The Bidoun Library at the 2013 Carnegie
International
October 5, 2013–March 16, 2014
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
The Bidoun Library is a presentation of printed
matter, carefully selected with no regard for taste
or quality, that attempts to document the
innumerable ways that people have depicted and
defined—slandered, celebrated, obfuscated,
hyperbolized, ventriloquized, photographed,
surveyed, and/or exhumed—that vast, vexed, nefarious
construct known as "the Middle East." The result is
banal and offensive, a parade of stereotypes,
caricatures, and misunderstandings, all the
trappings of the Middle East as fetish: veils, oil,
fashion victims; sexy sheikhs, sex with sheikhs,
Sufis, stonings; calligraphy, the caliphate,
terrorism; Palestinians. We wanted to see what would
happen if we put together a library without regard
to aptness or excellence; to choose books not for
their subjects, but their contexts; not for their
authors, but their publishers; not for their
qualities, but in their quantities.
THE NATURAL ORDER
“Water was the first type of drilling fluid to be
used, but when it became evident that superior
drilling fluids could be made when certain clays
were added, the art of mud control began.”
Kuwait Oil Company,
Crude to Carrier, The Epic of Oil. Kuwait
City: Information Department, 1967.
MARGIN OF ERROR
“The life of an immigrant family of three. Having
been a violinist, the man is used to play violin
when he is alone. The woman is working in an office
and the eight-year-old child attends school. The man
has problems with his wife. Being in a bad situation
the couple can not help each other. But the child is
aware of the problems.”
Mohammad Aghili, Hossein Mahini,
A Prospect of Iran's Film in Exile.
Gothenburg: FRI Fil, 1993.
HOME THEATER
"Choose Your Own Adventure is the best thing that
has come along since books themselves."
— Alysha Beyer, age 11
"I didn't read much before, but now I read my Choose
Your Own Adventure books almost every night."
— Chris Brogan, age 13
"I love the control over what happens next."
— Kosta Efstathiou, age 17
Shannon Gilligan,
Choose Your Own Adventure: The Terrorist Trap. New York: Bantam-Skylark, 1991.
A big thank you to all who joined us this past
Sunday evening for the Bidoun Benefit Dinner. It
was really really fun!
A special thanks to our readers: Chelsea Clinton,
Stuart Comer, Lawrence Weiner, Lynne Tillman,
Knight Landesman, and Orhan Pamuk & Shirin
Neshat; and our host committee: Maria Baibakova,
Yto Barrada, Aarthi Belani, Lisa Farjam, Dana
Farouki, Coco Ferguson, Princess Firyal of Jordan,
Leila Heller, Shirin Neshat, and Sheena Wagstaff.
October 9, 2013
New York Art Book Fair
September 19–22, 2013
MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Queens
Bidoun is taking part in the eighth annual
New York Art Book Fair
at PS1 this weekend. Come visit, chat, and
peruse your favorite Bidoun titles.
The fair begins this Thursday from 6-9 pm and
runs through the weekend.
Also! On the final evening of the fair, Sunday
the 22nd from 6-9 pm, join us for vodka, music,
MFK Fisher‘s favorite minestrone soup,
and diverse readings on and about FOOD by
Bidoun’s Michael C. Vazquez, who joins an
illustrious cast including Gini Alhadeff,
Clarissa Dalrymple, K8 Hardy,
Gaby Hoffmann, Matthew Higgs,
Emily Stokes, Lynne Tillman,
Nicola Tyson, Wendy Yao, and more.
Music by Bidoun’s Tiffany Malakoobideh.
Look for signs of the pop-up cafe at the new
MoMA PS1 storefront. Organized by
Negar Azimi and Pati Hertling.
September 17, 2013
Bidoun Launch Los Angeles
Sunday August 25, 2013 at 3pm
Ooga Booga 2, 356 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles
Join us
for a celebrity-Bidouni-studded event with
readings and performances and music and ice
cream. Show begins promptly at 3!
August 19, 2013
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