In the thick of a controversy over the utilisation of funds released to it by the government, the Kochi Biennale Foundation says that it has spent Rs. 3.5 crore from the State allocation of Rs. 5 crore to renovate the Durbar Hall.
The Foundation, a trust registered in August 2010 with artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu in the lead for the conduct of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an ambitious international exhibition of contemporary visual arts later this year in the city, has written in response to a set of questions mailed to it by The Hindu that it is “transparent and accountable to its stakeholders, the Kerala Tourism Department, the Department of Culture [and] the people of Kerala and India”.
“Our accounts are independently audited and were submitted to the government on December 27. These account for the Rs.5 crore received from the government, of which Rs. 3.5 crore was spent on the renovation of Durbar Hall,” says Michelangelo Bendandi, director of Communications of the Foundation.
“The Durbar Hall renovation was conducted to the highest standards by specialists in conservation, lighting and climate control. The Kochi Biennale Foundation has funded and overseen the transformation of Durbar Hall into a word-class exhibition space that meets international museum standards and will serve as a community gallery for local and international shows year-round.”
“Vikas Dilawari, consulting architect on the project, is a leading conservation architect with more than two decades of experience exclusively in conservation. He is presently the head of [the] Department of Conservation at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai. He was instrumental, with [the] Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Mumbai chapter, in listing the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station as a World Heritage Site. His projects have received national and international recognition including a UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Excellence.” Mr. Bendandi says that the State Archeology Department and the Lalitha Kala Akademi have not raised any objection to the renovation. “Projects of this scale are certain to come under question… Scrutiny is something we have been prepared for from the beginning.”
Arguing that the biennale will be beneficial to the State's artists and the art scene in general, Mr. Bendandi says that it will attract “the international art community and thousands of art-loving visitors to Kerala and stimulate investment in local arts infrastructure”.
“Above all, the inaugural Kochi-Muziris Biennale is about creating spaces. In order for a platform like a Biennale to exist, we have to discover and open up spaces — spaces that will be handed over to Kochi for the benefit of India's art community,” he maintains.