Unseen ecologies, vanishing forests, and resistance at Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Thai visual artist and documentary filmmaker Som Supaparinya has brought a searing indictment of unchecked development to the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), where her work featured as part of the “Imagining Zomia” series.

Artist & Work
Thai visual artist and documentary filmmaker Som Supaparinya presented her video installation The Rivers They Don’t See (2024) as part of the Imagining Zomia series.
- Focuses on rivers like the Salween, Ping, and Chao Phraya.
- Examines dam construction, diversions, and contradictions in “green energy” policies.

Themes Explored
- Rivers as politicized environmental structures where power, capital, and history collide.
- Absence and loss: dried riverbeds, abandoned villages, hollowed ecosystems.
- “Unseen disasters” such as manmade earthquakes, destabilized riverbeds, displacement, and erosion of livelihoods.

Voices from the Margins
Refugees from Myanmar, migrant laborers, and riverbank residents testify about poisoned waters, lost homes, and precarious futures—challenging official narratives.

Local Resonance in Kerala
Kerala’s own history of dams, floods, and development-driven crises makes Supaparinya’s work especially relevant to the Biennale’s audience.

Other Screenings
- Abundance: Living with a Forest (Nagaland) — documents foraging, forest life, and jhum cultivation, highlighting Indigenous ecological knowledge.
- Online lecture by Yutong Lin on the history of plant foraging in the Himalayas.

Why It Matters
This Biennale segment underscores how art can illuminate the hidden costs of development—giving visibility to ecological destruction and marginalized voices, while urging audiences to sit with discomfort and responsibility rather than easy solutions.