Naeem Mohaiemen nominated for Turner Prize

Expatriate Bangladeshi visual artist Naeem Mohaiemen has been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, one of the most prestigious art prizes in the UK and worldwide. The nominations were announced last week by Tate Britain who organises the annual award given to a British visual artist.

The other nominees for the £40,000 prize are Forensic Architecture, Charlotte Prodger and Luke Willis Thompson, a list the BBC said is “dominated by artists who are tackling political and social issues.”

Born in London and raised in Bangladesh, Naeem Mohaiemen is a writer, filmmaker and visual artist who uses mixed-media installations, film and essays to explore memories of leftist political utopias, and the contemporary legacies of decolonization. He is nominated for his works “Tripoli Cancelled” and “Two Meetings and a Funeral”. A Guggenheim Fellow (film) and a PhD candidate in anthropology at Columbia University (USA), Naeem's work has been exhibited worldwide, including Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York, British Museum and Tate Britain and at prestigious events such as Venice Biennale (Italy), Dhaka Art Summit and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (Delhi, India).

“Tripoli Cancelled”, that premiered at documenta 14 / Athens and screened at BFI London Film Festival, is Mohaiemen's first fiction film, about a man who lived alone in an abandoned airport for a decade. The film reflects on the isolation of modernity and the indefinite wait for stability. “Two Meetings and a Funeral” (2017), presented at documenta 14 / Kassel and forthcoming at Liverpool Biennial, is a three-channel documentary examining Cold War-era power struggles between the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).