[artinfo] Kathmandu Triennale, 2022

[e-flux]

Kathmandu Triennale
Kathmandu, Nepal
<https://email.e-flux-systems.com/campaigns/qv663cbo8v626/track-url/cg6441cst7e5d/fa86188768f4691e055aa22ece968390e6464e82>kathmandutriennale.org

Kathmandu Triennale is announcing dates for the 
fourth and upcoming edition, "Kathmandu Triennale 
2077", which will now take place February 
11-March 11, 2022 CE. Organised by the Ministry 
of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in Nepal 
and Siddhartha Arts Foundation, this edition will 
be the largest and most ambitious artistic 
project staged in the country to date, becoming a 
key event for contemporary arts in Nepal even 
beyond the exhibition's duration. Amidst the 
rethinking and adaptations brought about by the 
Covid-19 pandemic, the team looks to honour with 
great care and respect the collective feeling of 
deep loss, and equally, the paramount hope, sense 
of community, and imagination that have remained 
constant in our work and in our lives.

"2077" is for the Triennale both a cemented, 
stagnant time and a fluid, unpredictable variant. 
The curatorial team, led by Artistic Director 
Cosmin Costinas and Co-Curators Sheelasha 
Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gurung, have retained 
this spectral title for the upcoming edition, 
first adopted in a shift of perspective towards 
the Triennale's locality: 2077 in the Nepali 
Bikram Sambat calendar was 2020 in the Gregorian 
calendar, the original year for this edition. As 
the repeated postponement, dark periods of 
uncertainty, as well as new reflections and 
possibilities-all ripple effects of that 
ill-fated year-have inextricably shaped this 
project, acknowledging it is an act of humility 
and honesty towards this journey. All the while, 
the time of the Triennale has also become 
arbitrary and nonlinear; at once in the past and 
the future of 2077, and the present of 2022, 
mediating between systems of counting time, 
uneasy synchronicities, and struggles to escape 
and reclaim histories, often running afoul of 
each other. These multiplicities and 
displacements across time are reflected in the 
themes and artists of the Triennale, driven by 
the active and subversive perspectives and 
artistic languages of many communities within 
Nepal and around the world, often relegated from 
the colonially derived canons of contemporary art.

At this time, Kathmandu Triennale 2077 is excited 
to announce a partial list of participating 
artists, collectives and groups: Pacita Abad, 
Artree Nepal + Urmila Gamwa Tharu, Korakrit 
Arunanondchai + Alex Gvojic, Bal Krishna 
Banamala, Nyima Dorjee Bhotia, Mohamed 
Bourouissa, Daniel Boyd, Mircea Cantor, Chan Kwok 
Yuen, Chang En Man, Olga Chernysheva, Chet Kumari 
Chitrakar, Lok Chitrakar, Mae Clark, Cian Dayrit, 
Dedron, Mireille Delice, Bachhi Devi, Palati 
Devi, Mary Dhapalany, Patrizio Di Massimo, 
Mihaela Dra˜gan, Bijay Dutta Mani + Mira Devi 
Dutta + Priyanka Karna, Izmail Efimov, Köken 
Ergun + Tashi Lama, Naufus Ramirez Figueroa, 
Irina Giri + Sonam Choekyi Lama + Keepa Maskey, 
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Julia Mage'au Gray, 
Ion Grigorescu, Dal Bahadur Gurung, Pooja Gurung 
+ Bibhusan Basnet, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Hao 
Liang, Aziz Hazara, Nikau Hindin, Andrew Thomas 
Huang, Hung Fai, Jivarama, Sudhira Karna, Karnali 
Arts Center, Shubha Kayastha + Deepti Silwal, 
Puran Khadka, Vvzela Kook, Pranika Koyu, Sakarin 
Krue-On, Gopal Kumal + Buddha Man Kumal + 
Dukharam Chaudhary + Sahadev Tharu + Chotu Tharu 
+ Tulsi Ram Tharu, Emma Kunz, LAB, Lam Tung Pang, 
Chenda Singe Lama, Chija Lama, Kabi Raj Lama, 
Pramila Lama, Liu Kuo-Sung, Sunita Maharjan, 
Ujjwala Maharjan, Youdhisthir Maharjan, Madhumala 
Mandal, Rebati Mandal, Krishna Manandhar, Britta 
Marakatt-Labba, Ana Mendieta, Pavel Mikushev, 
J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, Uriel Orlow, Sanghari 
Sanskritik Pariwar, Th?o Nguyên Phan, Antonio 
Pichillá, John Pule, Komal Purbe, Bári Raklóri 
(aka Emilia Rigova), Ashmina Ranjit, Rosanna 
Raymond, Joydeb Roaja, Zamthingla Ruivah, Bhakta 
Bahadur Sarki, Citra Sasmita, Jwala Shah (Sama), 
Seema Sharma Shah, Shashi Bikram Shah, Uma 
Shankar Shah, Anil Shahi, Urgen Dorje Sherpa, 
Arhant Shrestha, Karan Shrestha, Shraddha 
Shrestha, Ekaram Singh, Simon Soon, Bidhyaman 
Tamang, Subas Tamang, Alina Tamrakar, Katerina 
Teaiwa, Manjula Thakur, Aqui Thami, Indu Tharu, 
Subash Thebe, Batsa Gopal Vaidya, Hitesh Vaidya, 
Mona Va˜ta˜manu + Florin Tudor, Wai Pong Yu, Bo 
Wang + Pan Lu, Gyempo Wangchuk, Brittney Leeanne 
Williams, Wing Po So, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, 
Trevor Yeung. Not listed here are the many 
unrecorded artists of different historical eras 
whose contributions are crucial to the Triennale.

