''Bidoun'' is an American non-profit organization, focused on art and culture from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and its diasporas. Bidoun was founded as a print publication and magazine in 2004 by Lisa Farjam, eventually expanding to curatorial projects. The Bidoun magazine was in publication from spring 2004 until spring 2013.

Magazine

The word "bidoun" in both

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

means “without” in English. It is commonly mispronounced and confused with the word

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

. ''Bidoun'' was a finalist for the 2009

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

for General Excellence (circulation category less than 100k). It has won three

Utne Utne is a village in Ullensvang municipality in the Hardanger region of Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the northern end of the Folgefonn Peninsula, at the confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs ...

Independent Press Awards, for Social/Cultural Coverage and Design.

Magazine contributors

Notable contributors to the magazine include:

Etel Adnan Etel Adnan ( ar, إيتيل عدنان; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" ...

, Tirdad Zolghadr,

Pankaj Mishra Pankaj Mishra FRSL (born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014. Early life and education Mishra was born in Jhansi, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unioni ...

Binyavanga Wainaina Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina (18 January 1971 – 21 May 2019) was a Kenyan author, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In April 2014, ''Time'' magazine included Wainaina in its annual ''Time'' 100 as one of the "Mo ...

Eyal Weizman Eyal Weizman MBE FBA (born 1970) is a British Israeli architect. He is the director of the research agency Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures and a founding director t ...

Tony Shafrazi Tony Shafrazi (born May 8, 1943), is an American art dealer, gallery owner, and artist. He is the owner of the ''Shafrazi Art Gallery'' in New York City who deals artwork by artists such as Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, and David LaChapelle. Early ...

, Jace Clayton, Thomas Keenan,

Naeem Mohaiemen Naeem Mohaiemen (born 1969) uses film, photography, installation, and essays to research South Asia's postcolonial markers (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971). His projects on the 1970s revolutionary l ...

Yto Barrada Yto Barrada (born 1971) is a Franco-Moroccan multimedia visual artist living and working in Tangier, Morocco and New York City. Barrada cofounded the Cinémathèque de Tanger in 2006, leading a group of artists and filmmakers. Barrada also wor ...

, Bruce Hainley,

Hampton Fancher Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938) is an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, best known for co-writing the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film ''Blade Runner'' and its 2017 sequel ''Blade Runner 2049,'' based on the novel ''Do ...

, Gini Aldaheff, Elizabeth Rubin, Yasmine El Rashidi, Shirana Shahbazi, Hassan Khan,

Akram Zaatari Akram Zaatari (born 1966 in Sidon, Lebanon) is a filmmaker, photographer, archival artist and curator. In 1997, he co-founded the Arab Image Foundation with photographers Fouad Elkoury, and Samer Mohdad. His work is largely based on collecting, stu ...

, Michael Rakowitz,

Natascha Sadr Haghighian Natascha Sadr Haghighian is an artist known for assuming multiple identities. Her official press releases and gallery biographies conflict on country of origin, date of birth, and place of residence. Her work is primarily concerned with investigat ...

, Elias Muhanna, William E Jones, Rokni Haerizadeh,

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

Shumon Basar Shumon Basar (born 15 October 1974) is a British writer, editor and curator. Life and education Basar was born in Pabna, Bangladesh, in 1974. His mother Dilruba Basar emigrated with him to the United Kingdom, to join his father, Abul Basar, who ...

, Farhad Moshiri,

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

, Mohamed Mrabet,

Slavs and Tatars Slavs and Tatars is an art collective and "a faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia". Founded in 2006 as a collaboration between artists and designers ...

George Pendle George Pendle (born 1976) is a British author and journalist. He was educated at Stowe School and St Peter's College, Oxford. After working at ''The Times'' from 1997 to 2001, Pendle wrote his first book, ''Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life o ...

Wayne Koestenbaum Wayne Koestenbaum (born 1958) is an American artist, poet, and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a 1994 Whiting Award recipie ...

, Issandr El Amrani,

Fatima Al Qadiri Fatima Al Qadiri ( ar, فاطمة القديري; born July 1981) is a Senegalese-born Kuwaiti musician and conceptual artist. Biography Fatima Al Qadiri is the daughter of Mohammed Al Qadiri, a former Kuwaiti diplomat and writer, and Thuray ...

, Sophia Al Maria, Ahdaf Soueif, Gary Dauphin, Kai Friese, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Paul Chan, Anna Boghiguian,

Lynne Tillman Lynne Tillman (born January 1, 1947) is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and teaches at the School of Visual Arts' Art Cri ...

