Kathmandu Triennale is announcing dates for the fourth and upcoming edition, “Kathmandu Triennale 2077”, which will now take place February 11–March 11, 2022. 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 Kathmandu Triennale 2077, 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 Drăgan, 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, Thảo 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 Vătămanu + 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 Kathmandu Triennale 2077. 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.