We started the biennale blindfolded in a room with a view
An interactive experience called Symphony of a missing Room - An imagined Museum by Lundahl and Seitl. We were gently led through seemingly invisible places, with a narration through head phones, the feel of walls, maybe grass underfoot and then into water.
Is this what a near death experience might feel like?
The blindfold was finally removed and we found ourselves in Sea of Pain by Raúl Zurita, a poem dedicated to the brother of the Syrian toddler washed up on the beach.
Another large installation by Desmond Lazarostruck a cord with me reflecting on the migration of his family from Rangoon, Madras, to Leeds and Liverpool, through old home movies and Polaroids.
In dance of death by Yardena Kurulkar, the flickering light bulbs which begin to fade, not only represent the date of the artist's birth but the passing of time towards death.
But the work in the biennale is not all doom and gloom!
We loved playing the puzzle games by Orijit Sen, searching for hidden items in his Goan market illustrations, and finding the missing pieces in his amazing mural of the Grand Trunk Road, which ran through northern India connecting Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but now overtaken by a modern express highway.
In Durbar Hall, over the water in 'town' aka Ernakulam we loved Gary Hill's installation which projected images of the onlookers from tiny cameras hidden in a giant silver mandala hanging from the decorated ceiling, creating multi faceted reflections all around the huge hall.
Finally I was inspired by the work of Israeli artist Meydad Eliyahu, who like me is looking back at his Jewish heritage. His father migrated from Kochi in 1954 aged just 6 to live in Israel, alongside 2000 other Kochi Jews, but they never told their stories and their silence inspired the artist to research this missing chapter in history.
