Kochi Muziris Biennale !!!

Exciting new stuff!

I have been talking about art museum in Kochi and there is the Kochi Art & Science Space project that maybe will come up, but there is recent new event that is really scheduled to happen & not once but every two years....something à la well known Venice Biennale. (LaBiennale)

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale, launched on 17th february at Darbar Hall Ground, will be held in January next year and there will be artists from all over the world in a three-month show. It will be the first event of its kind in India.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale will " exhibit artwork produced by the world’s most engaging artists, both established and emerging, from India and abroad. The exhibition will showcase a variety of art forms from film, installation, painting, sculpture and new media.

Through a celebration of contemporary art and the Kerala region, the Biennale will present artworks throughout Kochi and Muziris in existing exhibition sites, public realm spaces, heritage buildings and non-traditional exhibitions venues. Alongside the exhibition the Biennale will organise an extensive public programme of seminars, workshops and a variety of educational activities."

Produced by artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu and funded in part by Kerala, the show will make use of numerous industrial spaces in Kochi (Cochin) and exhibition areas in the ancient port of Muziris.

Best wishes to this exciting venture.

To find out more go here:
http://www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org/
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kochi-Muziris-Biennale-2012/192910214066166?sk=wall

It would be nice to see a collaboration between this and KASS (if & when KASS happens), with their complementary roles.

By the way if you happen to be in Venice, then there will be I am sure an interesting presentation by the Venice biennale president Paolo Baratta about “Biennale & Museums, two distinct roles? ”, thursday 24 february at 17.30 at the Aula Magna of the Ateneo Veneto

Where should KASS be located?

Where should KASS be located? What would be desirable? If you do not know about KASS read here & some posts on this blog on museums & science spaces.

Ideally KASS should have a building and free surrounding space for a plaza, park etc, as a meeting space and possible out of building activities and also some parking space. Furthermore I think the KASS building should reflect its content: science, high tech, modern art & design. So its designer should be an internationally known architect ( quite a few possibilities come to mind : see the video links on this page) and the building should become an attraction in itself : an iconic modern Kochi landmark.. This said one obviously wants it to be visible.
To make it a central cultural activity space it should be “central“, in the sense that you can get there from various parts of metro Kochi with more or less equivalent effort.

So where ? Do you know? One of the places that comes to mind is the south of Wellingdon island... Other places ?

Support the KASS cause

Support the cause for the creation of KASS: the Kochi Arts & Science Space.

Click this image to find out more. Join the cause.

Sponsor the Kochi Art & Science Space

The Kochi Art & Science Space (KASS, www.kartsci.org) initiative is being promoted by KUDS (Kerala Urban Development Society).
The unique and ambitious KASS project is looking for sponsors.
Help in making this educational and cultural project a reality: sponsor it in any way you can.
Read about KASS here.

The Kochi Hydrofoil

When you take a boat from the Marine drive side to Fort Kochi it takes you at least 20 to 30 minutes. One can do this much faster and have a much improved generalised fast transportation system if one were to run a hydrofoil link around the Kochi waterways.

A hydrofoil is a boat with wing-like foils mounted on struts below the hull, so as to run underwater. As the craft increases its speed the underwater foils, or hydrofoils, develop enough lift for the boat to become foil-borne - i.e. to raise the hull up and out of the water - literally flying on water. This results in a great reduction in drag and a corresponding increase in speed. Hydrofoils run at speeds ranging up to more than 100km/h.

Hydrofoils like the Russian Metor or others by other makers operate in various parts of the globe and ensure fast transportation. Here is a picture of the slowed down Meteor developed for lakes and rivers.

or running fast and raised:

Using these would be a fast and viable way to ensure transport along eg the main central Kochi area or running eg fast towards Allepey or elsewhere.

Could be used as an efficient transportation to ease off road transport.

