Kochi Muziris Biennale 2025 and the hidden cost behind “Can you bring the cost down?”

When Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) began in 2012, the artist-led non-profit Kochi Biennale foundation chose decaying warehouses in Fort Kochi to host India’s first large-scale contemporary art bi-annual. Aspinwall House has been its primary site, Five acres of ageing ignored infrastructure until artists imagined what it could be.

Wading through knee-deep water to confront refugee trauma, listening to exiled poets whisper from inside a vast pyramid tomb, consuming forgotten rice varieties as edible art, a large diamond constructed with blood slides of artists. Experiences so immersive they stay with you long after you’ve left Fort Kochi.

This December, when I walked into Aspinwall House expecting to be stunned again.

I was stunned. Not by the art it held, but by the size it had shrunk to.

In the 6^th edition of KMB, only 25% (~1.24 acres) of this space is displaying art. The other 75%, including Cabral Yard, is up for sale by DLF and under dispute with state government over price.

The very event that heightened the valuation of the property in under 10 years has no access to it.

Around it, Fort Kochi is doing very well. Hotels charge 25-50% premium, are fully occupied even 35mins away in Ernakulam. Cafes have mushroomed and tables are often hard to find. Autos and ubers operate in surge pricing only. A 2-3 day trip at least costs Rs.30-50k, without the shopping in the boojee boutiques.

And the Biennale entry ticket?

Rs.200 for a day pass. Rs.1000 for a weekly pass.

This year the Biennale is spread across 22 venues. Not only because there’s more art, but because some earlier venues in prime locations were snapped up by brands and museums in anticipation of the business in Biennale season.

In the first week when I visited, the event was still coming together. Art was still being installed, explainers missing. Artists suspended on scaffoldings mid-way through their murals and curators passionately filling in for missing information. The foundation has been cash-strapped, while economy in the fading spice trade belt has upspiralled.

I can’t help extrapolating this as a creative industry problem.

Creative work gets priced like this - Just a logo. Just a baseline – 3-4 words. Just a Key visual. It’s raw material costs (paint, canvas, words, visuals all not expensive) and some ++. Then the question eventually shows up. “Can you bring the cost down?”

KMB turned a neglected, dying space into an experience, a memory, a culture that lasted much longer than the 4 months of art. DLF is seeking Rs.86.38 for Aspinwall House as fair price.

That’s what creative assets do to brands. They build the brand for the long term through experience and residing in memory structures long after its use is exhausted.

Creativity builds value, raises prices, fills rooms, sells coffee/products and is still the underpaid part of the system.

Are creative people expected to be passionate but not profitable?

The image of prosperity is associated with businessmen. ‘Struggler-type’ is the one reserved for creatives.

If there creativity is not correctly valued and artists are pushed out from the very ecosystem they created, is it the thriving sustainable? Are everyone in it for the long-term? Do everyone a brand, a client, a businessman, a creative person or a citizen, see how costly of the skewed math can be?