France at the heart of India’s largest contemporary art festival
From 12 December 2025 to 31 March 2026, the 6th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale opens its doors in the historic port city of Kochi. Curated by artist Nikhil Chopra, in collaboration with HH Art Spaces, the Biennale invites audiences into a living artistic ecosystem, where art unfolds through relationships, exchanges, and shared imaginaries.
More than a single spectacular event, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale conceives itself as a network of artists, thinkers, spaces, and communities that nourish one another. Within this vibrant landscape, the French Institute in India (IFI) is proud to deepen its partnership with the Kochi Biennale Foundation through a series of initiatives throughout 2025–2026, strengthening artistic dialogue between France and India.
Supporting French Artists and Art Professionals
As part of the official Biennale programme, IFI supports French participation by accompanying several French artists selected for the main exhibition, as well as by facilitating the presence of French curators and art professionals in the official Talk Programme.
Hicham Berrada
At the Biennale, Hicham Berrada presents an immersive, evolving environment shaped by chemical and physical processes. Drawing on scientific protocols and experimental systems, his work allows natural forces, reaction, transformation, instability, to determine form and duration. Neither fixed nor fully controllable, the installation unfolds in real time, offering viewers a poetic encounter with matter in flux, where scientific inquiry becomes a tool for sensing time, change, and the living world. On view until 31 March 2026 at Anand Warehouse.
Uriel Barthélémi
On 14, 15 and 16 December, Uriel Barthélémi presented Kaseko Cycle, a series of three interconnected performances exploring rhythm as a living, migrating force. Through drums, electronics, voice, modular synthesis and collaborations with dancers and performer Yuko Kaseki, Barthélémi traces the circulation of rhythms across geographies shaped by colonial histories, from West Africa to the Caribbean and contemporary electronic music. Moving between solo performance, collective trance and fully improvised ritual, his work invites audiences into immersive sonic spaces where ancient patterns and future forms collide.
French artist Romain Loustau, co-founder of HH Art Space is also very much involved, and Kader Attia is expected to collaborate with the Biennale beginning of next year as well. Through this support, IFI fosters meaningful artistic exchanges within one of the world’s most dynamic artist-led biennales.
Villa Swagatam Residency in Kochi
Spotlight on Shivay La Multiple
As part of the Villa Swagatam 2025–2026 programme, IFI and the Kochi Biennale Foundation jointly welcome an artist-in-residence in Kochi for 45 days. This year’s resident, selected collaboratively, is the multidisciplinary artist Shivay La Multiple. She was selected after Villa Swagatam welcomed an Indian artist in 2024 at the Lyon Biennale, Sahil Naik. Sahil and Shivay were part of a same group show entitled “Jeune Création” at IAC Villeurbanne.
Shivay La Multiple — Villa Swagatam Resident
Born and raised in Nouméa (New Caledonia/Kanaky), Shivay La Multiple lives and works between Paris, the digital sphere, and the river. In their practice, Shivay La Multiple teaches reason the language of dreams.
Their ongoing research takes the form of an initiatory tale flowing through major rivers of the world. It begins in the Maroni River, then drifts along the Congo River, plunges into the waters of the Senegal River and the Casamance, and is carried by the currents of the Nile. It then follows the flow of the Lobe River and the Douro River. Most recently, the tale continued in the confluence of the Amazon River and the Rio Negro. These crossings culminate in a recurring symbolic form: the calabash, a vessel of memory, transformation, and connection.
During her residency, Shivay La Multiple continues a poetic exploration of riverine ecologies, culminating in an installation presented at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Drawing on research across the Amazon, Africa, and South India, the work centres on the water hyacinth, an invasive yet purifying plant, as both material and metaphor. The sculptural form connects distant waters and lived testimonies, weaving together memory, ecology, and resilience. On view until 31 March 2026 at Devassy Jose & Sons, Mattancherry.
A Cross-Cultural Student Exchange with Beaux-Arts de Marseille
Supporting emerging talent lies at the core of IFI’s mission. In 2025–2026, IFI strengthens its educational commitment by supporting a student exchange programme between the Kochi Biennale’s Student programme and the Beaux-Arts de Marseille.
Kaki Weiss, student of INSEAMM (France) | Red table, green floor, cooking utensils | Photo credit ©Pratik Khurkutiya
The Kochi Biennale presents for the first time works by two students from the Beaux-Arts de Marseille, Kaki Weiss and Nina Durel, whose artistic practices are deeply embedded in the spirit of this Kochi season, fully resonating with the Biennale’s theme through explorations of human relationships and shared imaginaries.
Vice versa, the Beaux-Arts de Marseille will welcome two Indian students, selected through the Students’ Biennale programme, for a semester-long exchange in France.
By supporting artistic creation, mobility, and emerging voices, the French Institute in India reaffirms its commitment to building shared artistic futures between France and India. The 2025–2026 Kochi-Muziris Biennale offers a unique platform to cultivate this dialogue and celebrate contemporary creation across borders. For more information and for planning your visit to the Biennale please go on www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org.