Amar Kanwar

Imagine nineteen sheets of paper floating forever in the wind. Imagine the simultaneous viewing of multiple time. Imagine time that is filled with as many silences as with words. Imagine the slow gathering together of time. Moment by moment. Evidence by evidence. Imagine the formal presentation of poetry as evidence in a future war crimes tribunal. “This book represents a moment in a life and oeuvre constantly in flux, always branching out and converging, following a course, but at times deliberately diverging, because there is time, or time can be found—to breathe, to walk, to pause, to move on, to circle. There is poetry in Amar Kanwar’s words and lyricism in his films—both method and metaphor alike by which life’s distillation and dissipation become comprehensible and deeper knowledge can be gained. Space can be grasped through time, time through poetry. What is at stake is always the life of the individual, the rules of society, power, abuse, violence, the power to enlighten and the courage to change.” Urs Stahel