Riyas Komu
1971 | Kochi, India
Riyas Komu is an artist and curator who has exhibited his works worldwide, including the Venice Biennale. His works – paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs and installations- dwell on a range of subjects, including war, migration, civilisational memories, displacement, violence, betrayal, history, conflict, multiculturalism & football, and the Indian Constitution.
He is the ideator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and co-founder of the Kochi Biennale Foundation. He co-curated the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012 and, as the director of programmes, made the biennale a multidisciplinary educational project. Komu is the co-founder of URU Art Harbour, a cultural hub in Mattancherry, Kochi, which promotes artists from the region focused on Kerala history, local culture and maritime traditions.
He co-curated the first International Football Film Festival in India at the Goa International Film Festival and Trivandrum International Film Festival in 2012. His critically acclaimed solo projects include “Faith Accompli – 2005” on religious fundamentalism, “Related List – 2008” on war, civilisational crisis and displacement and ‘Holy Shiver-2018 ’ on conflicts along with the art in the Constitution. In 2019, Komu curated the Kondotty Sufi Festival in Malappuram, Kerala.
In 2016, he co-founded Uru Art Harbour, and in 2022, he co-founded Aazhi Archives with a group of academics and scholars. He is currently the artistic director of The Ishara House, Kochi, for the Amphibian Aesthetics Exhibition and ‘Sea a Boiling Vessel’, an ongoing research project which puts the spotlight on Knowledge + Art + People.
Showing with SAC Art Amsterdam for ‘Barzakh’ later in the year.
