The Karachi Biennale Trust (KBT) was founded in 2016 by art professionals and educators to provide a platform to promote creativity, innovation and criticality in the visual arts. KBT is a registered Trust and operates as a non-profit Organization. KBT works closely with a network of philanthropists and local and international cultural and educational Organizations, with generous support from the corporate sector.
The Karachi Biennale is KBT’s core project that connects art, the city and its people and acts like a temporary museum showcasing leading artists in Karachi. The activities usually start 12 months ahead, with workshops and talks to introduce the theme of the coming Biennale in educational institutions, schools and at public forums. During the two-week-long Biennale, exhibitions occur in multiple locations across the city, including heritage sites and public parks. It attracts visitors from all over Pakistan and abroad, keen to experience museum-quality art through exhibitions, artist talks, seminars and guided tours that are free for all.
Each Biennale revolves around a theme anchored in the host city and has international relevance. In 2017, the theme of the Biennale was ‘Witness’, which invited artists to introspect on their times through experiences that were personal, political and social. The second Biennale in 2019 focused on the devastating ‘development footprint’ on ecology, which is crucial to Karachi and other cities faced with Climate Change. In October 2022, artists exhibited works under the rubric ‘Collective Imagination: Now and the Next’ that captured the expanding integration of technology with art.