Banaras Biennale 2026: Kashi Hosts Its First Biennale From 27 November, Themed 'City as Sensorium'
Kashi, the oldest of the city's names, is usually traced to a Sanskrit root meaning to shine. Kashi is the luminous city, the city of light.
It is an etymology the city's first biennale has taken to heart.
The biennale
The CII Banaras Biennale runs from 27 November to 31 December 2026. Its theme is "Kashi/Light: City as Sensorium": an invitation to experience Banaras not only as a place to look at, but as something heard, touched and felt.
As the organisers put it: "The Ganga will flow, the ghats will glow, and in 14 days, Kashi will tell a thousand new stories."
What it brings together
The biennale is curated by the art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha, and the programme draws on the city's own collections and living traditions:
Treasures from Bharat Kala Bhavan, the museum at Banaras Hindu University
The collections at Jnana Pravaha
A spotlight on Banarasi silk and zari, curated by Pramod Kumar KG
The designer Payal Khandwala, whose work reinterprets traditional textile craft
Why a biennale in Banaras makes sense
India's best-known biennale, in Kochi, was built partly on the idea that a port city's layered history could become the ground for contemporary art. Banaras offers something comparable, and perhaps deeper. Few cities anywhere have such an unbroken relationship between daily life and ritual, craft and devotion.
The risk with any heritage-led biennale is that it becomes an exercise in display: old treasures, newly lit. The more interesting possibility is the one the organisers seem to intend, in which the weavers, performers and artists of the city are treated not as heritage, but as contemporaries.
Partners and registration
The biennale is supported by partners including the JSW Foundation. Registration is open via the link in the Banaras Biennale's Instagram bio.
The same season brings another major event to the capital. Read our note on the India Biennale in Delhi.
This article is based on the organisers' announcements and published reports.
Kenneth Hopkins is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AltBollywood. Indofuturist, posthumanist and unapologetically Indocentric, he describes himself as an epimemeticist, a swaraji, a freakonomist, a lexicographer and a cartochronicler, mapping the ideas, words and quiet shifts that shape Indian entertainment. Follow him on Instagram at @kennethhopkins.
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