Karachi Biennale (KB) is the flagship project of the Karachi Biennale Trust that has been designed to use art as a vehicle to discover, discuss and respond to Karachi.
The Karachi Biennale Trust (KBT) was founded, in 2016, by a group of visual art professionals and educators as a dynamic platform to promote creativity, innovation and criticality in the visual arts. KBT -a not-for-profit organization- has remained a citizens’ initiative supported by the corporate sector. It works closely with a network of local and international cultural, educational and philanthropic organizations.
Karachi Biennale (KB) is the flagship project of the KBT that has been designed to use art as a vehicle to discover, discuss and respond to Karachi. Its each iteration has a thematic that is relevant to the host city, in 2017, the first KB, artists were invited to respond to the theme ‘WITNESS’, and in KB19 they will focus on the devastating ‘development footprint’ on ecology.
Since the 1950s, as Karachi grew from a small harbour town to a mega urban centre. it has attracted independent thinkers. Unburdened by an established canon, it embraced artists who wanted to respond to the personal and the political with greater freedom. Karachi has been home to many influential Modernists and Contemporary artists; its gallery circuit is unrivalled in the country. and one of the most vibrant in South Asia.
With an architecture of exhibitions, discursive interventions and extensive visitor programs during the Karachi Biennale. Art in Karachi Biennale combines creative energies and spark new ones.
The Karachi Biennale brings together innovation, excellence and criticality through a multiplicity of curatorial strategies to showcase artists from Pakistan to the world as well as strengthen a regional art exchange. Pakistan has begun to feature prominently on the global map with many points of creative interest that have arisen with the international achievements of its artists These achievements reflect the depth and vitality of art production in the country that is garnering world attention.
The Karachi Biennale creates opportunities to engage with the arts community of the city and beyond, through a holistic approach that will go beyond a lateral presentation of works; rather it is an engagement in the process of being informed about the training and influences that provide content to artistic practices. A point of interest within this process will be to discover points of connectivity with regional practices through physical display and discourse.
Source: karachibiennale.org.pk