Nayak (lost hero of history) by Naeem Mohaiemen
The Power Plant Presents: Nayak (lost hero of history) by Naeem Mohaiemen
Naeem Mohaiemen's exhibition at The Power Plant, What we found after you left, spans two season with a rotating program of films and accompanying footnotes that explore historical ruptures, documentation and archives.
As the fourth chapter in the exhibition, Afsan’s Long Day, The Young Man Was: Part 2 (2014) and its accompanying footnote Nayak (lost hero of history) was supposed to premiere at The Power Plant in March 2020. Social distancing measures have delayed the film's presentation within the Gallery space, but we are thrilled to exhibit it online for home viewing until 5 June.
Nayak (lost hero of history) serves as a ‘footnote’—sculptures, photographs and videos that, in the gallery space, precede Mohaiemen’s films. By placing the footnotes before what is arguably the main event, the artist upends the standard role of footnotes and underlines his manifesto for writing history: moving the margin to the centre.
It starts with a small leftist rally in Dhaka. The speaker is Engineer Shahidullah, along with Anu Muhammad, Moshrefa Mishu and other members of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Port. Environmentalism is still a small part of Bangladeshi political platforms, and these rallies keep waiting to catch a fire. As camera eye shifts from steadier digital to staccato mobile phone (in a time when these technology differences were sharp), the point of view burrows ever closer—perhaps to better project a multitude that is foretold in Marxist teleology, but remains, frustratingly, out of reach. And all the while, Arup Rahee of Leela sings a song of the leader and the moment yet to come, but always also in the distant past.
Password: TPPMohaiemen
About the artist.
Naeem Mohaiemen (born 1969 in London, UK) lives in New York. His work has recently been exhibited at SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul (2019); Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah (2018); Vasas Federation of Metalworkers' Union, Budapest (2018); Abdur Razzaq Foundation, Dhaka (2017) and documenta 14, Athens/ Kassel (2017). In Canada, he has previously shown at Hot Docs (2012), A Space Gallery (Images Festival, 2012), Gallery TPW (Images Festival, 2013), and VOX–Centre de l'image contemporaine (2016). Mohaiemen co-edited (with Lorenzo Fusi) System Error: War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Papesse, 2006) and is currently co-editing (with Eszter Szakacs) Solidarity Must be Defended (Tranzit/ Van Abbe/ Salt/ Tricontinental, 2019). In New York, he was a member of Visible Collective (2002–07), 3rd i South Asian Film (2000–04) and Samar: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection (1995–99); in Dhaka, he was a member of Drishtipat (2001–11) and Alal O Dulal (2012–17). He was a Guggenheim Fellow (2014) and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize (2018).
