Rivers are among the world’s most vital and vulnerable lifelines — sites of continuity and change, memory and erosion. Never still, they bear the imprints of every landscape, livelihood, ritual, and ruin they encounter. In much the same way, we inherit the layered histories of our ancestors and lived practices, deeply rooted in place and shaped through time.

Water Memories emerges from this confluence of nature and narrative. It reflects on how water, like art, moves between generations, carrying the material and the mythic, the personal and the planetary. In this dialogue of voices and visions — featuring the private collection of Nalini and Haridas Swali and the works of artists Manu Parekh, Rithika Merchant, Vibha Galhotra, Barthélémy Toguo, Karishma Swali and the Moonray Collective, Rafique Sayed, Reena Saini Kallat, Hari Katragadda, Tenzin Lhagyal, Deshna Mehta, Philippe Calia, and Aditi Singh — the river is not only a subject, but a witness and collaborator.