The Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation/Kochi-Muziris Biennale (DBF-KMB) Award is a new multi-year exhibition and lecture programme that brings together the Hayward Gallery, the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation and the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
The Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation/Kochi-Muziris Biennale (DBF-KMB) Award will give a South Asian artist and participant in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale the opportunity to present their first institutional solo show in the United Kingdom at Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space. The first recipient of this award will be chosen from the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which will open in Kerala, India on 12 December 2022.
The recipient of the DBF-KMB Award will be selected based on the merit of their work presented at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. This Award has been created with the aim of supporting the artist at a timely moment in their career: contributing to the Awardees personal and professional development by giving them an opportunity to exhibit a solo show at Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space. Since opening in 2007, the Project Space at Hayward Gallery has presented exhibitions from a wide-ranging group of innovative international artists, including many UK premieres. Over the past 15 years, the Project Space has featured artists from 40 different countries. All exhibitions in the HENI Project Space are free to the public.
Ralph Rugoff, Director at the Hayward Gallery, says: “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation and the Kochi Biennale Foundation on this Award and Lecture Series. This new initiative is another step in realising our ambition to make Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space one of London’s most vital portals for showing innovative and relevant art from across the globe.”
The DBF-KMB Award selection committee will include members of Hayward Gallery’s curatorial team and its Director, Ralph Rugoff, as well as representatives from the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation and the Kochi Biennale Foundation. Artists shortlisted for the DBF-KMB Award will originate from a South Asian country (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and will not have had any prior solo exhibitions in UK public institutions.
Bose Krishnamachari, President of Kochi-Muziris Biennale, says: “The Kochi-Muziris Biennale was founded keeping the artist at its core with the aim to build new audiences and develop meaningful platforms for emerging practices. We wanted to move beyond regions and think globally; a peer to peer network that foregrounded our shared yet distinct realities. We believe a lot of this intention will come to fruition with the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation and the Hayward Gallery partnership. Together, we hope to support and learn from the spirited ideas and work of artists from the South Asian region”
Shubigi Rao, Artist, Writer and Curator of the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, says: “As an artist who participated in the 2018 edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and now as Curator of the 2022 edition, I firmly believe in the potential of this artist led initiative and how it platforms artists and histories from the region. In that light the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation – Kochi Muziris Biennale- Hayward gallery partnership is significant in representing practices from South Asia in the larger global context beyond limited readings of nations and regions. I truly believe this award will change the way we look at emerging practices from South Asia by foregrounding nascent ideas and courageous, urgent work.”
Running in alternate years to the exhibition of the DBF-KMB Award recipient, Hayward Gallery will also host a public programme entitled ‘The Durjoy Bangladesh Lecture Series’. Co-curated with the Kochi Biennale Foundation, these public talks will feature leading artists and curators from the South Asian region. Exploring salient curatorial issues in the region, the talks will take place in one of the Southbank Centre’s auditoria. The Lecture Series will serve to further build the Southbank Centre and Hayward Gallery’s critical and research-driven engagement with the South Asian arts landscape.
Durjoy Rahman, founder of Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation, says: “DBF is delighted to be partnering with the Hayward Gallery and the Kochi Muziris Biennale in developing a new programme of art production, exhibition and discourse in support of South Asian practitioners. Through the DBF-KMB Award and Lecture series, we aim to cultivate art innovation and critical thinking, while emphasising the need for connection and collaboration, which is at the core of the foundation’s mandate”
Planned schedule of DBF-KMB Award and Lecture Series events:
Winter 2022 – DBF-KMB Award winner selected from Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Summer/Autumn 2023 – Exhibition of DBF-KMB Award winner at Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space
Autumn 2024 – Durjoy Bangladesh Lecture at Southbank Centre
Winter 2024 – DBF-KMB Award winner selected from Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Summer/Autumn 2025 – Exhibition of DBF-KMB Award winner at Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space
2026 – Durjoy Bangladesh Lecture at Southbank Centre
Winter 2026 – DBF-KMB Award winner selected from Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Summer/Autumn 2027 – Exhibition of DBF-KMB Award winner at Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space
2028 – Durjoy Bangladesh Lecture at Southbank Centre
The launch of the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation/Kochi-Muziris Biennale Award and Lecture Series will be held at the Palazzo Mocenigo detto “il Nero”, a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice on 22 April 2022, 11am-1pm. The palazzo which was once occupied by the English poet Lord Byron (1788–1824) is located between the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square. The original Palazzo Mocenigo was built for the Mocenigo family, a notorious family of Doges of Venice.