Nehru Memorial Lecture | Anish Kapoor | Please Remain Seated: The Cockroach, the Artist, and the Return of the Repressed

The lecture will explore how erasure in the hands of a totalitarian group becomes a tool in the gradual erosion of freedom, culture and history. Diametrically opposed to the use of the negative as a creative act, in India today it has been utilized as a means to erase a pluralistic history, enabling the ruling party to insidiously seep its dogma into the fabric of people's lives.

Speaker

Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor (b. Mumbai, 1954) is considered one of today’s leading contemporary artists. He studied at Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea Art College (1973-1978), and since representing Britain at the 1990 Venice Biennale and winning the Turner Prize in 1991 his work has gone on to be exhibited and permanently held in the most important collections and museums around the world. 

In 2026 he returned to the Hayward Gallery in London after 28 years whilst concurrently exhibiting at the Lehmbruck Museum, Germany; Serlachius Manor, Finland and Palazzo Manfrin, Venice. Major solo shows over the last two decades have included Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, Italy (2022); Imperial Ancestral Temple, Forbidden City, Beijing (2019); Château de Versailles, France (2015); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2013); Grand Palais, Paris (2011); National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi (2010) Royal Academy of Art, London (2009); Guggenheim, New York (2008) and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2007). Also renowned for his public architecturally scaled works these include Monte St Angelo Metro Station, Naples, Italy (2024); Ark Nova (2013) the world's first inflatable concert hall and the iconic Cloud Gate (2004) in Millennium Park, Chicago, USA. International awards include the Praemium Imperiale (2011); the Padma Bhushan (2012); Knighthood for services to the visual arts (2013) and in 2025 he was awarded the prestigious Wilheim Lehmbruck Prize for his contribution to sculpture. Anish Kapoor lives and work in Venice and London.

The Nehru Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture hosted by King’s India Institute and endowed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust. We also maintain an archive of past lectures since 1966.