Artist Lynda Benglis at Barbican and Kochi Muziris Biennale Haiti ‘ghetto artists’ open & Marina Abramović lecture

Benglis’ Barbican exhibition is supported by Kiran Nader Museum of Art (Delhi) and Kochi Biennale welcomes world’s foremost performance artist for a lecture…

Lynda Benglis Encounters: Giacometti – small but perfectly formed exhibition/dialogue, last in trilogy of ‘meetings’

OVER at the Barbican, there is the final instalment of a trilogy of exhibitions which began last year with American Pakistan-born artist Huma Bhabha and was then followed by Mona Hatoum in September and now ends with another American artist, Lynda Benglis.
All these three artists have a relationship with the works of Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) whose very distinctive and original sculptures of the human form made him one of the most recognised and celebrated artists of his age.
There are 30 works which have not seen before in this current exhibition and form a sort of new conversation with Giacometti’s work. These creations were made between 2014-2020 at Benglis’ studio in New Mexico. All three exhibitions are supported by The Giacometti Foundation in Switzerland, where he spent most of his time as an artist.
The opening, as you enter the level 2 gallery, is very arresting, with Giacometti’s ‘Woman with a Chariot’ (1943-45) almost greeting you and his paintings just behind – to the side are Benglis’ work coming out of the wall – these suggest the fragility and ethereality of the human body – and as you go around the corner some of Benglis’ work has a less foreboding quality to it. Her sculptures are made from an array of material including bronze, ceramic, glass, latex, polyurethane foam, metal, paper and held together and bound with chicken wire.
The incorporation of colour changes the tone of Benglis’ work as you progress through the exhibition. These contain notes of optimism, fun and playfulness – perhaps expressing a more positive outlook than Giacometti was able to conceive in his time.
The Kiran Nader Musuem of Art (KNMA) announced earlier this month that the current director of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi Manuel Rabaté, will become its CEO and director in early Spring. KNMA is currently constructing a new arts centre space just off the National Highway in Delhi. It is widely accepted it will be the largest art space of its kind in South Asia, consisting of a million square foot of space. KNMA has committed itself to bringing art closer to ordinary people. Rabaté has some 25 years experience and the move is seen as fulfilling KNMA’s vision of an institution with high international standards, while being rooted in art practices and traditions of the region. Kiran Shiv Nader is the chairperson of KNMA and is the wife of Shiv Nader, the founder of Indian tech giants, HCL Technologies. Nader featured as the highest Indian in a list of influential figures in the art world published late last year – listed in the top 20. She is also one of the sponsors of Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB – see below) and had an active presence when www.asianculturevulture.com covered the Opening of KMB on December 12 last year.

*Short gallery and Reel to follow here (pending)

Listing
Giacometti Encounters Lynda Benglis (February 12-May 31), Barbican Centre, Level 2, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2026/event/encounters-giacometti-x-lynda-benglis

Kochi Muziris Biennale 2025 – Invitations programme Ghetto Biennale with ‘Spectres of History‘ (2025) by Atis Rezistans – art as survival and joy; Abramović defers to nature and power of performance…

IT’S BEEN a busy week at Kochi Muziris Biennale as it opened its Ghetto Biennale with ‘Spectres of History’ by Atis Rezistans from Haiti and a visit and address from global icon, performance artist Marina Abramović.
Atis Rezistans is a collective group of artists from Port-au-Prince whose work emphasises survivalist recycling, with work created out of engine parts, TV sets, and they produce art out of the Grand Rue neighbourhood of the capital.
Atis Rezistans take inspiration from everyday materials and use their creativity and imagination to fire a new world of possibilities and draw on a history of resistance movements, African heritage and Voudou practice and dystopian sci-fi visions. The island nation has been riven gang rivalries and natural disasters in recent times.
Their show at Kochi Biennale opened formally on Friday (February 13) at St Andrews Parish Hall on Fort Kochi.
Earlier on Tuesday (February 10), Marina Abramović delivered an address and spoke at a press conference at the Samudrika Convention Centre on Willingdon Island, near Fort Kochi.
Her lecture, ‘The Past, Present, and Future of Performance Art’ delved into the differences between Eastern and Western artistic practices and traditions – noting how the former was often linked to spirituality, inner consciousness and nature.
In an interaction with the media, she spoke about nature being both an inspiration and a starting and ending point for creative activity.
“Nature is everything – the high mountains, the rivers, exploding volcanoes…sitting under a tree with closed eyes… Nature is really the biggest teacher that we have to know,” she was quoted as saying by Kochi Biennale.
Kochi Biennale also added that she felt less inspired now by India than in the past, feeling it was in thrall to Westernisation and not leaning enough on its own heritage and traditions.
She appeared at the press meet alongside Nikhil Chopra, lead curator from the collective HH Art Spaces and Meha Patel, Gold Artist Patron of the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
Chopra told the media: “Marina brings with her an extraordinary archive of over 62 years of performance practice. Her body itself becomes the archive – shaped by decades of hard work, risk-taking and an unwavering commitment where the stakes have always been incredibly high.”
Abramović also discussed her evolution from painting and first being aware of India growing up in the old Yugoslavia (now her region, Serbia) and its leader Tito, who was friendly towards India.
She said it had been a huge struggle to get performance art to be taken seriously.
“At the time I was already doing performance art – when it was not respected, not even considered art. It took me nearly 62 years to convince the world that performance is art. Today performance is mainstream – in museums and here at the Biennale.”
ACV covered the opening of the main exhibition space at Willingdon Island Warehouse which accommodates Abramović’s video installation, ‘Waterfall’ and interviewed Chopra, at the time co-founder and President Bose Krishnamachari – he has since resigned from the foundation last month, citing family reasons.
(See our video interviews below)

Kochi Biennale (December 12 2025) until March 31, all across Fort Kochi and Kochi, Kerala, India.
https://www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org/