First Karachi Biennale – KB17
October 22 – November 5, 2017
The Biennale in Karachi, KB17, is a visionary platform that focuses on innovation, excellence, and criticality through curatorial strategies that bring art from Pakistan and the rest of the world together for a large public audience.
Its discursive interventions aim to cross-pollinate ideas and explore meaning and truth across disciplines and contexts. Since the 1950s, as Karachi grew from a small harbour town to a mega-urban centre, it has attracted independent thinkers unburdened by an established canon, embracing artists who wanted to respond to the personal and political with greater freedom.
Theme: WITNESS
Artists were invited to respond to the theme WITNESS. Art as a testament of its time has always held significance, particularly in times when memory is heavily contested.
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memories against forgetting."
The theme Witness was chosen for its strong relevance to the politics of representation, erasure, and selective documentation. In a city like Karachi, where histories are often contested and narratives fragmented, the act of witnessing becomes both a personal and collective responsibility.
Venue and Context
The main venue of KB17 was the 160-year-old NJV Government Higher Secondary School building, located within the historical precincts of one of the most populous cities in the world. This location provided easy access to new audiences and also brought into discussion Karachi's history, which has often been overshadowed by the tensions of rapid growth.
Karachi has been home to many influential modernists and contemporary artists; its gallery circuit is unrivalled in the country and is one of the most vibrant in South Asia. With an architecture of exhibitions, discursive interventions, and extensive visitor programs during KB17, art in Karachi combined creative energies and sparked new ones.
Karachi Venue Map
Visual layout of KB17 exhibition points across the city:
Exhibition Clusters
| Cluster | Exhibition Venues |
|---|---|
| Cluster A | Karachi School of Art, VM Art Gallery, ZVMG Rangoonwala Trust |
| Cluster B | Capri Cinema, 63 Commissariat Lines, NJV Government School, Jamshed Memorial Hall, Pioneer Book House |
| Cluster C | Sadequain Gallery (Frere Hall), Claremont House, Mahvash & Jahangir Siddiqui Gallery (Alliance Française) |
| Cluster D | FOMMA DHA Art Center, IVS Gallery (Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture) |
Cluster Maps
Cluster A Venues
Rangoonwala, VM Gallery & KSA
Cluster B Venues
NJV School, Capri, Pioneer Books & Jamshed Hall
Cluster C Venues
Sadequain Gallery (Frere Hall) & Alliance Française
Cluster D Venues
FOMMA & IVS Gallery (Clifton/DHA)