KARACHI: The Karachi Biennale-19 catalogue was launched, followed by a webinar, online on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, one of the founders of the Karachi Biennale Trust Niilofur Farrukh said in January 2019 her team began planning eco-friendly practices as a result of which three initiatives were born; one of them was the e-catalogue.

They always envisioned the catalogue to be something that had qualities of a print catalogue in a conventional way with digital features to make it more contemporary. The journey of the actual document started six months back, facing many challenges along the way due to Covid-19. But it was the resilience, commitment and good humour that kept them going.

Ms Farrukh said it’s a more than 360-page document which walks you through the entire two and a half weeks of KB-19. And for the first time it also unveils the project that took place a year and half before the biennale, focused on building an audience for the event. She believes that the catalogue will reach a large number of people.

‘It is a reference point for different artists’ works’

Curator of KB-19 Muhammad Zeeshan said the catalogue goes well with the vision of the biennale which is: it should be for everyone. This was the reason that they decided to do KB-19 at places where people could go with families. The online catalogue will widen that idea. Physical paper has its own feel but because of today’s technological advancement, it’s an interesting thing. Fifteen years ago, even a discussion on framing artworks for a show required email exchanges. But now WhatsApp can resolve issues then and there. This catalogue serves that purpose beautifully. Access has become convenient. This is the time to see how projects at KB-19 interacted with each other, he pointed out.

Mr Zeeshan said we usually talk about doing art in public spaces. But keeping the students of art in mind, those who want to move out of their studios to do work, they can also relate to the projects because of the catalogue. “It is a reference point for different artists’ works.”

Designer of the catalogue Zainab Marvi informed the participants on the thoughts and ideas that went into its making in keeping with the visual design of KB-19.

Umair Khatri spoke on the development of the project, which he mentioned wasn’t easy.

Zehra Hamdani Mirza moderated the event.

After the launch, a webinar hosted by Atteqa Malik and participated by eminent personalities was held.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2020