With the opening date of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016 – December 12 –drawing ever nearer, participating artists have begun making their way through Kochi’s warrens and bylanes to explore the location and gain context of the spaces that will eventually hold their works. Among these visitors is Pedro Gómez-Egaña, a Colombian-born artist from Norway who is among the ‘First 25’ artists announced as participants in the third edition of India’s only Biennale, which runs up to March 29, 2017. For insight into Gómez-Egaña’s art practice and his thought process as he prepares for the Biennale, the Kochi Biennale Foundation held an Art Talk by him yesterday evening at BTH Ernakulam, titled ‘The Crash of George’. Trained in music composition and visual art, Gómez-Egaña’s practice expands across performance, sculpture, video, installation, and sound. His works refer to historical and cultural intersections between technology and temporality. His thinking draws from the contentions of French ‘philosopher of speed’ Paul Virilio that technological progress corresponds to the growth in potential for accidents: ‘When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution… Every technology carries its own negativity’. The Art Talk event was supported by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Office of Contemporary Art, Norway and the City of Bergen.
