Memory, image, and artificial intelligence lie at the heart of Aman Alam’s work. He was announced as the winner of the 2025 Serendipity x Arles Grant on 16 December in Panaji, Goa, during the 10th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival. This major award, dedicated to contemporary visual practices in South Asia, marks one of the highlights of the Festival’s anniversary edition.
Before an audience of artists, curators, and cultural professionals, Serendipity Arts celebrated both a decade of creative practice and the future of lens-based artistic expression, within a distinctly international framework.
A Major Springboard for Lens-Based Artists from South Asia
A Major Springboard for Lens-Based Artists from South Asia
Established in 2020 with the support of the French Institute in India and the Embassy of France in India, the Serendipity x Arles Grant is today the largest grant dedicated to artists working in photography, video, and new media in South Asia. Conceived as a space for artistic freedom and research, the programme supports ambitious projects and offers artists international visibility through an exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles, one of France’s leading events for contemporary photography.
Over successive editions, the Grant has established itself as a true artistic laboratory, encouraging experimentation, risk-taking, and dialogue between cultural scenes.
The Serendipity x Arles Grant Shortlist
For the 2025 edition, five artists were shortlisted:
Karthik Subramanian, Pinak Banik, Ishita Jain, Aman Alam, and Chinky Shukla.
Meeting in Panaji, an international jury composed of leading figures from the artistic and curatorial fields — including Christoph Wiesner (Director of Rencontres d’Arles), Jemima Montagu (Director of Art Explora UK), Julie Jones (Curator at the Centre Pompidou), Anoli Perera (leading contemporary artist and writer based in Colombo), Sabeena Gadihoke (professor, writer, curator, and documentary filmmaker), and Smriti Rajgarhia (Director of Serendipity Arts) — selected Aman Alam as the winner of the 2025 Serendipity x Arles Grant. A special mention was also awarded to Karthik Subramanian.
“Ozymandias”: Telling Memory as It Fades
A visual artist working at the intersection of photography, text, and field research, Aman Alam explores questions of identity, perception, and transmission. His award-winning project, Ozymandias, is rooted in an intimate personal experience: caring for his grandmother as she lived with Alzheimer’s disease.
Through a multi-layered approach combining photography, sculpture, archives, and artificial intelligence, Ozymandias examines the fragility of memory, the gradual disappearance of identity, and our relationship to remembrance. Moving beyond the personal, the project offers a deeply empathetic reflection on illness, while also questioning the capacity of contemporary technologies to recompose what is fading.
Aman Alam’s work will be presented in an exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles in summer 2026, offering the artist international recognition and a new chapter in this long-term project.
A Collaboration in the Service of Cultural Exchange
Supported by the French Institute in India, the Serendipity x Arles Grant embodies a shared vision: long-term support for artists and sustained dialogue between the French and South Asian cultural scenes.
On this occasion, Grégor Trumel, Director of the French Institute in India, stated: “It is very strategic for France to position itself side by side with Serendipity Arts on this programme. We share the same dedication to making an impact in the everyday lives of cultural professionals, on the ground. From Villa Swagatam to the Rencontres d’Arles, our philosophy is rooted in ‘people-to-people’ actions, enabling our talents and new ‘passeurs’ to grow together. In the same way that Arles has become a must-attend platform for international photography professionals in France, the Serendipity Arts Festival has put Goa on the map; together, they are concrete examples of how culture can contribute to the local growth of a region.”
Ten Years of Creation, Looking Ahead
into an open-air cultural laboratory, bringing together visual arts, performing arts, cinema, literature, and culinary practices. Through initiatives such as the Serendipity x Arles Grant, IFI reaffirms a strong belief: culture is a space for encounter, reflection, and transformation, open to all.
The 10th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival took place in Panaji, Goa, from 12 to 21 December 2025.