6th Edition of Kochi Muziris Biennale Opens on December 12

Cube Arts Space, Mattancherry, Kochi, which is one of the venues for the 6th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025. Image courtesy: Kochi-Muziris Biennale

At KMB, modern and contemporary art showcase weaves into the rich maritime history of the venue which was a global melting pot for millennia.

The sixth edition of the Kochi–Muziris Biennale opens on Friday, 12 December 2025, with a guided walkthrough of the principal exhibition sites by this edition’s curator, Nikhil Chopra and HH Art Spaces, that will begin at 11.00 a.m. at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi.

The biennale will open to the public at 12.00 noon. This will be marked by the hoisting of the Kochi–Muziris Biennale flag at Aspinwall House. All venues will remain open until 4.30 p.m. on the opening day.

The biennale’s official inauguration ceremony will be held at 5.30 p.m., which will be done by the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, at Parade Ground, Fort Kochi. This will be followed by a public concert at 7.00 p.m.

In addition to the main exhibition, the Kochi Biennale Foundation will inaugurate the Students’ Biennale, EDAM, Invitations, the Pavilion, Collaterals, and the ABC programmes and exhibitions over the course of the opening weekend. These initiatives unfold across public venues in Fort Kochi, Willingdon Island, and Ernakulam, celebrating the spirit of their distinct contexts and communities.

The biennale will feature an array of conversations, films, food, music, theatre, workshops, and choreographies alongside the exhibitions over a period of 109 days. The programme has been created by the team of Mario D’Souza, the Director of Programmes, Kochi Biennale Foundation. The team, led by D’Souza, includes Ananthan Suresh, Mashoor Ali, and Rebecca Martin. They have charted out programmes that will unfold along with the artworks curated by Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces, Goa. KMB runs through March 31, 2026.

The sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) will feature 12 new venues, in addition to the nine existing ones and seven collateral venues, extending from West Kochi to Willingdon Island and Ernakulam. Aligning with the KMB theme, for the time being, each venue is steeped in collective memories of history and culture of a bygone era, oscillating between past and present. The organiser, Kochi Biennale Foundation, has been repurposing quaint, empty former warehouses and historic structures into exhibition venues from its inception in 2012.

“We have selected the venues in such a way that it resonates with the theme, wherein art is a process, dynamic and shape-shifting. From Durbar Hall in Ernakulam to those in Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and Willingdon Island, each venue is an exploration of space, time and life,” said Dr Venu V, KBF Chairperson.

The new venues in Fort Kochi are St. Andrew’s Parish Hall; Arthshila, Kochi; Jail of Freedom Struggle; and Water Metro. The others are a few metres apart on Bazaar Road in Mattancherry –BMS Warehouse; 111 Markaz and Cafe; SMS Hall; Devassy Jose and Sons; Simi Warehouse; Cube Art Spaces and Space, Indian Chamber of Commerce. Island Warehouse (KMB) is next to the Water Metro station in placid Willingdon, the country’s largest artificial island surrounded by water.

The venues are connected by the Water Metro that ripples around the murmur of migrations that made Fort Kochi a melting-pot for millennia. The pocket bears traces of trade links with Romans, Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks, as well as influences from the Chinese, Jewish, Arab, Portuguese, Dutch, and British cultures, and the diverse cultures across India.

Durbar Hall in Ernakulam is connected by Water Metro and other boat services to Fort Kochi. A 220-m deviation from River Road to Princess Street and Tower Road will open onto Jail of Freedom Struggle, where freedom fighters from across India were incarcerated.

A 300-m walk on River Road will lead to David Hall, a Dutch architectural marvel, opposite the Parade Ground. Just 170 metres away on Parade Road is Arthshila Kochi, once a British food retailer and now part of Takshila Educational Society. Another 250 metres away on K J Hershel Road is St. Andrews Parish Hall.

A walk of 450 metres to the left along the River Road and Bellar Road leads to Aspinwall House, where artworks will be exhibited in the Coir Godown and the Director’s Bungalow.

Pepper House is another heritage structure with its imposing view of the sea. The four-century-old building is a half-kilometre walk down Calvathy Road near Bellar Road.

The landscape shifts from the spacious colonial structures in Fort Kochi to the historic sites and vast warehouses in the once-thriving international trading hub of Mattancherry, across the Calvathy Canal. The smell of spices wafts through the air of this place, with new and old venues lining the Bazaar Road.

A 600-m walk from Pepper House is Armaan Collective and Café, embedded with traces of Kochi’s maritime and mercantile past. Around 500 metres off is Anand Warehouse, with many new venues being a stone’s throw away. A 150-m stroll will lead to the Garden Convention Centre. In its vicinity is VKL Warehouse.

Half-a-kilometre away from VKL is Oottupura on the Jew Town Road, the vintage dining hall of the Pazhayannur Bhagavathi Temple. Mattancherry Palace was once the seat of the Kochi Maharaja, who shifted from Kodungallur (Muziris) after the 1341 floods in the river Periyar. Much later, he moved to Durbar Hall in Ernakulam.