Embedded in a transparent resin, the Chennai city map looked disparate and vibrant with lights. Inside one of the venues of Students’ Biennale, a parallel event to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, V. Prabu of Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, has developed an installation to show the city in a different light. A map created with materials collected from various part of Chennai, the artwork is a true representation of the city.
Prabu was accompanied by his newfound friends who are also young artists working on multiple projects for the biennale. One of them, B. Dhanalakshmi, who hails from the fisherman community of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, wants to convey stories of tussle through Kalamkari art. “The idea of Kalamkari is to convey stories,” says Dhanalakshmi who attributed the reasons for their struggle towards Palk Strait. One of her works show how Tamil fishermen are captured by the Sri Lankan government. The common thread that connects most of the student artists is how they have expressed myriad concerns and cultures through art.
Students’ Biennale curator Krishnapriya C.P. speaks about working with students from various colleges: “The challenge is to try and get them to articulate their concerns and transform these into some kind of an artwork or visual output. It is not an immediate process. For me, it is about finding anyone who is willing to engage with a serious idea”. She sees this whole arrangement as a new and different platform, something they haven’t engaged with in their own practice, institutions or city earlier.
The Students’ Biennale, set to be inaugurated on December 13, will launch nearly 120 projects of over 230 young artists from India as well as nations including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Explaining the idea behind Students’ Biennale, an administrator, says: “The Students' Biennale was conceived with an idea of creating a space for learning. In 2012, a few young artists were given a small production budget. They did their projects along with other artists at the Aspinwall House. In 2014 and 2016, it was an open call to develop young curators”.
At another venue, the Mattanchery Temple, team of artists from Manipur is ready with their installations that exhibit their state's culture. Across the street is a unique artwork of students from Kokrajhar Music and Fine Arts College, Assam using textile and silk varieties of Assam.
As the Kochi Biennale is all set to launch this year’s edition, the theme for students’ Biennale is ‘Making as Thinking’. Krishnapriya describes this as a novel platform for students, something they have not engaged with in their institutions or city earlier. “Peer learning and collaboration makes this more important,” she says.
