Galerie Dominique Fiat
Kevork Mourad
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"Sailing to Nowhere"
On the occasion of Paris Gallery Weekend, taking place from May 29 to 31, Galerie Dominique Fiat is pleased to announce an exceptional performance by artist Kevork Mourad (Armenian, born in Syria, based in New York), as part of his exhibition “Sailing to Nowhere.” For this event, which will be held on Friday, May 29 at 7:30 PM, the artist will offer the public an immersive experience of his creative process.
Kevork Mourad (b. 1970) is a Syrian-born Armenian artist living and working in New York. Trained at the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts, he holds a Master of Fine Arts and has developed, over several decades, a singular artistic practice that brings together drawing, painting, video, installation, and live performance—often in dialogue with music. By merging cultural heritage with a contemporary visual language, Mourad explores themes such as
memory, exile, identity, and historical narratives through dense graphic compositions, monotypes, and evocative, narrative architectural structures. His approach is characterized by an interplay of movement, gesture, calligraphy, and textures, including cotton, linen, and denim.
The exhibition “Sailing to Nowhere” revolves around the theme of the sail, a symbol of conquest here reimagined as a fragile surface charged with history. The fabric becomes a bearer of memory, absorbing the invisible traces of those whose voices have been silenced. As both witnesses and archives, the sails evoke the captive bodies whose labor propelled ships and empires, while being erased from official narratives.
In this exhibition, the sail echoes the lives of enslaved individuals and resonates with the artist’s personal history. Of Armenian descent, Kevork Mourad also evokes the memory of his ancestors, who were forced to transform themselves in order to survive, concealing their identity and culture beneath invisible layers. Sailing to Nowhere thus becomes a meditation on displacement without arrival, transformation as a condition of survival, and the
persistence of buried memories.
In parallel, a work by Kevork Mourad is currently on view at the Institut du Monde Arabe as part of the exhibition “Slaves in the Mediterranean, 17th–18th Century” (on view until July 19), where he is the only contemporary artist invited.
This work brings to life the forgotten figures of slavery, where captives re-emerge. Through these timeless silhouettes, the artist also pays tribute to the memory of Armenian women deported during the genocide of 1915–1923, some of whom were enslaved and forced into the erasure of their identity.
Based in New York, Kevork Mourad will exceptionally return to Paris on May 29 for a unique performance, extending the emotional and committed scope of his work.
Solo show of Kevork Mourad
From March 19 to May 31, 2026
Rendez-Vous
Friday 29 May 2026
Performance – Galerie Dominique Fiat
Sunday 31 May 2026
Closing – Dominique Fiat
75010 Paris, France 01 40 29 04 62 dominiquefiat.com
The gallery
Dominique Fiat is a gallerist based in Paris, in the vibrant 10th arrondissement, working in acskylit space after many years in the Marais district near the Musée Picasso.
A transdisciplinary vision has enabled the discovery of emerging talents from an early stage,csuch as Camille Henrot and Hicham Berrada, whose practices span multiple forms ofcexpression. The gallery was also among the first to highlight the Los Angeles Light & Spacecmovement, featuring artists such as Helen Pashgian, Fred Eversley, and Laddie John Dill, ascwell as Californian artists including Ed Moses and Ed Ruscha. Simultaneously, it has supported the French art scene, notably by launching the career of Eva Nielsen through her earliest gallery and institutional exhibitions, and by presenting a striking focus on the work of Tania Mouraud.
By engaging with non-Western scenes—particularly Africa, with artists such as Safaa Erruas and Emo de Medeiros—and the MENASA region, the gallery has exhibited artists including Sue Williamson and Anita Dube, in parallel with the Centre Pompidou. Anita Dube was also the great curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2019.
In 2017, Dominique Fiat initiated and organized “Afriques Capitales” at the Grande Halle de la Villette, an exhibition dedicated to contemporary African art featuring around fifty artists—from William Kentridge to Leila Alaoui—alongside a festival of music, dance, and performance. This initiative between the Fondation Vuitton and the Grande Halle de la Villette gave rise to what became widely known as the “African Spring” in Paris.
Today, Dominique Fiat more than ever affirms her commitment to representing socially engaged artists and to fostering connections between the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, and as far as Asia, addressing the issues that link these regions. Her approach emphasizes openness and dialogue, in order to resist any form of isolation or ghettoization.
Gallery artists
Malala Andrialavidrazanana, Rut Blees Luxembourg, Hannah Collins, Roxane Daumas, Emo de Medeiros, Laddie John Dill, Anita Dube, Safâa Erruas, John Goto, Itvan Kebadian, Nicola lo Calzo, Chantal Regnault, Vivian Van Blerk, Sue Williamson
