KBF was established in 2010 by artists for artists as a non-profit, charitable trust set up in Kerala, South India to promote art, culture, heritage and education. The Government of Kerala has been a principal supporter of Kochi Biennale Foundation.
KBF’s mission is to promote artistic and cultural education through engagement and dialogue with exhibitions of diverse and inclusive art practices. KBF aims to catalyse Kochi and its surroundings with contemporary art and ideas and to work towards the restoration and conservation of heritage properties and monuments and the revival of traditional forms of art and culture.
KBF hosts the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), India’s largest contemporary art festival that is presented biennially in the historic port city of Kochi, on the Malabar coast of India.
KMB draws from Kerala’s rich multicultural history including the fabled Chera harbour of Muziris that traded with the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean regions. In the recent past Kochi was ruled and influenced by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial cultures and has been home to a number of ethnic communities including Jews, Konkinis and Gujaratis.
Kochi today is a cosmopolitan, culturally vibrant city and the financial and commercial capital of the state.
