Haig Aivazian

Haig Aivazian is an artist living in Beirut.

Working across a range of media and modes of address, he delves into the ways in which power embeds, affects and moves people, objects, animals, landscape and architecture. Aivazian explores apparatuses of control and sovereignty at work in sports, museums, the office and music.

Selected international solo and group exhibitions include All of the Lights, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, 2020, within The Consortium Commissions, an initiative of Mophradat; The Space Between Classrooms at The Swiss Institute, New York, 2021; Soft Power, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA, 2019-20; Home Works 8: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon, 2019; Second Hand, Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, 2019; From Ear to Ear to Eye: Sounds and Stories From Across the Arab World, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK, 2018; Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbors, MAXXI, Rome, Italy, 2017-18; Precariat’s Meeting, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM), Shanghai, China, 2017; and 1440 Sunsets per 24 hours, Kadist, Paris, 2017.

Aivazian has participated in biennials and triennials internationally. His work is currently included in Soft Water Hard Stone, the fifth New Museum Triennial, New York, 2021-22; and previously he has contributed to Afterglow, Yokohama Trienniale, Yokohama, Japan, 2020; Not New Now, 6th Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco, 2016; The Grand Balcony, La Biennale de Montréal (BNLMTL), Canada, 2016; SALTWATER: a Theory of Thought Forms, the 14th Istanbul Biennial, 2015, in which Aivazian worked with Beyoğlu Üç Horan (Yerrortutyun) Armenian Church Choir; the National pavilion of Armenia at the Venice Biennale, 2015; and Videobrasil, São Paulo, 2013 and 2017.

Aivazian is currently Artistic Director of the Beirut Art Center, where he edits The Derivative (المشتق), an online publication launched in October 2020.

His writing has been featured by publications including INCITE Journal of Experimental Media, Afterall, Manifesta Journal, Arab Studies Journal, Adbusters and Bidoun.

Aivazian's exhibition All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes was open at The Showroom, from 26 January to 26 March 2022. This project was commissioned as part of The Consortium Commissions, a project initiated by Mophradat. Every two years, Mophradat creates a network of international collaborating partner institutions that collectively select, produce and present ambitious new artworks by artists from the Arab world. All of the Lights, the first presentation of Haig Aivazian’s new project, was presented by The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 2021.