ALTHOUGH IT IS ONLY in its second edition, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale seems replete with history, owing to its two storied sites: Kochi, an extant port on the Arabian Sea with a long history of global trade and multicultural exchange; and Muziris, a mythical ancient port destroyed in a devastating tsunami, whose archaeological traces are thought to have been recently excavated at nearby Pattanam. Given the biennial’s brief existence, its organizers understandably feel compelled to address the region’s past, but doing so without being repetitive or contrived is a tricky proposition. Declared