Visitors at the entrance to Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi, the Biennale's main venue

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Perception study of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Partner
Kochi Biennale Foundation
Where
Kochi, Kerala
When
2026

What does India's largest contemporary art festival mean for the people around it? A study of visitors, residents, business owners and vendors.

Why

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale draws visitors from across the world to Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Its effects reach well beyond the galleries: into local shops, homes, streets and livelihoods. The Biennale wanted to understand that wider impact on Kochi and on Kerala.

What we did

We were part of a perception study covering four groups: visitors to the Biennale, business owners, local residents and street vendors. The study looked at how each group experiences the event and who benefits from it, directly or indirectly.

Photos: Aspinwall House, by N. Vivekananthamoorthy (CC BY 4.0); Fort Kochi beach, by Arun Joseph (CC BY-SA 4.0), both on Wikimedia Commons.

  • Biennale installations on Fort Kochi beach under a monsoon sky