At Vadehra Art Gallery, an ongoing exhibition, Circle of Stories by Ranbir Kaleka, unfolds as a quiet yet deeply immersive experience that asks viewers to slow down and reconsider how stories are told. Spread across six multimedia installations created between 2007 and 2025, the exhibition resists the familiar idea of narrative as something with a clear beginning, middle, and end and complicates itself with ambiguity. It embraces circularity—stories that loop, repeat, pause, and return—mirroring the way memory and lived experience actually function.
The title, Circle of Stories, is a key to understanding the exhibition. Circles suggest continuity, repetition, and renewal. Rather than moving forward in a straight line, Ranbir Kaleka‘s work circles ideas, images, and emotions. This circular movement reflects the way we remember things: not as a neat sequence, but as fragments that resurface, overlap, and shift over time. The exhibition draws attention to this process, suggesting that meaning is not fixed but constantly forming through repetition and variation.
Kaleka, born in Patiala and now based in Delhi, has long been known for blending painting with moving images. In this exhibition, that hybrid practice is especially evident. His works are not simply videos or paintings; they exist somewhere in between. Projected images fall onto painted surfaces, creating a layered effect where stillness and motion coexist. The result is what might be described as a “living painting,” where images unfold slowly, asking viewers to spend time with them rather than glance and move on.
One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition is how it deals with time. Kaleka is less interested in chronological time—the ticking of seconds and minutes—and more concerned with psychological time, which is shaped by memory, emotion, and anticipation. This idea echoes the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, who argued that human experience is always already embedded in meaning. Similarly, Kaleka’s works do not present events as isolated moments but as part of a continuous flow of experience.
The exhibition design enhances this sense of immersion. The gallery space is transformed through sound, light, and spatial arrangement, encouraging viewers to move slowly and engage physically with the works. Rather than standing outside the artwork, viewers become part of it. This approach aligns with the ideas of “post-medium” art discussed by critic Rosalind Krauss, in which traditional boundaries between artistic forms dissolve, allowing new kinds of experiences to emerge.
The central work, Circle of Stories (2025), captures the essence of the exhibition. It is a three-channel video installation projected onto panels resembling building facades. These panels create the impression of looking into different windows, as if glimpsing fragments of people’s lives. The work is set in a version of Delhi, but it is not a literal depiction of the city. Instead, it presents a composite, almost dreamlike urban space built from memory and imagination.
In this installation, everyday scenes unfold slowly: people passing each other, quiet domestic moments, gestures of greeting. These simple actions are layered with a narrative voice performed by journalist and storyteller Sunil Mehra, drawing on the tradition of Dastangoi, an Urdu oral storytelling form. The narration reflects on Delhi’s past and present, evoking both nostalgia and loss. The city appears not as a fixed place but as something that exists in collective memory, constantly reshaped by those who inhabit it.
What makes this work powerful is its subtlety. Nothing dramatic happens, yet the atmosphere is rich with feeling. The slow pace allows viewers to notice small details and to reflect on their own experiences of the city. It suggests that history is not only found in grand events but also in everyday life.
Another important work in the exhibition, Abstruse Revelries of a Repast (2013), takes a different approach while still exploring similar themes. Here, Kaleka projects video onto a painted frame inspired by Art Deco cinema halls. The installation combines excerpts from The Leopard with choreographed performances by contemporary Indian dancers. The juxtaposition creates a dialogue between past and present, Europe and India, cinema and performance.
In this work, themes of consumption and labour come to the forefront. The film’s elegance and decadence contrast with images of physical effort and ritualised movement. Kaleka draws attention to the often unseen labour that supports systems of privilege, linking historical contexts with contemporary realities. The result is a layered narrative that invites viewers to think about power, class, and the structures that shape society.
Across the exhibition, Kaleka’s visual language remains consistent. His images often feel dreamlike, even haunting. They blur the line between reality and imagination, creating a sense of uncertainty. Figures appear and disappear, spaces shift, and time seems to stretch or collapse. This surreal quality reflects the workings of memory and the subconscious, where images are not fixed but constantly changing.
Kaleka’s process also contributes to this effect. He combines staged video, photographs, archival material, and found images, intuitively assembling them. Over time, certain symbols and motifs recur, gaining new meanings in different contexts. These “hyper-images,” as they might be called, carry traces of multiple times and places, inviting viewers to interpret them as they see fit.
Collaboration plays an important role in his practice as well. Musicians, dancers, actors, and performers contribute to the works, adding layers of embodiment and performance. This emphasis on performance reinforces the idea that storytelling is not just about content but about the act of telling itself. Meaning emerges through the process, not as a fixed outcome.
The exhibition also touches on broader themes such as cultural identity, migration, and social change. While these issues are not directly addressed, they remain in the background, shaping the narratives that unfold. Kaleka’s approach avoids clear conclusions, instead leaving space for viewers to reflect and form their own interpretations.
One of Circle of Stories’ strengths is its ability to balance complexity with accessibility. While the ideas behind the works are rooted in philosophy and theory, the exhibition’s experience is intuitive and emotional. Viewers do not need prior knowledge to engage with the works; they can respond to the images, sounds, and atmosphere.
At the same time, the exhibition rewards deeper engagement. The longer one spends with the works, the more connections begin to emerge. Patterns repeat, images echo each other, and meanings shift. This slow unfolding encourages a different way of viewing art—one that values patience and attentiveness.
Six years after his last solo exhibition in Delhi, Kaleka’s return feels significant. Circle of Stories not only reflects his long-standing interests but also demonstrates how his practice continues to evolve. By bringing together works from different periods, the exhibition highlights the continuity of his exploration while also showing how his ideas have developed over time.
Ultimately, Circle of Stories is less about telling specific stories and more about exploring how stories function. It challenges the expectation of resolution and instead embraces uncertainty, repetition, and change. In doing so, it offers a more honest reflection of human experience, where meaning is never fixed but always in the process of becoming.
For viewers, the exhibition can be both meditative and thought-provoking. It invites them to slow down, to observe, and to reflect—not only on the works themselves but also on their own memories and perceptions. In a world that often demands quick answers and clear conclusions, Kaleka’s circular approach feels refreshing.
As one leaves Vadehra Art Gallery, the images linger. They do not resolve into a single message but continue to echo in the mind, much like the circles that inspired them. In this sense, the exhibition succeeds in its aim: it keeps the stories alive, not as finished narratives but as ongoing processes that unfold long after the viewer has left the space.
Feature image: Circle of Stories (2025) from Ranbir Kaleka’s solo exhibition titled Circle of Stories at Vadehra Art Gallery (image: Vadehra)
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