Serpentine has announced a major solo exhibition by Amar Kanwar, one of the most important voices working in moving image today. Opening at Serpentine North on 23rd September 2026 and running until 31st January 2027, the exhibition will bring together landmark works from across Kanwar’s practice alongside the premiere of a major new installation.
Based in New Delhi, Kanwar has spent more than two decades creating a distinctive body of poetic, politically charged films that move between documentary, visual essay and cinematic meditation. His works frequently draw on the histories and contemporary realities of the Indian subcontinent — exploring decolonisation, the Partition of India and Pakistan, displacement, violence, justice, ecology and memory — while speaking to urgent global questions around power, humanity and collective responsibility.
At Serpentine North, visitors will encounter a trilogy of immersive moving-image works: the feature-length Such a Morning (2017), the seven-screen installation The Peacock’s Graveyard (2023), and the world premiere of The Charcoal Man (2026), a newly commissioned multi-screen work developed by Kanwar over three years.
Reflecting on the new exhibition, Kanwar said:
“Our capacity for evil is not new and yet the last decade has twisted this knife deeper into our souls. On our knees, face to face with our own selves, the bottomless well reflects the sky. I cannot remember anymore, said the patriot to the traitor. For I have forgotten what I have forgotten. That’s not a problem he replied, as I have forgotten too.
I am grateful to Serpentine for this very special invitation. I am also deeply grateful to a small set of friends who have helped me make these film installations. And for the support that I have received. Everyone has shared a part of themselves while making this possible.”
One of the centrepieces of the exhibition is The Peacock’s Graveyard, originally commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 15 and shown in London for the first time here. Spanning seven screens, the installation layers stories written by the artist with contemporary and ancient fables, oral histories and personal reflections, creating a mesmerising meditation on human arrogance, violence and the possibility of transformation.
Kanwar has described it not as mourning, but as “a kind of gift, a collection of stories… to help us reconfigure life.”
Also on view is Such a Morning, first presented at documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel. This feature-length work unfolds as a slow-burning parable centred on a mathematician who retreats into darkness inside an abandoned train carriage, where blindness becomes a space for revelation. Through a mysterious “Almanac of the Dark,” the film examines truth, perception and the unknowable.
The exhibition will culminate in the debut of The Charcoal Man, a new seven-screen installation extending Kanwar’s long engagement with the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent. Weaving together image, text and layered narrative, the work traces cycles of betrayal, vengeance, jealousy and rage that continue to reverberate through contemporary life.
In announcing the exhibition, Bettina Korek, CEO of Serpentine, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, said:
“Kanwar is one of the singular voices of our time. A pioneer of moving image who has expanded what film can be and how it can exist within an exhibition, his work is at once poetic, political, ecological and deeply ethical. Kanwar has built an extensive oeuvre that resists the accelerations of our present and instead proposes… a ‘different rhythm’ – a trembling, attentive way of looking at the world.”
They added that the new work, The Charcoal Man, was developed during “an almost reclusive period of research, filming, writing and listening,” and forms part of a wider constellation of interconnected works that challenge conventional narratives through fable, news, music and archival material.
The exhibition continues Serpentine’s long-standing relationship with Kanwar, which began with Indian Highway in 2008, and will be accompanied by a new publication designed by Sherna Dastur — conceived as “a storybook for adults” bringing together texts, images and a new interview with Obrist.
For London audiences, this promises to be one of the most quietly powerful and intellectually rich exhibitions of 2026 — a rare opportunity to experience Kanwar’s deeply contemplative moving-image works in a dedicated institutional setting.
Amar Kanwar, 23rd September 2026 – 31st January 2027 Serpentine North
About the artist
Amar Kanwar’s (b. 1964, New Delhi, India) films and multi-media works explore the politics of power, violence and justice. Often drawing on zones of conflict, his multi-layered installations are characterised by a unique poetic approach to the personal, social and political. His work has been exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi – Pinault Collection, Venice, Italy (2026); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (2022); Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE (2020); NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, UAE (2020); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (2019); Tate Modern, London, UK (2018); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, USA (2018); Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden (2017); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France (2017); Goethe-Institut, Mumbai, India (2016); Assam State Museum in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and North East Network, India (2015); The Art Institute of Chicago, USA (2014); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2013); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2012); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2008); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (2007); National Museum, Oslo, Norway (2006); and The Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA (2004).
Kanwar’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and biennales including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2023); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2022); and documenta 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Kassel, Germany (2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017). He is the recipient of several awards including the IHME Helsinki Commission (2022); Prince Claus Award (2017); Creative Time’s Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change (2014); an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Maine College of Art, USA (2006); the Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway (2005); the MacArthur Fellowship in India (2000); the Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival, USA (1999); and the Golden Conch, Mumbai International Film Festival, India (1998).
Limited Edition The exhibition will be accompanied by a special limited edition by the artist, which will be released during the opening week of the exhibition. For more information on available editions contact editions@serpentinegalleries.org
