Naeem Mohaiemen The Young Man Was

Description

The Young Man Was is a history of the 1970s ultra-left, with each chapter in a different medium: journal essay (Sarai, Delhi), performance (New Museum, New York), installation (Beauty Boarding, Dhaka), collage (Pavillion, Budapest), video wall (Finnish Museum of Photography), photography (Cue, New York) and film (Sharjah Biennial, UAE).


The research pivots around the tumultuous first ten years of post-1971 Bangladesh, with accidental intersections with Asian and European histories. The tragic arc is of movements that promise rapid revolution, often through rupture and rebirth, but once in power, transform into a mirror image of the defeated previous regime. Postcolonial liberation narratives are scarred by the ruins of such defeated romanticism.

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Biography

  • Naeem Mohaiemen

    Naeem Mohaiemen works in Dhaka and New York, using essays, photography and film to explore histories of failed utopias. Earlier projects have also lo…

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Project Updates

  • 2012: The Young Man Was, Part 1: United Red Army will have world premiere at Hot Docs, Toronto (May 2012), with simultaneous installation at A Space Gallery, Toronto (April-May 2012)

  • 2011: United Red Army, one film component of The Young Man Was, screens in the Sharjah Biennial (United Arab Emirates), at the New Museum in New York and at the Tate Modern in London

  • 2010: I have killed Pharaoh I am not afraid to die, a chapter from The Young Man Was, shows as solo project at Frieze Art Fair in London, then travels to Experimenter (Kolkata), Momentum Biennial (Norway) and Shilpakala Academy (Dhaka)

  • 2009: Live True Life or Die Trying, a chapter from The Young Man Was, shows as a solo project at Cue Art Foundation, New York

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