The Kochi Biennale Foundation is pleased to announce the complete list of participating artists for For The Time Being, the Sixth Edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). The Biennale will feature 66 artists/collectives from over 20 countries, under the curatorial direction of Nikhil Chopra and HH Art Spaces, Goa. The exhibition, which is scheduled to open on 12 December 2025 and run through 31 March 2026, will unfold across multiple venues in Kochi, Kerala. KMB is the largest contemporary art biennale in South Asia, and the first of its kind in India.
This edition is oriented around the body, a bearer of memory and materiality, a site of encounter, and a witness to temporality. Within the curatorial framework, the body extends metaphorically into the landscape itself, to Kochi, a coastal port city built on movements of every kind – human and non-human – whose fragmented geography is stitched together by rivers, canals and backwaters, and its sediments borne by waves of colonial incursions, maritime trade, migrations, socio-political upheavals, and textures of its communal life.
The curatorial team notes, “Our invitation to companions was to work with Kochi’s climates, conditions, and resource realities; to make time, think nimbly, and collaborate locally. Around 50 new commissions are set across many first-time venues in neighbourhoods animated with trade, people, and movement. We draw from the past editions and their lives, and continue to see the exhibition as a growing organism constantly nourished by ideas, emotions, and actions. We also hold space for grief and mourning through this transformative time”.
Participating artists for the Sixth Edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale:
Abul Hisham, Aditya Puthur, Adrian Villar Rojas, Ali Akbar PN, Anja Ibsch and Grüntaler9, Arti Kadam, Athina Koumparouli, Bani Abidi and Anupama Kundoo, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Biraaj Dodiya, Birender Yadav, Cinthia Marcelle, Dhiraj Rabha, Dima Srouji and Piero Tomassoni, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Faiza Hasan, Gieve Patel, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Hicham Berrada, Himanshu Jamod, Hiwa K, Huma Mulji, Ibrahim Mahama, Jayashree Chakravarty, Jompet Kuswidananto, Jyoti Bhatt, Khageswar Rout, Kirtika Kain, Kulpreet Singh, Lakshmi Nivas Collective, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lionel Wendt, Malu Joy (Sister Roswin CMC), Mandeep Raikhy, Maria Hassabi, Marina Abramović, Mark Prime, Mathew Krishanu, Meenu James, Minam Apang, Mónica de Miranda, Monika Correa, Moonis Ahmad Shah, Naeem Mohaiemen, Nari Ward, Niroj Satpathy, Nityan Unnikrishnan, Otobong Nkanga, Pallavi Paul, Panjeri Artists’ Union, Prabhakar Kamble, Raja Boro, Ratna Gupta, Sabitha Kadannappally, Sandra Mujinga, Sayan Chanda, RB Shajith, Sheba Chhachhi and Janet Price, Shiraz Bayjoo, Smitha Babu, Sujith S.N, Tino Sehgal, Utsa Hazarika, Vinoja Tharmalingam, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Zarina Muhammed.
Confirmed Venues
Confirmed venues include heritage buildings such as Aspinwall House, a large sea-facing heritage property in Fort Kochi that was once the headquarters of the trading company Aspinwall & Company Ltd; Pepper House, a former spice warehouse turned cultural centre on Vembanad Lake; Island Warehouse on Willingdon Island, a manmade island created in 1928 during the modernisation of Kochi Harbour; 111 (KVJ Building), once a bustling centre for the rice trade in the heart of Mattancherry; Space, the former Indian Chamber of Commerce; and Durbar Hall in Ernakulam, originally the royal courthouse of the Maharaja of Kochi.
Press release from the Kochi Biennale Foundation
Image: Song Dong. Water Temple. Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist and the Kochi Biennale Foundation
