Friday, May 18 at 7pm
155 Freeman Street, Brooklyn, NY
$5 suggested donation

A celebration of the publication of Bidoun #26, Soft Power, hosted by Triple Canopy at 155 Freeman

Featuring a conversation between Iman Issa and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, readings by Anand Balakrishnan and Michael C. Vazquez, and music by Tiffany Malakooti

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Join us in celebrating the twenty-sixth issue of Bidoun, which considers art and patronage, state-sponsored media, cultural diplomacy, revolution and counterrevolution, nation and/or corporate branding, and potato chips as public relations.

Artist Iman Issa will discuss monuments and mysteries, among other things, with Bidoun contributing editor Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, who writes about Issa in “Radical Subtraction.” Issa’s work, which was part of the recent New Museum Triennial, “The Ungovernables,” creates an eloquent language of forms to address unruly questions about place, power and memory.

Writer Anand Balakrishnan will read from his story “The Serendipity of Sand,” which ponders the ultimate civilizational soft-power gambit — the monumental ruin — and what that might have to do with the zebra’s beguiling stripes.

Bidoun senior editor Michael C. Vazquez will present outtakes from his essay “The Bequest of Quest,” which contemplates the curious legacy of Cold War magazines funded by the American CIA, including the Indian literary magazine Quest and the African journal Transition.

A slide show of covers of nation-state self-help books, drawn from Shumon Basar and Parag Khanna‘s article “Soft Readers Prefer Hard Covers,” will be shown.

Throughout the evening, Bidoun’s Tiffany Malakooti will play Iranian wedding trance and Lebanese happy softcore.

Join the Facebook event!

Bidoun Bookshelf Launch
Sunday May 6th from 6-9pm
47 Orchard Street between Grand and Hester

Join us for the launch of the Bidoun Bookshelf, a micro-bookshop in our storefront space on the Lower East Side in which we present and sell unique, rare, or otherwise compelling books from across the Bidouniverse.

Presented in conjunction with Frieze NY’s Downtown Night

The new Bidoun, on newsstands in April, considers art and patronage, state-sponsored media, cultural diplomacy, revolution and counterrevolution, nation and/or corporate branding, and even potato chips as public relations.

The heart of Soft Power is a suite of conversations that revolve around the question of hidden agendas. As’ad AbuKhalil, the political scientist who blogs as The Angry Arab, discusses the political economy of Al Jazeera and Qatar’s foreign policy with Babak Radboy and E. P. Licursi. Bangalore-based Achal Prabhala and Michael C. Vazquez consider the curious legacy of Cold War magazines funded by the American CIA. And nearly a dozen leading figures in the Egyptian cultural scene, including representatives of human rights organizations, art spaces, and foundations, as well as bloggers, activists, and curators, were invited to reflect on the theme of foreign funding.

But there is Bidoun’s customary dose of long-form narrative, as well. In “The Marble Lawn,” Yasmine El Rashidi provides an unusual vantage onto Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi heavy in so many stories about the rise of Islamism in post-revolutionary Egypt. Anand Balakrishnan’s “The Serendipity of Sand” considers the ultimate civilizational soft-power gambit — the monumental ruin — and what that might have to do with the zebra’s beguiling stripes. Other features consider sexual politics in the art world (Sarah Rifky’s “Call Me Soft,”) the deification of power (Anna Della Subin’s “Occupy Godhead”), and the rarified world of globo-pundits whose airport-ready books make tidy work of explaining… more or less everything (“Soft Readers Prefer Hard Covers,” by Shumon Basar with Parag Khanna).

In our arts coverage, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie profiles New York-based artist Iman Issa, we take a look at Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Freedom of Speech Itself at The Showroom in London, and Beiruti Franziska Pierwoss’s ongoing Toyota to Benz project.

Plus: “The Chibsi Challenge,” a taste-travel roundtable discussion of potato crisps, chips, and nation brands, inspired by Sophia Al-Maria; reviews of the archaeology show at SALT Istanbul’s new space; Iranian videos in New York; Haris Epaminonda’s “Mystery at MoMA”; the Athens Biennial in a time of austerity; and Mahmoud Darwish’s bequest.

To purchase this issue — or better, to subscribe — visit our online shop.

