Had agreement with trade unions: Kochi Biennale Foundation

Kochi, April 6
There was never a problem with trade unions at the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) as there was an agreement with them and the incident in which an artist destroyed his work was due to excessive money demanded by headload workers, an official said on Monday.

Riyas Komu, Kochi Biennale Foundation co-founder and secretary, told IANS that they had some problems with trade unions during the last event so this time they entered into an agreement with them and the rates were fixed.

The Kochi Biennale Foundation organised a 108-day event which ended on March 29.

"We had no issues and everything went smoothly. The incident where an American artist destroyed his artwork as local workers asked for excessive rates never came into our notice. The KMB was not associated with the artist exhibition. It was just a collateral project," said Komu.

American artiste Waswo X. Waswo destroyed his terracotta work last week after local workers demanded a huge sum of money to load the boxes in a truck.

"We were not told anything about the incident and Waswo. We came to know of it after a video of the incident was uploaded on YouTube," added Komu.