Carrying this material and conceptual inquiry forward into the medium of print, KNMA for the first time presents a library-like space celebrating the fragility, tactility, and rebellious spirit of zines and comics, where visitors can touch, read, and even make their own copies. ‘please touch gently (zines, comics, ephemera)’ - the fifth exhibition in KNMA’s Young Artists of Our Times series, reconfigures the museum as a participatory archive. Curated by aqui Thami, Bharath Murthy, and himanshu s, with curatorial advisor Akansha Rastogi, Associate Director, Visual Arts, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, the exhibition foregrounds self-publishing, underground circulation, and the spirit of DIY.

Offering a deep dive into the subcultures of zines and comics making in India, it brings together contributions from over a thousand zinesters, comics artists, illustrators, feminists, and independent publishers in 22 languages. Visitors are invited to handle and explore these materials, reversing the conventional “do not touch” museum mandate. Zines and comics emerge as critical tools of pedagogy, memory, dissent, and community formation, while their post-exhibition integration into KNMA’s library embeds these fragile yet potent practices into institutional memory, creating one of the most comprehensive museum-based collections of such works in India.

First of its scale and scope, the exhibition showcases a survey of the Indian comic scene, and the worlds of self publishing and small presses coming together within a museum setting. Divided into three sections, each curated by makers with distinct propositions, it unfolds as a constellation of experiments in storytelling. As resistance, as survival, as ways of being, doing, undoing, talking back, taking back. Fearlessly. Unapologetically.

Also, within this constellation sits Chapaghar by aqui Thami and a makers’ space where the rhythms of print and the sheltering essence of ghar (home) converge. The photocopier becomes a vessel of intimacy and co-creation, inviting visitors to leave imprints that dissolve boundaries between self and collective expression. please touch gently (zines, comics, ephemera) will also be accompanied by a colloquium and a fair