Artist: Amar Kanwar

Over three decades, New Delhi-based artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar has developed a distinctive body of lyrical films and multi-video installations that move between documentary, travelogue and visual essay. This major solo exhibition unfolds as a site-specific installation, bringing together new and existing films to transform Serpentine North into a meditative visual and sonic environment.

Shaped by the history of the Indian subcontinent, Kanwar frequently draws on lived experience to investigate the enduring legacies of decolonisation and the 1947 Partition, which led to the creation of India, Pakistan and eventually Bangladesh. In his films, Kanwar bears witness to social upheaval, displacement, power, violence, arrogance, justice and memory. Reckoning with the past to better comprehend the urgencies of the present, he reveals what unites us, regardless of geography or context.

Within the darkened galleries, visitors will encounter a trilogy of films by Kanwar: the feature-length Such a Morning (2017), the multi-screen installation The Peacock’s Graveyard (2023), and a new seven-screen installation titled The Charcoal Man (2026), which makes its premiere at Serpentine.

Amar Kanwar is curated in close collaboration with the artist by Chris Bayley, Exhibitions Curator, with Kit Gurnos, Assistant Exhibitions Curator.