, Haris Epaminonda, Iman Issa, Ken Okiishi, Fawwaz Traboulsi, Achal Prabhala, Youssef Rakha,

Sahar Mandour Sahar Mandour (born 1977) is a Lebanese-Egyptian novelist. Life Sahar Mandour was born in Beirut to a Lebanese mother and Egyptian father. She studied psychology at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, before becoming a journalist. Mandour's nov ...

Lawrence Osborne Lawrence Osborne (born 1958) is a British novelist and journalist who is currently residing in Bangkok. Osborne was educated at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and at Harvard University, and has since led a nomadic life, residing for years i ...

, Lina Mounzer, Rasha Salti,

Okwui Enwezor Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ''ArtReview'' list of the 100 m ...

Namwali Serpell Carla Namwali Serpell (born 1980) is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014, she was named on Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to de ...

Robyn Creswell Robyn Creswell is an American critic, scholar and translator. Life He graduated from Brown University in 1999 and gained a doctorate in comparative literature from New York University in 2011. In addition to teaching comparative literature at ...

, and

Christopher de Bellaigue Christopher de Bellaigue (born 1971 in London) is a journalist who has worked on the Middle East and South Asia since 1994. His work mostly chronicles developments in Iran and Turkey. Biography De Bellaigue, who attended Eton College, is from an ...

. The contributing editors of Bidoun were Alexander Provan, Anna Della Subin, Anand Balakrishnan, Aram Moshayedi, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie,

, Sohrab Mohebbi, Sophia Al Maria, Sukhdev Sandhu and Yasmine El Rashidi.

Bidoun art and culture projects

The Bidoun Library Project is an itinerant exhibition that “documents the innumerable ways that people have depicted and defined — that is, slandered, celebrated, obfuscated, hyperbolized, ventriloquized, photographed, surveyed, and/or exhumed — the vast, vexed, nefarious construct known as ‘the Middle East.’" The Bidoun Library, which consists of roughly 3,000 books and periodicals, has been exhibited in Pittsburgh at the

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...

, in New York at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

, in London at the

Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

, in Cyprus at the Point Centre for Contemporary Art, in Beirut at 98weeks, in Cairo at The Townhouse Gallery, in Stockholm at the

Tensta Konsthall Tensta konsthall is a center for contemporary art in the Stockholm suburb of Tensta, northwest of the city center. The gallery works with artists from both Sweden and abroad, often in conjunction with local associations and organizations in the ...

, in Abu Dhabi at Abu Dhabi Art, and in Dubai at

Art Dubai Art Dubai is a leading international art fair that takes place every March in Dubai. Founded in 2007, Art Dubai is the pre-eminent platform for art from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Each year, the fair features a globally diverse ...

. In 2009, Bidoun organized the group exhibition 'NOISE' at Sfeir–Semler gallery in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

featuring Vartan Avakian, Steven Baldi,

Walead Beshty Walead Beshty (born London, UK, 1976) is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. Beshty was an associate professor in the Graduate Art Department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and has taught at numerous schools including University of ...

, Haris Epaminonda, Media Farzin, Marwan, Yoshua Okon, Babak Radboy, Bassam Ramlawi, Mounira Al Solh, Andree Sfeir,

Rayyane Tabet Rayyane Tabet (born 1983) is a Lebanese visual artist, he is known for his sculpture. He has lived and worked in both Beirut and San Francisco. Early life and education Rayyane Tabet was born in 1983 in Ashqout, Lebanon. He has training as an a ...

, and Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck. That same year ''Bidoun'' initiated a collaboration with the web-based archive

UbuWeb UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Philosop ...

in order to make available rare video and sound pieces from in and around the Middle East. 'Forms of Compensation' was a 2010 exhibition of a series of 21 reproductions of iconic modern and contemporary artworks produced in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

by craftspeople and auto mechanics in the neighborhood around the Townhouse Gallery, commissioned by Babak Radboy and overseen by Ayman Ramadan. In 2015, Bidoun occupied a booth at the

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2 ...

in New York where it exhibited and sold insignificant objects from artists. Inspired by the celebrity collectibles market, where a Justin Bieber hairball sold at auction for $40,668, Bidoun extended this covetous logic to the rarified realm of art, proffering such miscellanies as

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English people, English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is Collaboration, collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the Idealiz ...

's iPod Mini,

's gold tooth,

Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

’s abused passport, and a 1638 edition of Burton’s ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' defaced by

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...

