Biennale can promote communal harmony: Shashi Tharoor

KOCHI: An international art event like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale gains immense relevance and prominence in present times that is marked by unease and animosity between countries and communities, Union Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor today said.

Cultural festivals like the ongoing biennale would help people know what others do for them, thus cement a human bond, he said delivering a lecture at the Aspinwall House, the main venue of the three-month extravaganza, at Fort Kochi.

"But for globalisation, our imagination would have shrunk," the Minister said. It has been helping people in exploring their own identity and expand their mental horizon, he noted at the talk titled 'Globalisation and the Human Imagination'.

Tharoor noted that terrorist organisations have been trying to muzzle and assault the human imagination in the current post-liberalisation world. The 9/11 attack in the US and Mumbai 26/11 have made a lot of changes in the world and India, he added.

The results have been communal friction and social tensions. Globalisation has withstood their pressures and continues to benefit mankind, he added.

Earlier, Tharoor took a round of the Aspinwall House, seeing the exhibits put on display at the sea-facing building.

Among others who came to visit the biennale today were Indian Council for Cultural Relations Director-General Suresh K Goel, V S Sunilkumar, MLA, filmmaker T V Chandran and artist C N Karunakaran.