RIJIN SAHAKIAN

_ABOUT

Rijin Sahakian’s work connects art, history, and public life. Drawing on archives, fieldwork, and lived experience, she examines how culture is made, remembered, and mobilized within social and political frameworks. Through writing, exhibitions, and interdisciplinary projects, she develops forms of cultural production that engage both historical inquiry and contemporary conditions. She received her MA in Art and Politics from New York University and founded Sada, an arts education initiative for Baghdad-based students, operating from 2010-2015.  A commissioned artist for documenta fifteen (2022), she developed an anthology film with several former members, Sada [regroup], which has received critical recognition and screened internationally.

Her work has appeared in Hyperallergic, Camera Austria, the Beirut Art Center, Artforum, the Venice Biennale, Jadaliyya, Ashkal Alwan, MoMA PS1, e-flux Journal, n+1, Videobrasil, World Records Journal, and various artist projects and monographs. Her work has been recognized with fellowships from the Open Society Foundation, Fulbright and Art Matters. She lectures regularly in the United States and abroad, and as visiting professor at the California Institute of the Arts. She curated the exhibitions Iraq: Reframe (Montalvo Arts Center, 2007), Shangri La: Imagined Cities (commissioned by the City of Los Angeles, 2015), and Sajjad Abbas and Laith K. Daer: City Limits (Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar, 2017). Sahakian was a research fellow at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan and in Beirut, Lebanon. She served as advisory board member to the Network of Arab Alternative Screens and the Humanities Institute, University of California, Davis.

Contact  
rijins@gmail.com