The Chennai Photo Biennale Is Back With The Fourth Edition

Art enthusiasts, mark your calendars. Chennai Photo Biennale is back with its fourth edition, featuring a variety of exhibitions and programmes from December 20, 2024, to March 16, 2025. The Chennai Photo Biennale's fourth edition raises the fundamental question, "What is the purpose of photography?" and explores various aspects of our connection with photography. In a time of inundation with visual content, CPB4 showcases alternative and deliberate methods of creating images.

The biennale will showcase diverse practices by artists who are reshaping dominant narratives by addressing gaps in representation, remixing colonial visual vocabularies with native avant garde aesthetics, by shifting the gaze from the lone photographer to forge an ethic of care and collective authorship.

CPB4 brings together curators, photographers, lens-based artists, and audiences from around the world to experience exhibitions and programmes set against the backdrop of the city. The biennale invites the citizens of Chennai - families, commuters, teachers, students, and artists to see their hometown anew. This edition strives to foster a thoughtful, rigorous, and playful understanding of how photography shapes and changes our lives.

"Why Photograph?" is an attempt to bring to audiences the who (not just the who's who), the what, the where, and the why - and in the process, reassess both the strengths and inadequacies of the medium. The texts and images you will encounter in the exhibitions were not produced for a biennale or a book. The biennale will not just unveil new photographers or celebrate the history of photographic practices but explore diverse ways of seeing, thinking, feeling, and presenting.

The Programme Phases

The CPB4 will open in two phases: Phase 1 on December 20, 2024, and Phase 2 on January 17, 2025. The biennale will close on March 16, 2025. Both phases will include a set of primary shows of the CPB Foundation as well as the CPB Invitation shows, which are pre-existing works and projects invited to be part of the CPB4.

Phase 1: Exhibitions opening on December 20, 2024

CPB Primary Shows in December 2024 include "Roots that Reach for the Sky", curated by Jaisingh Nageswaran, featuring a diverse group of artists, including Alina Tiphagne, Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Arun Karthik, Brinda Anantharaman, Krithika Sriram, Osheen Siva, Priyadarshini Ravichandran, Sathish Kumar, Shankar Raja Narayana, Sridhar Balasubramaniam, Steevez Rodriguez and Vivek Mariappan. The show is supported by the Goethe-Institut. Another show titled "Contemporary Practices by Women in Photography and Lens-based Art" will feature works by artists from India and around the world. The exhibition will include pieces by the Fast Forward Collective (UK), Hannah Cooke (Germany), Nony Singh (India), Indu Antony (India), Offset Projects (India), Ann Griffin (Switzerland), Farheen Fatima (India), and many others. The exhibition will be held at the Lalit Kala Akademi and is supported by the Goethe-Institut Chennai, the British Council, Pro Helvetia, and other cultural partners. CPB Invitation shows in December include "Madras, Margazhi & Music", featuring portraits by Amar Ramesh at Narada Gana Sabha.

Phase 2: Exhibitions opening on January 17, 2025

CPB Primary Shows in January 2025 include "Love and Light: A Site of Infinite Possibilities", a retrospective of Sunil Gupta curated by Gupta-Singh Archives at the Egmore Museum, supported by Tarun & Tarana Sawhney, Vadehra Art Gallery and Jaiveer Johal. "What Makes Me Click!" will showcase 20 photography projects by children worldwide at the Government Museum, Egmore. The exhibition is curated by CPB Prism and the Children's Photography Archive, UK, with support from Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and will feature photography by children from India, Cambodia, Singapore, Gaza, Turkey, New York, Guatemala, Greece, UK, and South Africa. Participating institutions include the Bronx Documentary Centre (New York), Girl Museum (London), Museum of Photography Thessaloniki, Art Reach India (New Delhi), Objectifs (Singapore), and more. The exhibition will be an interactive installation across the museum campus, featuring photographs and engaging activities for all ages, including a pinhole camera and slide projections.

The Open Call Exhibition will feature 40 photographers at a public venue in Chennai. Entries were received from 30 countries. The exhibition will showcase single images and photo essays selected by an international jury including Alessia Glaviano, Brendan McCleary, Gwen Lee, Joseph Radhik, Julie Héraut, Michael Weir, Smita Sharma, Umah Jacob, and Varun Gupta.

Darkroom Residency Showcase will feature works by artists from India and the UK - Ārun (Chennai), Holly Birtles (UK), and Soham Joshi (UK). The show is supported by the British Council in partnership with PhotoWorks UK.

CPB Invitation Shows in January include ‘Photography Strictly Prohibited’ - a retrospective of Navroze Contractor at Folly, Amethyst Chennai; ‘Postcards from Home’ by Manisha Gera Baswani at Raw Mango Store, Chennai; the LM Sen Archive by Emami Art at Alliance Française Madras Gallery, Chennai; and ‘Poetics of Space’ by Sebastian Cortez at Folly, Amethyst.

CPB Invitation Shows in February include ‘Indianisms’ by Prashant Panjiar and ‘Limits of Change’ by Parvathi Nayar and Nayantara Nayar at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai.

CPB Invitation Shows in March include 'So Far and Hereafter' by Nandini Valli Muthiah at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai.

Key programme weekends with public openings, talks, exhibition tours, workshops, and more will be held on December 20-22, 2024, and January 17-19, 2025. For more information and updates, check the website chennaiphotobiennale.foundation.