Over 300 artworks will be staged across five 
culturally and historically significant venues: A 
UNESCO world heritage site and former royal 
residence of the Malla dynasty between 14th and 
18th centuries, Patan Museum sits amidst 
Newa-style temples in a section of the Royal 
Palace at Durbar Square, a portion of which 
served as a prison until 1990 CE; Bahadur Shah 
Baithak, built in the 1790 CE, was used by the 
subsequent Gorkha dynasty as a centre for 
military strategy, as well as to house the 
arsenal, behind its large doorway owing to the 
war elephants; initiated by leading Nepali modern 
artist Lain Singh Bandel, Nepal Art Council was 
founded in 1962 CE under the patronage of King 
Mahendra as one of the country's largest art 
venues; designed in 1972 CE as a modernist 
fantasy, the Taragaon Museum was restored and 
opened in 2014 CE together with a unique archive 
reflecting the efforts to preserve Nepal's 
cultural and architectural heritage, alongside 
the display of contemporary art; Siddhartha Art 
Gallery was established in 1987 CE, as one of 
Nepal's main art spaces presenting and supporting 
Nepali and international contemporary artists of 
different generations. The histories, discourses, 
and ghosts of these venues are also woven into 
the exhibition of the Triennale. Alongside it, an 
educational programme, already initiated in 2019 
CE, is intensifying into an almost daily set of 
possibilities of learning from communities and 
things that are otherwise hidden or mistranslated.

Led by the Director Sharareh Bajracharya and 
Founder/Chairperson Sangeeta Thapa, Kathmandu 
Triennale is planned and produced by a small but 
ambitious, growing team of art workers from Nepal 
and abroad, including: Binod Adhakari, Rashana 
Bajracharya, Sujan Bir Bajracharya,  Binod 
Bhujel, Priyankar Bahadur Chand, Ujen Norbu 
Gurung, Nischal Khadka, Sara Tunich Koinch, 
Deepak Lama, Tenzing Sedonla Ukyab Lama, Denish 
Maharjan, Matina Maharjan, Puja Maharjan, Rubi 
Maharjan, Sanjeev Maharjan, Suresh Maharjan, 
Jagdish Moktan, Pooja Pant, Shreeti Prajapati, 
Apoorva Rajagopal, Aman Shahi, Luniva Shakya, 
Dipti Sherchan, Kamal Shrestha, Sujan Shrestha, 
Veeranganakumari Solanki, Laxmi Tamang, Subas 
Tamang, Vibhustuti Thapa, Urmila Gamwa Tharu, 
Hitesh Vaidya, Bishal Yonjan.

The team at Wkshps created this edition's visual 
language and the upcoming publication. Numerous 
other collaborators, advisors, and labourers have 
also contributed immensely to realising the 
Triennale.

Kathmandu Triennale 2077 is supported by its 
Partner Institution Para Site in Hong Kong, where 
the precursory exhibition Garden of Six Seasons 
was presented in 2020 CE.