The Fort Kochi-Vypeen Tunnel

We hear that the Metro project and Oceanarium projects will probably start rolling soon. The Oceanarium project in Vypeen brings up the opportunity to comment on a possible tunnel links between Fort Kochi and Vypeen. Maybe this has been envisaged, I don't know. Would not spoil the sceneray and be pretty useful. They do require some good engineering, but are not something new. Nothing that good engineering can not solve. There is of course a boat link but other interesting and useful alternatives could be developed. Which could also be useful for developing extra commercial activities.

Seems interesting to consider two possibilities and actually perhaps both.

Check out the map first:

1. 500 meter auto cum pedestrian cum shopping tunnel at the shortest Fort Kochi and Vypeen water stretch. An image may be better than words:

A big tall tunnel with a section for car & small vehicle circulation and another isolated section for pedestrian transfer and shopping mall.

Not very complicated, if one solves properly problems related to good ventilation, flooding and fire (remember the Mont Blanc tunnel fire ?).

I am not a big fan of car traffic and one could also envisage a rotating tram link. A "green" solution.

This could easily be a private sponsored initiative with some government contribution for the road link.

2. A circa 2 km long tunnel for vehicles linking the beach side road on fort Kochi to the beach side on Vypeen.

As Vypeen develops an easier connection to the southern side would be very interesting.

What do you think?

Perhaps KUDS could put this also on its agenda for future developments?

"Street Naming and Numbering Day"

Whenever I travel in Japan, a place I like a lot, I am always faced with one thing I intensely dislike or rather find highly inconvenient: absence of accurate addresses. The main problem is that most often streets don't have a name and there are no numbers. Shops & hotels usually provide you with a small plan, showing you where they are located with respect to the nearest metro station. So you rely on this or go see the local area police kiosk ("koban") and ask there - they know. It somehow works but is very much inferior to a system where one has street names with numbered houses.

In India in many cases there are street names and numbers, so e.g. you want to find an address and you get this for instance:

Madras (Chennai): Cathay Pacific, STIC Travels, Hotel Chola Sheraton, 10 Cathedral Road, tel # 473347.

or

Pune: British Airways, DKI Travel Services, Shri Panchratna Hotel, 7 Tadiwala Road, tel # 623527, 627976, 623529.

Great! No?

Yes! but for Kochi you get this :

British Airways: GSA Nijhawan Travels (P) Ltd, M G Road, tel # 364567

Argghh! Hm!? Where is the street number? Interesting so where is this on MG road? Where should one go?

The other day I had to see a friend who told me to meet him at his office at XYZ Junction, on ABC road at IJK building

So far so good. Since one can not buy (at least I did not find one) a proper accurate map of Kochi, I as usual reverted to good old Google and found what I thought was XYZ junction. Walking there took 10 minutes. Yes but that's where things got bad. First I did not see the XYZ street name indicating that I had actually reaced the said junction. I walked pas it and then at some stage started asking around. Not evryone knew about the XYZ junction , but ultimately a kindly soul directed me back to it. Wow ! Great I knew I was close to the goal, but then I had to find the IJK building. After bludering around and turning in circles I finally happened to see the sign of my friends office (but not the IJK building name). Of course there was not the faintest sign of a street number ! In the mean time, and time is money (or so they say !!) I had wasted 15 good minutes blundeering around instead of making it straight to the desired place.

All this of course would not have happened if the street names were indicated as here :

Very famous street number.....

Now why is it so difficult. All it takes is to slap a number on building doors and put street signs at each crossing (clearly visible!!)! Wouldn't it be simpler to say have a client find your « ExcellentBusiness » shop or "Nice Hotel" immediately if its on say - 10, ABC street- instead of on just - ABC street - on a street where the name exists but is not indicated. Surely EVRYONE would find life easier and grumble less. Couldn't one have a :

« Street Naming Day » and a Street Numbering » one at the same time where one would put visible numbers on buildings and street signs easily identifiable ! Not such a big deal. Building owners themselves could put the numbers (assuming these are indicated to them). No more running around in circles!!!!! Easy and not expensive!

So ?