Kochi Muziris Biennale: Where to shop for souvenirs

Banana chips are a cliche, albeit a delicious one. If you are successful municipality for the Kochi Muziris Biennale, present are the champion things to bargain from homegrown labels and immoderate of our favourite spaces.  

The Biennale Kada

The Biennale Kada showcases a scope of products from Kerala handlooms to notebooks, jewellery to keepsakes, which the curator Annah Chakola says are “handmade and taste keepsakes, each carrying a story.” Annah has her ain store, Kada annahmol successful Fort Kochi. She speaks of her curation arsenic keeping successful caput the Indian tourer arsenic overmuch arsenic the foreigner, “The Biennale Kada is simply a one-stop store curated to entreaty to the planetary traveller and the Indian assemblage too.” She curated the Biennale store the past clip arsenic well. Curating this mode means elemental keepsakes, serving arsenic absorbing memories of the Biennale. She intended the abstraction arsenic 1 wherever the visitant to the Biennale could instrumentality a pause, aft visiting the sites, “this creation lawsuit is dense due to the fact that of the subjects it deals with: politics, quality rights...” The products person been chosen successful specified a mode that they person resonance with Kerala.

Most of the merchandise has been handpicked, immoderate of which person been sourced from NGOs. You tin prime Art Every Moment sketchbooks made successful neighbouring Alappuzha oregon funky notebooks designed by Kochi-based decorator Vanessa Meister. There are graphic novels and comics by Studio Kokaachi, the Beehive India’s bird-inspired artworks, manus towels from Kara Weaves and Annah’s ain label, Kada, and homegrown kombucha too. Try Paul and Mike’s burnost food oregon rum and raisin flavoured chocolates oregon prime up a Malayaliaano paper game, which volition trial your Malayali credentials, for the travel backmost home. Also support an oculus retired for the Biennale merchandise — t-shirts and totes which person Kochi Muziris Biennale emblazoned connected them and the bags denote the taxable ‘for the clip being’.

At: Aspinwall House

The Pepper House Shop

Alongside the creation installations astatine Pepper House, you tin popular into the Pepper House Shop which stocks garments, location decor, notebooks, jewellery, accessories, footwear and more. Among the labels disposable are Doodalge, Motherland, Lovebirds, No Na Me, The Burlap People, House of Urmi garments, Vanessa Meister (notebooks), Nikyta, No Nasties and Cord Studio. Says Tinky Thomas of the store, “This clip around, for the Biennale, we are moving with much brands. We volition beryllium stocking astir 150-odd brands from crossed the country. Although we are unfastened done the year, we person much astir the Biennale due to the fact that we get much radical dropping in.” The 11 year-old store, Tinky informs, has a antithetic marque catalogue for the Biennale due to the fact that astir of the visitors to the store are not overseas tourists but Indians: travellers and NRIs. Other attractions are the Beans of Bodhi outlet to prime up java similar The Wild Fire Rush, The Eco Shock, The High Tide oregon The Tornado Twist and of course, caput to Rakkaudella for made-in-Kerala chocolates.

At: Calvathy Road     

Salt Studio pop-up 

Located crossed Pepper House, 1 of the Biennale venues, the Salt Studio Pop-up promises to beryllium a dainty for those looking for interesting, offbeat merchandise. The store has built a communicative astir Chavittunadakam, Opera of Kerala, with the label’s garments that deduce inspiration from the agleam and bold colours and textures of the theatre signifier autochthonal to Kochi. Corset dresses, midis, tops, skirts, tunics and bustiers are portion of the enactment of garments isolated from connection jewellery pieces, hairsbreadth accessories and bags. Especially absorbing are the pieces of creation — the Chavittunadakam-inspired figures made of clay by creator Helna Merin Joseph and VJ Lalichan and paintings connected the taxable by Vikalp Durga Mishra. “Very fewer radical cognize astir Chavittunadakam extracurricular Kerala oregon adjacent Kochi for that matter. So I thought wherefore not physique a postulation astir it for the Biennale. That is however the postulation came to be. The garments are moving fast, faster than I expected arsenic besides the curios and accessories,” says Diya.

At: Calvathy Road

Alka Hari X Found Objects pop-up

The store, which faces Calvathy Road, has an absorbing postulation of garments by decorator Alka Hari, curios/home decor marque Found Objects, and Art by Vineetha Menon. While Alka’s enactment boasts Kerala handloom/silk garments, shirts and tunics, Found Objects is each astir creation and location decor similar ceramic and clay ware, paintings, pouffes and more. Alka Hari’s enactment has been specially made for the Biennale, which she says was inspired by the handloom and embroidery traditions crossed the country. “I person incorporated those into the designs of the postulation which are disposable lone successful this pop-up, and not astatine the Alka Hari workplace oregon our online store,” says Alka. The curation was done by Alka, Vineetha and Thomas Joseph and Dhiya Charly of Found Objects, “the 3 of america sat down unneurotic to enactment unneurotic a postulation that was contemporary. There is definite cohesiveness to the garments, the creation and location decor connected show astatine the store. We did not privation it to look forcibly enactment together, but alternatively person a definite travel to the plan and the display.”  

At: Opposite Seagull, Calvathy Road 

Inkpikle stories

This tiny store, tucked distant connected Burgher Street, Fort Kochi, other Kashi Art Cafe is simply a homegrown, made successful Kochi decorator statement with its casual and comfy silhouettes. Inkpikle tunics, dresses, tops, pants and kaftans, are made of handspun and handwoven fabric, either printed oregon embroidered. The store stocks accessories too. It has different outlet astatine Mocha Art Cafe, Jew Town, besides a Biennale venue.  So we person launched our caller store specially for the biennale season. It is simply a imperishable store and is wrong 1 of the biennale collateral venues, the Mocha Art Cafe.

“Our latest postulation is meant to modulation done the biennale play arsenic a souvenir postulation from Fort Kochi. The postulation ‘Coexist’ draws inspiration from the architectural echoes of Fort Kochi — the intricate gables of shrines, assemblage arches, woody latticework, and fleur-de-lis motifs, each people translates architectural bushed into wearable art. Keeping our minimalist but quirky plan connection we person played with enactment creation and polka — it is simply a motif wrong a motif. The polkas enactment arsenic small frames, astir similar medallions oregon emblems, with people motifs inspired from these timeless architecture. Also manus embroidery inspired from the Portugese, Jewish and assemblage times.”

The designs are made successful handspun/ handwoven ahimsa silk/ non convulsive silk and besides handwoven linen isolated from the Inkpikle staple handspun handwoven mulberry silk. There is besides 92.5 metallic jewellery, constricted variation of 5 pieces.

At: Burgher Street and Jew Town