10,000 visitors at Kochi Biennale in first 3 days

The first three days of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale registered roughly 10,000 footfalls with a chunk of them at the Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi, according to organisers of the three-month art bonanza.

"Thursday alone recorded more than 3,000 footfalls. Going by the initial indication, we should be hitting the originally estimated eight lakh visitors by the end of the Biennale on March 13 next year)," a key functionary with the Kochi Biennale foundation said.

The sea-facing Aspinwall House, the hub of the extravaganza, has been attracting the maximum visitors, followed by the Pepper House in the neighbourbood, he said.

"The long queue of cars on the side of the road adjoining the Aspinwall is one suggestion. Towards evening, there is a surge in the crowd."

People out on an evening stroll or those who dropped by after office hours were disappointed as entry to venues were closed by 6 pm.

"Lets come on a weekend," said one family which was passing by on Friday evening to visit the exhibition that is free.

Noted writer Paul Zacharia, who was in Fort Kochi, said the Biennale would be "biggest turning-point" in the contemporary art history of Kerala.

"Malayalis have massive festivals for cinema, drama and other art forms. What we needed was a Biennale. I hope my state-mates would make full use of it," he said. "It will also give a new face to Kerala's cultural tourism."

At the leafy compound of the Aspinwall, Dutch artist Joseph Semah and Clifford Charles of South Africa, who featured in the 'Let's Talk' series of the Biennale on Friday, spoke on the current trends in art and the new sensibilities it has been acquiring in recent times.

A Thira programme was also staged at Aspinwall in which two performing artistes of the traditional folk art danced to the beat of as many drummers, all of them from Sankaramangalam, a village near Pattambi in Palakkad district.