reinterpret the experience of the biennale, moving beyond the traditional model of an exhibition to provoke a more networked and activated discursive practice among artists. With emphasis on process and mutual “friendship economies,” Kochi-Muziris Biennale ’25 will create a living space where art, artists, and publics interact intensively and deeply. Guests can be assured of an experience that brings together modern art and the Kochi high culture, in a city in which global and indigenous elements coexist in harmony.
| Things to Know | Information |
|---|---|
| Event | Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025 – 6th Edition |
| Theme | “For the Time Being” |
| Dates | December 12, 2025 – March 31, 2026 (110 days) |
| Location | ndian Chamber of Commerce Building Mattanchery, Kochi, Keraleeya-682002 India. |
| Organizer | Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) |
| Tickets | Students & Children: ₹50 Senior Citizen: ₹100 Adult: ₹150 Weekly Pass: ₹1,000 Monthly Pass: ₹4,000 Tickets available online & at Aspinwall House |
| Website | communications@kochimuzirisbiennale.org, kochimuzirisbiennale.org |
A New Curatorial Vision
This edition of the KMB will be guest-curated by prominent multi-disciplinary artist Nikhil Chopra, with HH Art Spaces, which is an artist group based in Goa. Rather than repetition of the same old biennale routine, something new is being experimented with by Chopra. He is building the concept of collaboration and exchange. His work is founded on the idea that art could grow when individuals share as well as assist one another.
The sixth edition is conceived as a “living ecosystem” where each component, ranging from performances to artworks, resides, shares space and time, and resources that increase by being in dialogue with each other. This approach seeks to move away from the idea of a singular, central exhibition event, fostering an evolving, responsive, and alive experience.
Embracing the Body and Embodied Histories
Chopra’s curatorial note emphasizes an inquiry that begins with the body – “chemical, tender, marked by memory and intimacy.” Here, the body is understood as a terrain of time, an organ of labour, pleasure, and grief. From these bodies, things get processed and become other extensions, meaningful and refiguring reality. This stance asks for more presence of being and attempts to plant seeds towards a more awakened and compassionate future.
Biennale will also explore histories transmitted by the previous generations of human beings. These histories reside within and concurrent with our bodies, in memory, and in our mode of living. It is a project of establishing a deep connection among individuals, places, and moments. It asks us to remember, listen to, and acknowledge each other more through experience.
Beyond the Exhibition: A Diverse Programme
Besides the international exhibition, the KMB ’25 will also feature a rich programme aimed at fostering a diverse cross-section of people. The main verticals are:
| Initiative | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Students’ Biennale | Providing space for nascent artists. |
| Invitations | Joint collaborations and solo shows. |
| Children’s Art | Stimulating thought patterns in young minds. |
| Residency Programme | Facilitating artistic growth and exchange. |
| Collateral | A series of solo events and exhibitions held in Kochi. |
The Biennale will also include a complete schedule of performances, screenings, lectures, workshops, and films that are going to be taking place at some of the Kochi locations, an ancient seaport with a history of confluence of local and universal cultures.
A Dynamic and Immersive Experience
KBF Chairperson Dr. Venu V had anticipated that the planning and organizational changes incorporated would help the event turn out to be a success in this edition. In his opinion, the Biennale would enable the commoner as much as the connoisseur to have a “dynamic experience.”
Nikhil Chopra’s performance and durational exhibitions were the focal point, stated Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The audience is going to experience an immersive journey with breathtaking works of art, site-specific interventions, and more than sufficient space to interact with artists and other art lovers.
Takeaway
The KMB ’25 situates itself to take up the contradictions and weaknesses of our times, assuming that although art in itself cannot alter the world, cultural collisions can perhaps initiate a conversation and shatter tough silences, if only momentarily. Amidst an era overburdened with digital knowledge and marked by global uncertainty, the Biennale longs to confirm the dominance of liveness, being-there, and communion.
Numerous live events, gestures, and debates will enliven the 110 days of the Biennale, engaging spectators in bodily, participatory experiences that confound a grid-based system of exhibition. The full list of artists for Kochi-Muziris Biennale’s sixth edition will be announced in October 2025.
