Naeem Mohaiemen and Vincent Meessen in Conversation

Vincent Meessen (b. 1971, Baltimore) is an artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. His artistic work explores the lasting effects of colonialism on modern life, often through non-Western and marginalized perspectives. He has presented films and artworks in festivals and artistic institutions around the world, including solo shows at The Power Plant, Toronto, and Centre Pompidou, Paris. He has participated in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, as well as the Lubumbashi, Venice, Shanghai, and Taipei biennials, among other exhibitions. Meessen was the recipient of an Ammodo Tiger Award at IFFR in 2018 for his work Ultramarine. He is a member of Jubilee, a platform for artistic research and production.

Artist Naeem Mohaiemen grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and currently lives and works in New York. His works intertwine film, photography, and essays to explore forms of utopia-dystopia within families, borders, architecture, and uprisings. Conversations around “nonalignment” as a concept container in contemporary art pivoted after the premiere of his film Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017), which was a finalist for Britain’s Turner Prize (2018). Art Review magazine’s annual “Power 100” list of influential people in contemporary art included Mohaiemen in 2023.