Basir Mahmood (b. 1985 Lahore, Pakistan) studied in Lahore at the Beaconhouse National University, and received a yearlong fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2011. In order to engage with situations around him, he ponders upon embedded social and historical terrains of the ordinary, as well as his personal milieu. Using video, film or photograph, Mahmood weaves various threads of thoughts, findings and insights into poetic sequences and various forms of narratives.
Since 2011, his works has been widely shown, including: The Garden of Eden, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012; III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Russia, 2012; Inaugural Show of Broad Museum, Michigan State University, 2012; Asia Pacific Triennial (APT 7) at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2012; Sharjah Biennial 11. (2013); Des hommes, des mondes at college des bernardins, Paris, 2014; Time of others, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015; Yinchuan Biennial, Yinchuan, 2016 , China; Abraaj Group Art Prize show, 2016, Dubai; Contour Biennale 8, Mechelen 2017; Tableaux Vivants, Foundation Etrillard, Paris 2017, France and 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2018, Germany.
Besides being part of various private collections, his video works are acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery collection in Brisbane, Australia and The Centre national des arts plastiques (National Centre for Visual Arts, Cnap), France. Mahmood was awarded two years long Research-Fellowship at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (2016-2017); Production Programme Grant from Sharjah Art Foundation (2016) and Stipendium for Established Artists from Mondriaan Fonds (2018-2022).
