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Pallavi Paul

The Memory of Water

The Memory of Water
Standort
Stadtmuseum Paderborn
Am Abdinghof 11 33098 Paderborn

Stop: Rathausplatz
accessible with lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8

Google Maps
Öffnungszeiten

Stadtmuseum Paderborn
Tue – Sun
10 am – 6 pm

Westfalen-Kolleg (foyer)
Mon – Fri 8 am – 8 pm
Sat 8:30 am – 1:30 pm
Times may vary, please check online.

Mühlencafé
Tue – Sat 9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Sun 1 pm – 5 pm

Residenzmuseum Schloß Neuhaus
Tue – Fri 2 pm – 6 pm
Sat – Sun 10 am – 6 pm

The Memory of Water (2025)

Rivers have a strong influence on our lives – often without us even noticing. But how can one make the special relationship between people and »their« river visible? The Indian artist Pallavi Paul answers this question with four poetic narrative threads, similar to the different arms of the Pader River that eventually merge. She combines documentary footage and local stories with her own images and sounds, creating complex spaces of memory and desire.


The locations of the four installations add another layer of meaning to the work. At the city museum, the local dipper bird is the main character: a bird that effortlessly glides above and below the water, symbolising balance and change between river and land. At the Westfalen-Kolleg, which is located directly at the Pader, Paul tells the story of the Yamuna River in her home town of New Delhi and places the Pader in a global dialogue – at a place of knowledge, learning and cultural exchange. At the Mühlencafé, an artistic intervention with historical film footage and stories refers to the cycle of nature, work and food. Finally, an opening and closing eye at the Residenzmuseum points to the spiritual dimension of water in Paderborn, where the Pader appears as a source of healing
and renewal.


From the four stations, a dense, emotional story emerges – a portrait of the Pader as a natural space, a cultural memory, and a philosophical thought space.

Pallavi Paul

Pallavi Paul (she / her), born in New Delhi in 1987, lives and works in New Delhi, is a filmmaker, artist and film scholar with a PhD. Her practice speaks to poetic exploration of cultural histories, questioning the limits of speculation and facticity and evidence. She is engaged in thinking about ideas of the archive, the tensions between document and documentary. 
Her work has been shown at the Berlin Film Festival (2022) and the Tate Modern (2013), among other places. Her latest solo exhibition, How Love Moves, was on display at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin. She won the Sharjah Art Prize 2025. 

A woman with dark long hair sits on a stool in a bright gallery space, wearing a patterned blouse and blue jeans, looking to the right. Framed artworks hang in two rows on the white wall behind her.
Pallavi Paul © Laura Fiorio

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