OFFSCREEN: Paris

Albion Jeune is pleased to present Sarah Brahim (b.1992, Riyadh) at OFFSCREEN Paris 2026, taking place at Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière. For the fifth edition of OFFSCREEN, Brahim presents In Search of an Honest Map (2025), alongside works from her Lexicography (2025) series.                                                                               
 
In Search of an Honest Map (2025) presents a poetic perspective on the cycles and circles of life, and to one’s relationship to place—a gesture of reclamation and introspection in a world that often leaves one feeling disconnected and depleted. Brahim turns to her native Saudi Arabian desert as a site of escape and as a collaborator of presence. She traverses the expansive canvas in searing forty-five-degree heat with intention, trailing her feet to create an indexical mark in the sand. She lies within the shape she has drawn, fashioning her own refuge—at once an act of resistance, and reclamation. Her choreographic vocabulary is informed by phenomenological thought and ritual practice, and the work suggests the possibility of internal transformation through presence and repetition. The performance does not impose itself on the landscape—yet emerges from an act of listening; listening not only to the environment, but to the body and to inhabited memory. Rather than positioning the body as separate from space, Brahim’s work dwells within it, creating meaning and dialogue through movement. In this way, her performance becomes a cartography of the present—mapping not history, but presence itself. 

In the film, Brahim receives the space rather than occupies it—her body becomes a quiet contour etched into the sand. The simplicity of the gesture belies its depth: a shape formed through years of repetition, tracing back to the dance studio where she trained from the age of three. What appears as ritual is not merely cultural—it is also the residue of practice, of embodied study, of muscle memory honed through time. Practicing in the landscape becomes a return to a thought, a way of remembering through movement. Brahim’s work engages in a kind of choreographic mapmaking—marking time and terrain not through domination but through presence. The gestures she offers, the traces she leaves—curves in the sand, the shadow of a limb—are not performances in the conventional sense, but meditations on how we relate to land and place, introspectively and collectively. 

The Lexicography series of polaroid photographs present Brahim’s personal archive of gestures. An infinitely ongoing project, it records the artist’s attempt to develop a new language through the body, with each image designed to capture and communicate intimate sensations of grief and other unseen states. Through subtle shifts in posture, movement and physical expression, Brahim explores the body as a site of memory and a vessel for experiences that often resist verbal articulation. Each photograph becomes a fragment of an evolving visual vocabulary, tracing the possibilities of gesture as a means of expressing the ineffable. 

This series was created in Al Ula during Brahims residency Comission at Villa Hegra. In 2025, it was presented at the Grand Palais in Paris during Art Paris, and at Albion Jeune as part of Cartographies of Presence, a duo exhibition with Shirin Neshat examining how embodied gestures can give form to unseen experiences and articulate the complexities of personal and collective belonging. 

For its fifth edition in 2026, OFFSCREEN returns for the second time to the exceptional La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, once again activating the distinct architectural landmark. This year’s edition will also be exhibiting Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) as the Guest of Honor. Mendieta’s installation will complement her simultaneous major exhibition at Tate Modern. 

Sarah Brahim (b.1992, Riyadh) 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. 

Sarah Brahim’s work has been presented at the AlUla Arts Festival, AlUla (2025); The Grand Palais, Paris (2025); MOMI New York Arab Festival, New York (2024); The Venice Biennale, Venice (2024); Locarno Film Festival, Film Makers Academy, Locarno (2024); Paco Imperial, Rio de Janiero (2024); Louvre Abu Dhabi for the Richard Mille Art Prize, Abu Dhabi (2024); the Islamic Biennale, Jeddah (2023); the Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2022); the Diriyah Biennale, Diriyah (2022). In 2023, she was in residence at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in New York and received the Baroness Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship for the Performing Arts. Her first international solo exhibition Sometimes We Are Eternal was presented at Bally Foundation in Lugano, Switzerland (2023-2024). Most recently, Brahim was awarded the 2025-2026 Pina Bausch Foundation Fellowship, also having received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French Ambassador Ludovic Pouille on behalf of the French Republic and President Emmanuel Macron in 2024. She has undertaken the Lafayette Anticipations residency in Paris (2025). Sarah Brahim looks forward to presenting her work in OFFSCREEN, Paris and FOROF, Rome in 2026.