In Samir Nahas’ work duration is cut into fragments and reassembled in order to create short suspensions or anecdotes diverging from climactic narratives. Poetry, portrait and para-ethnography collide and form mythological ensembles of characters projected in unlikely environments. Polarities such as macro and micro or comical and grave are often at play while the esthetic deliberately relies on a mélange of resolutions and footage. The works of Samir can be seen as tales that convey conflicting sensations contained within the same body. Here “body” is understood as any organism, group or ecosystem composed of agents producing effects on each other.

After receiving his Bachelor degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013, Samir Nahas spent time in Europe where he worked on various projects for several years. In 2016, he returned to the School of the Art Institute in order to follow the graduate program in the Film, Video, New Media and Animation department. Since then he has been based on the two sides of the Atlantic, undecided between the vastness of the US and the intimacy of Europe.