Italian Artist Daniele Galliano ‘Draws’ Crowds at KMB 2016

KOCHI:
Working under the shade of a cashew tree outside his exhibition space in Aspinwall House, Daniele Galliano is mobbed by crowds daily. The Italian artist is never short of volunteers to model for his live painting series at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016.
For the project titled ‘Bad Trip’, Galliano is on a constant search for new faces. He draws over non-professional paintings done by unknown artists. Galliano will be working on one such artwork everyday until the Biennale ends, expecting to finish 108 paintings in as many days.
“People in Kerala are as open-minded as people in Italy.
Since the faces here are so different, it makes my work refreshing since I’m constantly on a search for new faces and landscapes,” said Galliano, who sees his series as a travelogue of his stay in Kochi through its people and places.
The diversity of dress styles and fashion sensibilities in Kerala is a notable characteristic of the series. From the ‘sari’ and ‘jeans and t-shirt’ sets, to the attires of the Punjabi and Kutchi settlements in Fort Kochi to the various takes on the beard and moustache found here, Galliano reproduces it all on canvas.
‘Bad Trip’ sticks close to KMB 2016 curator Sudarshan Shetty’s core idea of the creations at the Biennale being in constant evolution. The complete series will be shown to the public only at the end of the Biennale. But on Sundays such as this, the buzzword is participation not product.