Negar Azimi speaking at the Global Art Forum, Dubai

Much of team Bidoun has spent the past week in the Gulf, with Negar Azimi and Tiffany Malakooti presenting at the March Meeting in Sharjah; Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Michael Vazquez, Alexander Provan, Yasmine El Rashidi, Sophia Al-Maria, and Negar Azimi participating in the Global Art Forum in Doha and at Art Dubai, curated by Shumon Basar; all in addition to our regular booth at the fair and screenings of two great archival documentaries on Ardeshir Mohasses and Parviz Tanavoli and his founding of the sculpture department at the University of Tehran.

Come say hello if you’re in Dubai, or follow us — or someone with superior social-networking skills — on Facebook and Twitter.

Ebrahim Goelstan, still from Yek Atash (A Fire), 1961

Revolution vs Revolution,
March 14, 26, 28
Beirut Art Center

In the context of Beirut Art Center’s exhibition “Revolution vs Revolution,” Bidoun’s Tiffany Malakooti presents two curated film programs around Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 and Negar Azimi gives a talk entitled “Iran in Pictures: Social Suffering and Three Sets of Images.”

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 8pm
Ebrahim Golestan, Yek Atash (A Fire), 1961, 24′
Kamran Shirdel, Tehran Is the Capital of Iran, 1966, 18′
Parviz Kimiavi, Ya Zamene Ahu (O Guardian of the Deer), 1970, 20′

Monday March 26, 2012 at 8pm
Kianoush Ayari, Tazeh Nafas-ha (The Newborns), 1979, 45′

Wednesday March 28, 2012 at 8pm
Iran in Pictures: Social Suffering and Three Sets of Images by Negar Azimi

http://beirutartcenter.org

Bidoun’s space at the Independent last year

The Independent
March 8-11th
548 West 22nd Street
New York

Bidoun is one of three publications invited to present at the Independent Art Fair this weekend. Visit our rooftop space to browse Bidoun past and present, talk to our staff and interns, and drink Persian tea.

http://www.independentnewyork.com

Kianoush Ayari, still from Tazeh Nafas-ha, 1979

Kianoush Ayari
Tazeh Nafas-ha (The Newborns)
1979
45 min
In Farsi with English subtitles

Kianoush Ayari’s documentary captures rare scenes of everyday life on the streets of Tehran in the months following the revolution of 1979 — that somewhat utopian period between revolutionary violence and the formation of a full fledged Islamic Republic when a bright future seemed possible, if not probable.

In this Tehran, we witness books carrying conflicting ideologies sold openly on the streets, laborers debating as to the wages they have been promised, and young men donning Arab garb to have their portrait taken with a Yasser Arafat backdrop. We also witness extended scenes from three different political plays, along with street theatre in a park where a performer imitates various iconic pop singers, political figures, and even the Shah himself.

Still, images from slums in the south of the city remind us of lurking problems in the background, and while the film ends on an optimistic note — with footage of youth energetically campaigning for upcoming elections — 33 years later and in light of current events, that optimism seems misplaced, if not bittersweet.

Kianoush Ayari’s Tazeh Nafas-ha on UbuWeb

This upload is part of the BubuWeb project — a partnership between Bidoun and UbuWeb which aims to make available rare audio and visual materials from the Middle East.

Bidoun’s Facebook page has been liberated from its state of limbo and is once again active. We have a lot of lost time to make up for; expect many photos and updates in the coming weeks.

Bidoun on Facebook!

Reza Abdoh, still from Bogeyman, 1991

We are very pleased to present eight rare videos from experimental theater director Reza Abdoh (b. 1963 Tehran, d. 1995 New York City) on UbuWeb. The videos include four show tapes used in theatrical performances: The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice (1990), Bogeyman (1991), The Law of Remains (1992), Tight Right White (1993) and four standalone experimental videos: My Face (1986), Sleeping with the Devil (1990), Daddy’s Girl (1991), The Weeping Song (1991).

Reza Abdoh was an Iranian-born director and playwright known for his large-scale, experimental theatrical productions that utilized multimedia elements and violent sexual imagery. Reza Abdoh died of AIDS on May 11, 1995 in New York City at the age of 32.

Reza Abdoh on UbuWeb

With special thanks to Adam Soch, Brenden Doyle, and Salar Abdoh.

This program is part of the BubuWeb project — a partnership between Bidoun and UbuWeb which aims to make available rare audio and visual materials from the Middle East.

The Bidoun Library opens on January 12th at Tensta Konsthall’s new space in Sweden. The Library is a long-term project surveying the territory of the Middle East through its printed matter —objects in which complex and historical facts and ambitions meet.

More information here