kochi one of the oldest coastal port towns in the country is all set to undergo a radical transformation into a vibrant centre for modern arts and culture soonthe dusty abandoned warehouses coir godowns and port buildings in alappuzha are getting a makeover and creeperridden backyards and idle machinery fit to be sold as scrap are being cleared for one of the biggest art projects in the state till datetitled lokame tharavadu the world is one family a massive exhibition funded by the state government is being organized by kochimuziris biennale foundation in alappuzha and ernakulam from march 10 to may 31 this yearthe show will feature the works of 267 malayali artists from across the globe in six different venues and is curated by artist bose krishnamachari president of kochbiennale foundation bose says such a large exhibition involving so many malayali artists at a global scale has never happened till date and the excitement is shared by the artists participating in the showthis is a historic moment as far as alappuzha is concerned i never imagined my birthplace will provide such a great platform for malayali artists across the world to showcase their works says v s blodshow one of the participants in the exhibitionblodshow an artistinresidence at cholamandal artists village for many years had always wondered why his home district has never made it to the art fair circuit in terms of natural landscape and heritage alappuzha is ahead of kochi and yet for some reason it was still seen as a district that survived on traditional coir industry agriculture and offlate houseboat tourism he saysthe idea of having art museums and ongoing art projects is to bring in a unique identity for a towncity which only art can provideas the exhibitions curator bose is confident that the massive initiative is going to change the cultural scenario in alappuzha in the coming years this is going to do what kochimuziris biennale did to kochi and maybe even better because the district is endowed with one of the unique natural landscapes that is not seen anywhere else in the world he saysalready there is a buzz in the town with artists like anpu varkey doing graffiti unmindful of the busy traffic on a 150feet wall of a coir warehouse situated on the national highwaydelhibased varkey is halfway through the graffiti which depicts coir workers men and women engaged in a sort of tug of wari would rather want to call it a daily engagement of workers which is an intrinsic occupation of this place and is now part of its heritage the graffiti in many ways is a homage to the local vibrant coir industry she saysvarkey has been etching graffiti all over the country and in fact painted the graffiti drinking and smoking fish at pepper house in kochi for the first edition of the biennalecities observes writer n s madhavan one of the trustees of kochimuziris biennale need to reinvent themselves and there are moments when people