The Bidoun Auction
Christie’s, London
6–9 PM
Highlights of the auction include a unique work made for Bidoun by Walid Raad, a cloth piece made in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution by Susan Hefuna, a wall piece inspired by the war in Iraq by Jeremy Deller, a silkscreen sunset by Andro Wekua, a unique photo print by Trisha Donnelly, as well as a work in Arabic and English by conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. The founding work of the auction is a dazzling four-panel painting by Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri entitled “Scream,” based on the Edvard Munch work of the same name. Moshiri’s “Scream” represents a pop take on a familiar motif.
See the Bidoun Auction catalogue here.
The conversation between Obrist and Adnan takes place on the eve of the Serpentine Gallery Marathon at the Royal Geography Society, where Adnan will read from her germinal 1989 epic poem, The Arab Apocalypse. Adnan is a legendary poet, novelist, playwright and painter born in 1925, whose work resides in the permanent collections of the British Museum, the Institut du Monde Arabe, and the Sursock Museum in Beirut. She will also be featured in documenta 13 next summer.
The Bidoun Auction Committee is Antonia Carver, Chelsea Clinton, Maryam Eisler, Farhad Farjam, Coco Ferguson, Dana Farouki, HH Princess Alia Al-Senussi, Tony Shafrazi, Saadi Soudavar and Zeina Durra, Jimmy Traboulsi, Burkhard Varnholt, and Sheena Wagstaff.
The complete list of artists in the auction is Afsoon, Etel Adnan, Shirin Aliabadi, Lara Baladi, Yto Barrada, Reza Derakshani, Trisha Donnelly, Fouad Elkoury, Armen Eloyan, Jeremy Deller, Elger Esser, Simone Fattal, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Susan Hefuna, Pouran Jinchi, YZ Kami, Nate Lowman, Tala Madani, Haroon Mirza, Farhad Moshiri, Youssef Nabil, Timo Nasseri, Shirin Neshat, Paul Pfeiffer, Walid Raad, Hesam Rahmanian, Shirana Shahbazi, Slavs and Tatars, Lawrence Weiner, Andro Wekua, and Carey Young.
About Bidoun:
Since 2004, Bidoun has filled a void in the arts and culture coverage of the Middle East, pioneering a distinctive voice that is intelligent, critical, and original. To date, Bidoun’s activities fall in three primary areas: publishing, educational, and curatorial. In the publishing realm, Bidoun magazine nurtures an idiosyncratic readership, spanning from Detroit to Doha, Beirut to Berlin, Toronto to Tehran. Bidoun has won some of the most sought-after honors in the magazine world, including a nomination for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2009, and four UTNE Independent Press Awards for social and cultural coverage, design, and art writing.
In the educational realm, Bidoun runs writing and curatorial workshops that foster critical debate, while Bidoun’s Middle East Modernities Project seeks to unearth, document, and interpret the lost histories of modern and contemporary art in and around the region.
In the curatorial realm, Bidoun has organized unique exhibitions, screenings, and lectures in Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, London, New York City, Bangalore, and more.
In a media environment that tends to see the Middle East region in one-dimensional terms—either as a land of radicalism and dysfunction, or as a shiny, happy emerging art market—Bidoun provides an indispensable window onto the cultural and artistic life of the contemporary Middle East.
The auction comes on the heels of Bidoun #25, made in Egypt, as well as its successful programming of The Bidoun Library Project at the Serpentine Gallery this summer, featured on CNN, written about in The London Review of Books and The New Yorker, among many other venues.
Words About Bidoun
“I always look forward to reading Bidoun. There’s always something lovely and strange in this incredible journal of art and life and letters.”
Orhan Pamuk, writer, Nobel Prize laureate
“Bidoun is a great toolbox for the 21st century. Bidoun is encyclopedic. Bidoun goes beyond the fear of pooling knowledge. Bidoun is energy. Bidoun is a protest against forgetting. Bidoun is a polyphony of urgent voices. Bidoun is Bidoun.”
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery
“The quarterly magazine Bidoun has been countering stereotypes of Arabs with its witty, lucid articles since 2004. The publication continues its mission with this engrossing library-in-a-museum… One could spend hours browsing the results, which offer a glimpse of how the West has alternately romanticized and fomented fears of the Middle East… Pop-culture fare is balanced by highbrow political journals, charming children’s books, and kitschy girlie magazines, written in Arabic.”
The New Yorker
“Bidoun’s editorial voice might be described as a combination of Artforum and Harper’s, its audience comprising artists, academics, and intellectually curious readers who enjoy a magazine that manages to dissect Edward Said and Michael Jackson in the same issue.”
Print Magazine
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To attend the auction, email Julie Vial: jvial@christies.com.
