Bidoun

Bidoun is a quarterly print magazine published in New York and subtitled "art and culture from the Middle East." The magazine was founded in 2004 by Editor-in-Chief Lisa Farjam. Bidoun also encompasses Bidoun Projects, a non-profit organization dedicated to curatorial and educational projects around the world.^[1]

Bidoun was a finalist for the 2009 National Magazine Award for General Excellence (circulation category less than 100k). It won three Utne Independent Press Awards, for Social/Cultural Coverage and Design.

Name

The word "bidoun" means “without” in both Arabic and Persian. It is commonly mispronounced and confused with the word Bedouin.

Contributors

Notable contributors to the magazine include: Tirdad Zolghadr, Pankaj Mishra, Binyavanga Wainaina, Eyal Weizman, Tony Shafrazi, The Yes Men, Mai Abu ElDahab, Jace Clayton, Thomas Keenan, Naeem Mohaiemen, Yto Barrada, Bruce Hainley, Hampton Fancher, Gini Aldaheff, Elizabeth Rubin, Shirana Shahbazi, Hassan Khan, Akram Zaatari, Michael Rakowitz, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, William E Jones, Rokni Haerizadeh, Christopher Hitchens, Shumon Basar, Farhad Moshiri, Lawrence Weiner, Charles Esche and Mohamed Mrabet, Slavs and Tatars, George Pendle, Wayne Koestenbaum, Issandr El Amrani, Fatima Al Qadiri, Sislej Xhafa, Sophia Al Maria.

Bidoun's current contributing editors are Sophia Al-Maria, Shumon Basar, Yasmine El Rashidi, Sohrab Mohebbi, Aram Moshayedi, Alexander Provan and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie.

Bidoun Projects

Books

• WITH/WITHOUT Spatial Products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East, Edited by Shumon Basar, Antonia Carver and Markus Miessen (Bidoun/Moutamarat, 2007) ISBN 978-9948-03-453-7^[2]
• Provisions | Sharjah Biennial 9: Book 1, Edited by Antonia Carver, Valerie Grove and Lara Khaldi (Bidoun/Sharjah Art Foundation, 2009) ISBN 978-9948-04-607-2^[3]
• Provisions | Sharjah Biennial 9: Book 2, Edited by Antonia Carver and Lara Khaldi (Bidoun/Sharjah Art Foundation, 2010)^[4]

BubuWeb

In 2009 Bidoun initiated a collaboration with the web-based archive UbuWeb in order to make available rare video and sound pieces from in and around the Middle East.^[5]

Exhibitions

• 'NOISE': A 2009 group show at Sfeir–Semler gallery in Beirut featuring Vartan Avakian, Steven Baldi, Walead Beshty, Haris Epaminonda, Media Farzin, Marwan, Yoshua Okon, Babak Radboy, Bassam Ramlawi, Mounira Al Solh, Andree Sfeir, Rayyane Tabet, Lawrence Weiner and Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck^[6]
• 'Forms of Compensation': A series of 21 reproductions of iconic modern and contemporary artworks produced in Cairo by craftspeople and auto mechanics in the neighborhood around the Townhouse Gallery, commissioned by Babak Radboy and overseen by Ayman Ramadan^[7]
• 'Museum as Hub: The Bidoun Library Project': A highly partial account of five decades of printed matter in, near, about, and around the Middle East hosted by the New Museum in the Summer of 2010^[8]

Quotes About Bidoun

"When you talk to me about West and East and Bidoun—I’m a real fan, as you know, of the magazine— but I don’t think it’s going to help." —Lawrence Weiner

"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 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

Issues and Themes

References

External links

• Official website