The Kochi Biennale Foundation is proud to announce Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces as the new curatorial team for the sixth edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The biennale will open to the public on December 12th 2025 for a period of four months.
The selection of the curator was made by a committee of eminent Indian and international art world figures (Shanay Jhaveri, Dayanita Singh, Rajeeb Samdani, Jitish Kallat and Bose Krishnamachari).
The announcement was made by the Chief Minister of Kerala, the honorable Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala’s state capital, Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of the curator and key representatives of KBF.
Nikhil Chopra stated: “The very edge of the peninsula of the Indian Subcontinent is the setting for an international contemporary art exhibition. Perhaps the most international corner of the world, Kerala is where boats from distant lands have harboured to trade and exchange aspects of the human legacy in the form of objects, edibles and consumables for thousands of years. I along with my team HH Art Spaces find myself with the incredible task and humbling privilege of bringing sixty contemporary artists and artistic practices from India and the world into the present, to ignite conversations about being human; poetic and political, in a place where the ancient, the modern and the contemporary have always been in critical dialogue with each other, with the desire to turn ideas and knowledge into wisdom.”
Bose Krishnamachari, President of Kochi-Muziris Biennale commented: “We are thrilled to announce Nikhil Chopra and HH Art Spaces as the curators for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025. Their deep-rooted commitment to the arts, along with their visionary approach to curating, will undoubtedly shape a remarkable chapter for the Biennale. Nikhil’s unique perspective, paired with the creative energy of HH Art Spaces, promises to bring fresh dialogue and innovative perspectives to this global platform. We look forward to witnessing the transformative experience they will create for artists, audiences, and the community alike.”
About Nikhil Chopra
Nikhil Chopra’s artistic practice interweaves live art, drawing, photography, sculpture and installations. His performances, in large part improvised, dwell on identity and its construction, autobiography and authorship, the pose and self-portraiture. Nikhil combines everyday life, memory and collective history; daily acts such as eating, resting, washing and dressing, in tandem with the act and discipline of making large scale drawings in situ become the process of making an artwork.
Nikhil’s works have been included in major exhibitions including Documenta 14, 12th Sharjah Biennale, 12th Havana Biennale; 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale and 53rd Venice Biennale amongst others. He has also shown works and performed at the Gropius Bau, Berlin; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester; New Art Exchange, Nottingham; , SFMOMA, San Francisco; Artsonje, Seoul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway; Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK; Carriageworks, Sydney; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.
Nikhil Chopra was born in Kolkata in 1974, and lives in Goa where he runs HH Art Spaces with partners. After studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara, India, the artist continued his studies in the United States in 2003 to return to India in 2005 with a Masters from Ohio State University.
About HH Art Spaces
HH Art Spaces, Goa, was founded in 2014 by Nikhil Chopra and Romain Loustau, both live art and performance artists. HH Art Spaces is a movement, and currently includes the shared vision, voices, rigors, and energies of a collective of artists and cultural practitioners. Key founding and partner members of the organization are: Madhavi Gore, Shivani Gupta, and Shaira Sequeira Shetty.
HH Art Spaces fosters an ethos of collaborations, residencies and interdisciplinary exchanges within art and culture; and has worked with artists and organizations locally, regionally and internationally.
Over the years, HH Art Spaces has developed a rich archive of visual, sonic, installation, and live art and performance work, in South Asia. HH Art Spaces promotes artists and produces exhibitions and artist residencies, talks and workshops, in contemporary and traditional artistic practice-based research, bridging transdisciplinary practices through collaborations and partnerships. HH is a hub and a laboratory for artists and curators to investigate and explore new forms and approaches within arts and cultural practice.
