KBF’s Island Mural Project attracts passersby in Fort Kochi, Mattancherry.......by Sukant Deepak

The Kochi Biennale Foundation’s (KBF) Island Mural Project, launched for the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB 2025), one of the biggest art events in Asia, adorns many a wall in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, turning public art into a space for connection, reflection, and shared belonging.

The murals of the first set of artists — Aravani Art Project; Trespassers; Osheen Siva and Munir Kabani, offer passersby moments to pause and ponder, while Pradip Das will begin work on Simi Warehouse wall, Mattancherry, in February.

The Island Mural Project, rooted in the Biennale’s engagement with place, invites everyone to see the neighbourhood in a new light. Artists in this project have created works that speak directly to the histories, textures, and living communities of the neighbourhood.

The artists have been depicting defining features of the place and its life. KMB President Bose Krishnamachari said, “The Island Mural Project celebrates the Biennale’s commitment to art that is porous, accessible, and rooted in its surroundings. By bringing contemporary artistic practices into dialogue with one of Kerala’s most storied neighbourhoods, the project reaffirms the role of public art as a space of reflection, gathering, and shared belonging.”

The Aravani Art Project, comprising transgender and cis-individuals, shares their stories believing in the power of community murals. The ongoing creations by transgender artists — Chandri, Prarthana, Varsha and Jyothi, and cis-people, Nandini Rajaramanathan from Coimbatore and Murugan Gopi from Chennai — are drawing attention at new Women and Children’s Hospital, Bazaar Road, Mattancherry. The paintings are a mirror of their life, a language of resistance and belonging, a way to make their lives visible through motifs drawn from the city.

“We have to prove ourselves through hard work, as people give us dirty looks asking whether we’re men or women, never considering us for a decent job, forcing us to resort to begging or sex work,” said Prarthana from Bengaluru who started painting nine years ago, encouraged by Aravani Art Project founder-director and artist Poornima Sukumar.

Chandri from Hosur, poised on a ladder step, stressed, “We thought art was tough but ma’am encouraged us to draw from the heart, emphasising that art had no right or wrong. We hardly get to study or learn. In general, transgenders drop out after class VII, and some after class X as we’re not given any opportunities.”

Varsha from Chennai added, “We have teams in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru, all into painting for a living. Initially, it was tough climbing heights, but over the years we have scaled even 100-foot walls.”

A few yards away, the imposing mural at Cube Art Spaces, Bazaar Road, is a collective effort of The Tresspassers comprising eight artists — Vishnupriyan K; Ambadi Kannan; Jinil Manikandan; Bashar UK; Sreerag P; Arjun Gopi; Jatin Shaji and Pranav Prabhakaran.

“The is an evolution of our BFA art practice in Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, when each bettered the other’s work with a touch, a line, stroke and even images or ideas. During our MFA in 2019, our first mural in Kalady market received good response. Over the years, our work led to our collective title. Now, we are accustomed to each other’s methods, styles, techniques and images so much so that our mural improvises with ease,” said Vishnupriyan K.

“We accumulate visual memory from our surroundings and enrich the visual memory of others through art. Trespassing is layered; about who is in and out; outsiders are trespassers to those in. In a way, viewers trespass into the work which sometimes get etched into their memory,” he explained.

Near Aspinwall House, on the wall of Palm Fibre, Fort Kochi, Goa-based Osheen Siva, a multidisciplinary artist from Tamil Nadu, explores public art to express the aesthetics of Dalit art and anti-caste thoughts besides issues plaguing gender religion, and postcolonial history.

From her experiences as a member of the Paraiyar community, Siva, who has a graphic designing background, advances the framework of Tamil Dalit Futurism, advanced by Afro Futurism, to interrogate and dismantle hegemonic historical narratives. Through painting, sculpture, and audio-visual installations, she develops counter-mythological strategies that contest entrenched hierarchies of caste, gender, race, class, and (dis)ability.

“I have transferred expressions against caste discrimination and injustices to the marginalised from the computer screen to the wall as it is accessible to all,” she said.

Munir Kabani’s work on Arthshila wall in Fort Kochi spreads warmth and cheer. The words ‘Love’ in English and Malayalam letters (Sneham) burst with positive energy in Kochi, a melting pot.

“Since 2010, with a project, FlyEye and EyePod, I have been attempting to create sites for shared environments to make poetics of contemporary art accessible. The Wall of Love is a subtle invitation to view the simple yet charged words from afar and intimately and see its meanings transform,” he said.

Pradip Das from Kolkata, who began as a painter, explores multidisciplinary art, including installations and public art. His works have been exhibited across India and in Seoul, Milan, Bonn, and Merano. He is actively involved in temporary and pandal architecture and is a member of the Kolkata collective, Chander Haat. His work will be featured on Simi Warehouse wall, Bazaar Road in February.

The Island Mural will run through March 31, 2026.

December 26, 2025

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