Naeem Mohaiemen (born 1969) 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 explores the role of misrecognition within global solidarity.[1][2]
Education
Mohaiemen received a PhD in anthropology in 2019 from
Columbia University and is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts[3] there. He received BA in economics and concentration in history from
Oberlin College in 1993. He was a member of Oberlin College's Board of Trustees (1994–1996).
Films
Tripoli Cancelled (2017), premiered at
Documenta 14in Athens.[4] British premiere at the
British Film Institute London Film Festival.[5] American premiere at Museum of Modern Art, New York.[6]
Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), premiered at
Documenta 14in Kassel (which derives from The Young Man Was project). British premiere at Tate Britain as part of 2018 Turner Prize shortlist.[7] American premiere at Art Institute of Chicago.[8][9]
The Young Man Was
Part 4: Abu Ammar is Coming (2016) – examines a photograph of five men who were supposedly Bangladeshi and affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in the early 1980s, questioning how contemporary relations between the involved nations might be reshaped.[10]
Part 3: Last Man in Dhaka Central (2015) – premiered at the 56th
Venice Biennale as part of "All The World's Futures" curated by Okwui Enwezor.[11]
Mohaiemen co-founded Visible Collective,[23] 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)[24] and L'institut des cultures d'Islam in Paris.[25]
His solo projects have looked at military coups ("My Mobile Weighs A Ton" at Dhaka Gallery Chitrak),[26] surveillance ("Otondro Prohori, Guarding Who?", Chobi Mela V at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy),[27] Indian partition ("Kazi in Nomansland" at Dubai Third Line),[28] architectural nationalism ("Penn Station Kills Me" at Exit Art),[29] and dueling leftist and Islamist politics ("Live True Life or Die Trying" at Cue Art Foundation, New York).[30]
Writing
Mohaiemen is author of Prisoners of Shothik Itihash.[31] He edited the anthologies Between Ashes and Hope:
Chittagong Hill Tracts in the blind spot of
Bangladesh nationalism,[32]Collectives in atomised time,[33][34]
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 BBC[35] and published in Economic & Political Weekly ("Waiting for a real reckoning on 1971").[36] Bose responded to his remarks in the same periodical, followed by a rebuttal from Mohaiemen.[37]
Essays on Bangladesh history include"Muktijuddho: Polyphony of the Ocean",[38] "Accelerated Media and the 1971 Genocide",[39] "Musee Guimet as Proxy Fight",[40] "Mujtaba Ali: Amphibian Man" (The Rest of Now, Rana Dasgupta ed.),[41] "Mujib Coat" (Bidoun journal),[42] and "Everybody wants to be Singapore" (Carlos Motta’s The Good Life).[43] He wrote the chapter on religious and ethnic minorities in the Ain o Salish Kendro Annual Report for Bangladesh.[44]
Essays on diaspora include "Known unknowns of the class war" (Margins, Asian American Writers Workshop),[45]"The skin I'm in: Afro-Bengali solidarity and possible futures" (Margins, Asian American Writers Workshop),[46] "Beirut, Silver Porsche Illusion" (Men of the Global South, Zed Books),[47] "Why Mahmud Can’t Be a Pilot" (Nobody Passes: Rejecting the rules of Gender and Conformity, Seal Press),[48] and "No Exit" (Asian Superhero Comics, New Press).[49]
Essays on culture include "Islamic Roots of HipHop" (Sound Unbound,
MIT Press; Runner Up for
Villem Flusser Theory Award),[50] "Adman blues become artist liberation" (Indian Highway, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist)[51] and "At the coed dance " (Art Lies: Death of the Curator).[52]
^Naeem Mohaiemen (2010). "Asterix & the Big Fight: Proxy Wars, Temporary Coalitions". In Steven Rand (ed.). Playing by the Rules: Alternative Thinking, Alternative Spaces. Apexart.
ISBN978-1-933347-43-1.
^Naeem Mohaiemen (2008). "Hoggole Singapore Hoibar Chai". In Carlos Motta (ed.). The Good Life. New York: Art in General.
ISBN978-1-934890-18-9.
^Naeem Mohaiemen. "Rights of Religious Minorities". In Sara Hossain (ed.).
Human Rights in Bangladesh 2008(PDF). Ain o Salish Kendra. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 1 June 2010.
^[aaww.org/known-unknowns Asian American Writers Workshop]. Retrieved on 18 March 2015.
^Naeem Mohaiemen (2006). "The Migrant (2)". In Adam Jones (ed.). Men of the Global South: A Reader. Zed Books.
ISBN978-1-84277-513-4.
^Naeem Mohaiemen (2010). "Why Mahmud Can't Be a Pilot". In Matt Bernstein Sycamore (ed.). Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Basic Books.
ISBN978-0-7867-5057-3.
^Naeem Mohaiemen (2009). "No Exit". In Jeff Yang; Jerry Ma; Keith Chow; Parry Shen (eds.). Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. Perseus Distribution Services.
ISBN978-1-59558-398-7.