HH Art Spaces has forged partnerships with established art collectives and prominent cultural institutions, like: The Tetley Museum, Leeds, UK; The Tate Modern, London, UK; Fondazione Elpis, Milan, Italy; Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India; Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Chatterjee & Lal Gallery, Mumbai, India; Chemould Prescott Road Gallery, Mumbai, India; KHOJ International Artists’ Association, New Delhi, India; Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, New Delhi, India; India Art Fair, New Delhi, India; Theertha International Artists’ Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Serendipity Arts Trust, New Delhi/Goa, India; Magnetic Fields Festival, Rajasthan, India; Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts, Goa, India; and Japan Foundation, Alliance Française, Canada Council for the Arts, British Council, Pro Helvetia, and the Ontario Arts Council.
Other New Appointments at Kochi Biennale Foundation
The Board of Trustees at the Kochi Biennale Foundation are pleased to share the completion of a rigorous restructure process conducted with industry experts keeping in mind the regional realities of conducting the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Led by the board with Chair Dr.Venu V., a pioneering culture and museum expert who has held several portfolios with the Central and Kerala governments, the process included management, financial and stakeholder assessments to develop industry standard protocols for legal, auditing, management and communications. He brings to his position as KBF Chairperson rich experience from a variety of assignments in the cultural and tourism sectors while he served the state and the Central governments in various capacities over three decades and a half.
Dr. Venu V. says: “I have been associated with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale since the first edition in 2012. The Biennale has come a long way since then. In addition to the well recognised contributions towards art and culture, the benefits accrued to tourism and local economic development have become increasingly apparent. The long term sustainability of the biennale needs to be secured against all odds. To be appointed chair at this important juncture, I along with my colleagues look forward to heralding the foundation into a new phase of sustainable growth. The key structural changes and the appointment of professionals will enable us to maintain high standards in tandem with our international peers, whilst remaining true to our primary audiences in Kerala and beyond.”
The foundation has appointed Thomas Varghese as CEO. Thomas Varghese is a management professional with experience across domains in academic research, international development and business management. He formerly worked with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific in Bangkok in the field of sustainable urban development and project management.
Thomas Varghese says: “What the Biennale has managed to achieve on the global stage is truly spectacular. Remaining rooted to the unique historical and cosmopolitan sensibilities of Kochi, it engages creatively with global artistic, cultural and political discourse to reimagine worldviews, which is bold and disruptive as it is austere and inclusive. In this new chapter, we will reaffirm the epithet ‘the People’s Biennale’. It is an honour to play a part in the next chapter at the foundation whilst building on its rich legacy.”
The Board of Trustees welcomes senior lawyer Fereshte Sethna as legal advisor to the Kochi Biennale Foundation. She has extensive advisory experience with philanthropic trusts and corporate social responsibility initiatives linked with trusts, and has played a vital role in facilitating the restructure of the Kochi Biennale Foundation trust. Fereshte exercises rights of audience across courts, tribunals and adjudicatory authorities in India, arbitral and conciliation bodies internationally. Her legal experience is a key asset in assessing, evaluating, planning and implementing formidable strategies. Her appointment for a five-year term will further augment the compliance of the trust with the existing legal framework in the country. She will be instrumental in the development of contractual and performance frameworks as well across all stakeholders and participants.
The foundation has also appointed as its auditor, Kuruvilla & Jose, chartered accountants with their principal office in Kochi. K.M. Jose the Managing Partner of the audit firm comes with five decades of professional experience, including administrative compliance of trusts. The auditors have ever since their appointment made significant strides in putting in place much-needed accounting, financial reporting and procedural systems to ensure adequacy and integrity in the reporting system so that KBF has a strong foundation on which its future growth can be achieved.
In light of the new structure, Bose Krishnamachari, President of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale noted, “I am pleased that KBF is evolving into an institution that is reflexive, responsible and sustainable. I have always believed that the cosmopolitanism of Kochi and the biennale are vital and much needed sites for learning and creativity, and also a place that welcomes diverse cultures from around the world. With our restructuring process now complete, I look forward to an exciting new chapter in our journey. Over the last 12 years we have experienced and achieved a great deal, but we have also sometimes fallen short of our goals. I hope that the next decade and more will bring greater success to Kochi and for the biennale”.
Photo: A J Joji