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Sarah Brahim is a visual and performance artist working across many mediums to present work rooted in experiences of the body. She trained as a professional performer, teacher, and choreographer at San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and received a BFA (Hons) from London Contemporary Dance School. Her research-based practice began while studying medicine at university, as she continued practicing and performing. The pursuit to understand the body through every possible lens– biological, physiological, experiential, and more– led her to receive her BS from Oregon Health and Science University, with a focus on medical anthropology, naturopathic medicine, and public health.
In her work, Brahim examines how gestures of the body create a language that can be used to voice grief, metamorphosis, the unseen form, and our relationship to the natural world. Transformation through movement is reflected in her works that explore questions of embodiment and cycles of connection, whether social, spatial, or spiritual. In 2022 her work was presented at Manifesto of Fragility: 16th Lyon Biennial, Diriyah Biennial curated by Philip Tinari, and Noor Festival for contemporary light art, the first Islamic Biennial in Jeddah, as well as group exhibitions across the United States, Europe, and Arab world. In 2023, Brahim was artist in residence at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in New York and was granted the Baroness Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship for the Performing Arts. In 2023, she was shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize and exhibited at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and her first solo exhibition was presented fall 2023-April 2024 at the Bally Foundation in Switzerland with the curation of director Vittoria Materrese. In August 2024, she presented new work and was part of the Filmmakers Academy at the renowned 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. In June 2024, she was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Her work can currently be seen at NYU until 2025 as a part of Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial. For the remainder of 2024 her work ‘soft machines and far away engines; can be seen at Biennalsur in Sao Paolo. Her first commission in the desert of Al Ula, Saudi Arabia will open with a sculpture, architecture, film, installation and performance of 60 people titled “The Forgotten Ceremony”. She was invited of 8 artists for the Visio European Programme of Artists Moving Images residency and festival program this November in Florence, Italy. For the closing ceremony of Venice Biennale 2024 she performed a live performance of a newly commissioned work titled ‘there will come soft rains.’ In 2025, she exhibited 2 new films and photography series in Villa Hegras space in Paris Grand Palais. In the end of 2026 she will be in residence in Paris at the Art Explora program with the support of a production residency with the Lafayette Anticipations. Brahim is a recipient of the 2025-2026 Pina Bausch Fellowship for dance and performance.
Image: Portrait of Sarah Brahim. ©Lawrence Hills.
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