KOCHI: A day before Kochi-Muziris Biennale KMB ) concluded on Friday, objects that were part of the interactive work ‘Sahodarar’ by Vipin Dhanurdharan atAspinwall House — which drew its philosophy from anti-caste teachings of social reformer Sahodaran Ayyappan — were vandalized following a brawl around Thursday midnight.Bilas Nair, who worked as the volunteer head of KMB, was allegedly beaten up when he questioned the act.“Complaints have been filed for assault on one of our employees and vandalising objects in the interactive installation,” said Kochi Biennale Foundation co-founder Bose Krishnamachari.Dhanurdharan’s project showcased portraits of several real-life people he had met and interacted with. It had an ‘Open Kitchen’ attached to it where free meals were served to visitors to celebrate ‘Mishrabhojanam’, a revolutionary activity undertaken by Ayyappan, where people of different castes had their meals together as a statement of protest. Nair said the incident happened when he along with his colleague went to Aspinwall around 12 in the night to distribute food to volunteers.“Two people barged into Aspinwall and broke one clay pot at Dhanurdharan’s kitchen. They verbally abused me and went back to the kitchen and broke another clay pot and a glass bottle,” said Nair.Nair added that when he tried to make a call to a person in the production team, one person pulled his t-shirt and started slapping him.“Another person also approached and started physically assaulting me. I also reacted in defence. Later, police came and took me to hospital,” Nair said.He added that he would move legally in this regard.

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