Amar Kanwar
Amar Kanwar is a filmmaker whose works are complex contemporary narratives that connect intimate personal spheres to larger social and political processes. Merging art, documentation and activism, Kanwar’s films are political and poetic, lyrical, rhythmic, complexly edited or captured in lengthy sequence shots, ultimately restoring the intricacy of a story.
Personal experience carries an immense weight in Kanwar’s films. During the 1947 partition of India, both his parents were forced to flee Punjab, a region divided between India and Pakistan. In 1984 Kanwar was a history student at Delhi University when the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi occurred, leading to a wave of violence where thousands of people were killed. A few months later there was a gas explosion in a Bhopal factory which killed over 2000 people. These horrific and poignant events that Kanwar and his family experienced have since become sources of reflection throughout his oeuvre – a form of commitment to civic causes through expression.
His works have been exhibited around the world, most recently in 2018 with solo exhibitions held at the LUMA Foundation, Arles, France; the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota, USA; the Tate Modern, London, UK; the Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, and at Photo Kathmandu, Nepal. Other exhibitions have been held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2007); the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2008); the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich, Switzerland (2012); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria (2013); the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2013); the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago, USA (2013); the Assam State Museum, India (2015); the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India (2015-16); and the Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France (2016). Kanwar’s work has also appeared in several documenta exhibitions (2002, 2007, 2013 and 2017). Kanwar has received numerous awards, including the Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway (2005), the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change (2014) and the Netherland’s Prince Claus Award for ground-breaking work in the field of culture and development (2017). He currently lives and works in New Delhi, India.
