Although he hails from a corporate background—having worked for 29 years with companies like Nivea, Beiersdorf and Procter & Gamble—Neil George always had a love for art and started collecting it from 2005. He is also a photographer specialising in street and portrait photography. Now, he has an enviable collection of masters like F.N. Souza, M.F. Husain and Anjolie Ela Menon. He collects everything from paintings to rare photographs and manuscripts.
Ela Menon, for example, is known for her work in masonite, but George has a chair of hers which he got from a private collector in Bengaluru. It is part of a very rare set of five chairs she created, on which are painted movie stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth and Shilpa Shetty. Today, more than 500 pieces from George’s personal collection are exhibited at One Kochi, India’s first art district that he built on 1.5 acres of land six minutes away from the Kochi International Airport.
“I have travelled extensively and was inspired by the art districts of many cities, like Jordaan in Amsterdam and Soho in London,” says George. “Many times, they are fish markets and meat packing districts by day which are taken over by DJs, tattoo artists and eateries at night.”
One Kochi is designed as a space where heritage, luxury and art meet. George started building it in November 2022. To design it, he visited every major historical property in and around Kochi, taking in the tile roofs, the foliage, the arches, the swimming pools. The final design is inspired by a handful of buildings primarily in Fort Kochi, including the Durbar Hall, Brunton Boatyard, Old Harbour Hotel and David Hall.
“We got the name One Kochi, because this is the first address of Kochi as it is situated right next to the airport,” says George. “It is supposed to be the gateway to God’s Own Country. When people come to Kochi, this should be their first point of call.”
The art block, consisting of a Central Gallery and two smaller galleries called Masters and Viewing Galleries, is called Gallerie AD 1498, the year Vasco Da Gama landed in Calicut, which, George believes, was a turning point in the cultural history of Kerala. His arrival changed everything—from religion and language to art and food. In the middle of the Central Gallery is a large mural by artist Preeti Chellappan, in which she depicts the arrival of Da Gama in the palace of the Zamorin. There is also a 15-minute AI installation recreating Da Gama’s journey. George calls it the world’s first AI documentary in Malayalam.
Next to the art block is the hotel block consisting of six luxury suites, each of which has been designed by an artist—The Silent Grove by Smruthi Garg, The Mural Art Studio by Suresh Muthukulam and Roy John, The Suite of Inlaid Anecdotes by George Martin P.J., The Modernist Studio by Subodh Kerkar and Suite 1972 by George himself. There is also a speciality restaurant, a swimming pool designed around a lagoon, and a club lounge called One In A Million. “It’s called that because there are 34 million Malayalis around the world and I’ve given club membership to 34 of them, one for every million,” says George. “These are 34 Malayalis picked by me who are making a difference to the cultural landscape of Kerala, whether in architecture, music or art. Other than these 34, anyone else interested must pay to access the club.”
George has taken a broad view of art, not restricting it to paintings or photographs. He has sourced some unique pieces, like a Dutch bench from Fort Kochi. All the furniture is handmade by local artisans. He wanted to somehow retain an old house near the property that they had to demolish, so he got an artist from Ahmedabad to recreate it through an artwork using a million glass tiles. They have cut almost no trees in the property; some are more than half a century old. They have also planted a lot of teak and frangipani trees. George would collect rare saplings from the countries he visited and plant it there. “There are trees from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia,” he says. “That’s why you will see that each one has a different colour and style.”
The art district is all set to open with a bang on October 17 and 18, with two days of art, music, food and culture, and performances by bands like 13AD and Jatayu. One Kochi, it seems, is an idea whose time has come.