. Other items included

’s prescription drugs, a rock signed by

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and m ...

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's w ...

’s house keys,

’s third grade report card,

Hal Foster Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship a ...

’s breath mints,

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

’s eyeliner,

Tala Madani Tala Madani (born 1981) is an Iranian-born American artist, well-known for her contemporary paintings, drawings, and animations. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Early life and education Madani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1981. From the ag ...

’s body lotion,

Wade Guyton Wade Guyton (born 1972) is an American post-conceptual artist who among other things makes digital paintings on canvas using scanners and digital inkjet technology. Early life and education Guyton was born in Hammond, Indiana, in 1972, and grew ...

’s Nikes, Anicka Yi’s brain,

Julie Mehretu Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban ...

’s golf ball,

Bjarne Melgaard Bjarne Melgaard (born 9 September 1967) is a Norwegians, Norwegian artist based in New York City. He has been described as "one of Norway's most important artists" and, following the 2014 publicity about his sculpture ''Chair'', "the most famous No ...

’s Christmas card from a serial killer,

Laura Owens Laura Owens (born 1970) is an American painter, gallery owner and educator. She emerged in the late 1990s from the Los Angeles art scene. She is known for large-scale paintings that combine a variety of art historical references and painterly te ...

’ bus pass,

Shirin Neshat Shirin Neshat ( fa, شیرین نشاط; born March 26, 1957 in Qazvin) is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and th ...

’s kohl, a stuffed animal once owned by the great Iranian modernist Bahman Mohasses, and Darren Bader’s junk mail. In 2016, Bidoun programmed a screening series at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, organized by Tiffany Malakooti.

Publications

Books

Bidoun has edited, published and co-published several books including: * ''WITH/WITHOUT Spatial Products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East'', Edited by

, Antonia Carver and

Markus Miessen Markus Miessen (born in Bonn, 1978) is a German architect and writer. Education and teaching Miessen received his bachelor's degree from the Glasgow School of Art (BArch), continuing his studies at the Architectural Association in London (AADiplH ...

(Bidoun/Moutamarat, 2007) * ''Provisions ,

Sharjah Biennial The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The first Sharjah Biennial took place in 1993, and was organized by the Sharjah Department of Cul ...

9: Book 1'', Edited by Antonia Carver, Valerie Grove and Lara Khaldi (Bidoun/

Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation ( ar, مؤسسة الشارقة للفنون) is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, founded in 2009 by Hoor Al Qasimi, daughter of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, a me ...

, 2009) * ''Provisions , Sharjah Biennial 9: Book 2'', Edited by Antonia Carver and Lara Khaldi (Bidoun/

, 2010) * ''Further Reading'' (Bidoun, 2011) * ''Here and Elsewhere'', Edited by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and Negar Azimi (

, 2014)

Issues and themes

* Issue 00: We Are You * Issue 01: We Are Spatial * Issue 02: We Are Old * Issue 03: Hair * Issue 04: Emirates Now * Issue 05: Icons * Issue 06: Envy * Issue 07: Tourism * Issue 08: Interviews * Issue 09: Rumor * Issue 10: Technology * Issue 11: Failure * Issue 12: Projects * Issue 13: Glory * Issue 14: Objects * Issue 15: Pulp * Issue 16: Kids * Issue 17: Flowers * Issue 18: Interviews * Issue 19: Noise * Issue 20: Bazaar * Issue 21: Bazaar II * Issue 22: Library * Issue 23: Squares * Issue 24: Sports * Issue 25: Egypt * Issue 26: Soft Power * Issue 27: Diaspora * Issue 28: Interviews

Quotes

"Bidoun emerged at just the right time as the world looked at the Middle East through the singular lens of failure. The magazine is smart and irreverent in all the right ways." — Ahdaf Soueif "Bidoun’s editorial voice might be described as a combination of

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

and Harper's, its audience comprising artists, academics, and intellectually curious readers who enjoy a magazine that manages to dissect

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

and

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

in the same issue." —

Print magazine ''Print'' is an American design and culture website that began as ''Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts'', in 1940, and continued publishing a physical edition through the end of 2017 as ''Print''. As a printed publication, ''Print'' ...

References

External links

* {{Official Website, www.bidoun.org
Interview with Bidoun in Kaleidescope Magazine
2004 establishments in New York (state) Alternative magazines Visual arts magazines published in the United States Quarterly magazines published in the United States Contemporary art magazines Independent magazines Magazines established in 2004 Magazines published in New York (state) Middle Eastern culture Persian culture World magazines