Naeem Mohaiemen uses film, photography, installation, and essays to research South Asia's postcolonial markers (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971). His projects on the 1970s revolutionary left explored the role of misrecognition within global solidarity.

Education Mohaiemen attended New Tripoli School in Libya and the Jesuit school St. Joseph Higher Secondary School in Dhaka. He received a BA from Oberlin College and received a PhD in anthropology in 2019 from Columbia University and is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts there.

Films

Mohaiemen's films include the Turner Prize nominated duo of films Tripoli Cancelled (2017) and Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), both of which premiered at Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel. Tripoli Cancelled had an American premiere at Museum of Modern Art, New York., and Two Meetings and a Funeral had a British premiere at Tate Britain as part of the 2018 Turner Prize. American premiere at Art Institute of Chicago.

His films explore histories of the revolutionary left as "accidental trojan horse", including Last Man in Dhaka Central (2015) which premiered at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of "All The World's Futures" curated by Okwui Enwezor., Venice Biennial Artist List Afsan's Long Day (2014) which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of "Doc Fortnight". MOMA: Doc Fortnight. Retrieved on 18 March 2015. and had a festival premiere at Oberhausen Oberhausen in Competition and a British premiere at the British Film Institute London Film Festival., BFI London Film festival: Material Evidence The first film in this series is United Red Army (2011)Guy Mannes-Abbott, Sharjah Art Foundation, 18.03.2011 . Sharjahart.org (18 March 2011). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. about the Japan Airlines Flight 472 (1977) Hijacking in which premiered at Sharjah Biennial, Hot Docs, Hot Docs. Retrieved on 9 December 2012. and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), IDFA Website. Retrieved on 9 December 2012. has shown at The New Museum. New Museum Digital Archive. Retrieved on 9 December 2012.

His films are in the permanent collection of the Tate Modern., In conversation with Bernadette Buckley. Out of the Archive, London Consortium at Tate Modern. the Museum of Modern Art, Sharjah Art Foundation, and Kiran Nadar Museum.

Exhibitions Chapters from Mohaiemen's project on the 1970s revolutionary left ("The Young Man Was") have exhibited at the Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bengal Foundation Shilpalay, Chobi Mela, Documenta 14, Kiran Nadar Museum, Museum of Modern Art New York, British Museum, Tate Britain, New Museum (New York),ArtCat Zine – Events – Naeem Mohaiemen at New Museum. Zine.artcat.com (27 January 2009). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. Frieze Art Fair (London),"Retour à Frieze", Le Monde, 26 October 2010. Lunettesrouges.blog.lemonde.fr (26 October 2010). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. MUAC Mexico City, Concepción Moren, "arte, ficciones, política y violencia", El Economista, 20 June 2011. Eleconomista.com.mx (30 June 2011). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. the 56th Venice Biennial, and the Lahore, Sharjah, Marrakech, and Eva (Ireland) Biennials.

Mohaiemen co-founded Visible Collective,Press. Disappeared in America. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. a collective of New York-based artists and lawyers investigating post-9/11 security panic. Visible's work exhibited internationally, including the 2006 Whitney Biennial of American Art ("Wrong Gallery" room)"Down by Law", curated by Wrong Gallery. Whitney.org. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. and L'institut des cultures d'Islam in Paris.Collectif Visible – Institut des Cultures d'Islam. Institut-cultures-Islam.org. Retrieved on 12 November 2011.

His solo projects have looked at military coups ("My Mobile Weighs A Ton" at Dhaka Gallery Chitrak),Nader Rahman, "Blurred pictures and sharp words", Star Weekend Magazine, 29 August 2008. The Daily Star (29 August 2008). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. surveillance ("Otondro Prohori, Guarding Who?", Chobi Mela V at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy),Jamil Mahmud, "Naeem Mohaiemen takes a look at fear mongering", The Daily Star, 20 February 2009. (20 February 2009). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. Indian partition ("Kazi in Nomansland" at Dubai Third Line),Beena Sarwar, "Artists Take On Post-Colonial Partitions", IPS, 6 February 2009. Ipsnews.net (6 February 2009). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. architectural nationalism ("Penn Station Kills Me" at Exit Art),History | 2007. Exit Art. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. and dueling leftist and Islamist politics ("Live True Life or Die Trying" at Cue Art Foundation, New York).Brian Boucher, Art in America, 1/15/2010. Artinamericamagazine.com. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. Naeem along with Molla Sagar was featured as a Filmmaker in Focus at the 21st Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2026. Writing Mohaiemen is author of Prisoners of Shothik Itihash. He edited the anthologies Between Ashes and Hope: Chittagong Hill Tracts in the blind spot of Bangladesh nationalism,Samya Kullab, "Championing Pahari Rights", Star Weekend Magazine, 17 September 2010. The Daily Star (17 September 2010). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. Collectives in atomised time,Collectives in Atomised Time, with Doug Ashford, Idensitat Press . Idensitat.net. Retrieved on 12 November 2011.

He was the primary critic of Dead Reckoning, a book by Sarmila Bose on the 1971 war of Bangladesh. His response was cited by the BBCAlastair Lawson, "Controversial book accuses Bengalis of 1971 war crimes", BBC, 16 June 2011 and published in Economic & Political Weekly ("Waiting for a real reckoning on 1971").Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 46 No. 36, 3 September 2011 Bose responded to his remarks in the same periodical, followed by a rebuttal from Mohaiemen.Sarmila Bose, "Dead Reckoning: A Response". Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 46 No. 53, 31 December 2011

Essays on Bangladesh history include"Muktijuddho: Polyphony of the Ocean", "Accelerated Media and the 1971 Genocide",Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 43 No. 04, 26 January 2008 "Musee Guimet as Proxy Fight", "Mujtaba Ali: Amphibian Man" (The Rest of Now, Rana Dasgupta ed.),Silvana Editoriale. Silvanaeditoriale.it. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. "Mujib Coat" (Bidoun journal),Bidoun #14 and "Everybody wants to be Singapore" (Carlos Motta’s The Good Life). He wrote the chapter on religious and ethnic minorities in the Ain o Salish Kendro Annual Report for Bangladesh.

Essays on diaspora include "Known unknowns of the class war" (Margins, Asian American Writers Workshop),[aaww.org/known-unknowns Asian American Writers Workshop]. Retrieved on 18 March 2015."The skin I'm in: Afro-Bengali solidarity and possible futures" (Margins, Asian American Writers Workshop),Margins/ Asian American Writers Workshop. Retrieved on 6 March 2013. "Beirut, Silver Porsche Illusion" (Men of the Global South, Zed Books), "Why Mahmud Can’t Be a Pilot" (Nobody Passes: Rejecting the rules of Gender and Conformity, Seal Press), and "No Exit" (Asian Superhero Comics, New Press).

Essays on culture include "Islamic Roots of HipHop" (Sound Unbound, MIT Press; Runner Up for Villem Flusser Theory Award),Sound Unbound – Table of Contents – The MIT Press . Mitpress.mit.edu (31 May 2008). Retrieved on 12 November 2011. "Adman blues become artist liberation" (Indian Highway, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist)Indian Highway Catalogue SOLD OUT Serpentine Gallery. Retrieved on 12 November 2011. and "At the coed dance " (Art Lies: Death of the Curator).A Contemporary Art Quarterly

Awards 2014: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2018: Turner Prize nominee2018 Turner Prize Nominees Shortlisted for the 2009 Villem Flusser Award and the 2019 Herb Alpert Award.

References

External links

Academia Conversation about Naeem Mohaiemen's methodology and artistic practice, 2019