Vulgar Portrayal of Traditional Culture as Part of Pattanam -Muziris Project Brings Public Protest

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   Accession Date and Time  26-10-2011; 1.55PM

Vulgar Portrayal Of Kathkali Kicks Up Row

 Express News Service -October 20-2011
KOCHI: The Kochi-Muziris Biennale brochure has kick started a controversy among the Kerala art world, with Kathakali artists and art lovers coming up against the vulgar portrayal of the traditional art form in it.

The brochure brought out as part of the Biennale has the picture of a painting with a Kathakali dancer’s embellished head on the body of a muscleman wearing just a loin cloth with mace in hand.The brochure brought out without any aesthetic sense borders on the farcical, to say the least, opines Kathakali artists and art lovers. The picture is that of a painting of� artist Vivek Vilasini titled ‘Between one shore and several others --Just what is it’.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which is slated to showcase India’s rich cultural and social heritage, should not have included such a painting in its brochure, which will be circulated the world over. It is vulgarising the traditional art form of Kerala, Kalamandalam Gopi told Express. �

It was quite saddening to see that Kathakali artists were being insulted, he said. “Artists like me will never have any respect for those� who have been bold enough to include such a picture in that brochure,” Gopi said and asked the authorities to do away with such paintings in brochures. He said that the culture department should also look into it and see if such a vulgar portrayal of Kathakali could give� meaning to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

“Though the artist could have his own interpretation for his painting, the organisers could have selected pictures that did not hurt the sentiments of the people of the the state. Moreover, they should have taken care to include pictures that was rich in the tradition and culture of the state and the country”, Gopi said.

P Narayana Kurup, Kathakali researcher and� poet said that such a picture on the brochure of Kochi-Muziris Biennale was an insult to Kerala’s tradition. “The picture should not have been included in the brochure, as it would be circulated the world over. It is really humiliating to the art form of Kerala”, he said. “Even if it is considered an artist’s individual work, one cannot tolerate it,” he said.

M V Narayanan, a critic of drama and art forms, said that he did not find any politically problematic situation in bringing in the Kathakali aspect into the painting. Pointing out that the picture did not belong to the master class, he said that, art was an individual’s own creation. Ramesh Varma, a teacher at the Department of Drama at Sree Sankaracharya university, who is also an art critic and a lover of Kathakali said that the picture had no quality.

Artistic director of the Biennale Bose Krishnamachari did not respond.