Pune Biennale, the flagship event of Pune Biennale Foundation, presents a global platform for showcasing the city’s creative talent.
Founded in 2013, Pune Biennale began as a city wide event that worked on public art and public spaces. Over next two editions it gained local and national prominence and is now establishing a strong foothold in the international art arena. Dr. Kiran A. Shinde conceived Pune Biennale along with his colleagues at Bharati Vidyapeeth University College of Architecture, Pune, where he works as a Principal. The biennale strives to bring the city and its creative communities on a common platform with a purpose to make art more public and accessible while showcasing, enhancing, learning, spreading and sharing their collective experiences, talent and knowledge in all possible manifestations of art forms. What started as a joint initiative between an education institution such as Bharati Vidyapeeth University and local council, the Pune Municipal Corporation, has grown with wider stakeholder participation from industry and corporate supporters including Panchshil Foundation, Adar Poonawalla Clean City Movement and so on. As such now, the Pune Biennale has emerged as an institution to create a world-wide cultural identity for the home-city and act as a vehicle for the development of the city, aesthetically while unlocking endless possibilities for the creative community.
Pune Biennale Foundation is gearing up to up to host a bigger and a much vibrant third edition of its flagship property, Pune Biennale 2017 from 5th to 29th January, 2017. This edition will feature several participatory projects that are created around the theme of “Identity and Self”. The aim of these projects is to discover the meaning of one’s existence in different spheres of life through diverse mediums and forums including displays, installations, workshops, dialogues and seminars.
The main show of Pune Biennale 2017 is titled as Habit_co_Habit which is curated by art historian & curator Zasha Colahand art critic Luca Cerizza. The main show and other associated programmes will be hosted at the venues of historic importance within the urban fabric along J.M. Road, one of the most popular streets in Pune. The locations will include Modern High School, Municipal Printing Press, Mahatma Phule Museum, Pataleshwar caves precinct, Sambhaji Park, ABIL Subway and likewise. In addition, more than ten significant galleries across the city also come together to participate and showcase local talent under this platform.
Visitors to Pune Biennale will get a glimpse and a mesmerising experience of witnessing some substantial artworks from close to 300 artists of national and international repute in both the flagship project and participatory projects that are specifically designed for engaging with the local community and showcasing cutting edge contemporary artworks. There is something for all, including workshops and exhibitions of differently-abled artists, student-focussed young expressions, interactions in public spaces like parks, experiment with transient art spaces such as shipping containers, exploring different materials, and narratives through visual media. The biennale boasts of a stellar line of artists from more than six countries and 25 plus cities who have confirmed their participation.
Several precursor activities have already begun with an aim to build up the participatory nature of biennale activities and seek engagement of people through projects such as street and graffiti art.