Organisation
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BIDOUN magazine was created as a platform for ideas and an open forum for exchange, dialogue and opinions about arts and culture from the Middle East.
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BIDOUN's primary goal is to bring together cultural expressions from a vast and nuanced region. BIDOUN also addresses some of the widespread misconceptions about the region and its Diaspora by inciting readers to take a fresh look at the Middle East and its peoples, too often presented as one-dimensional or stagnant.
BIDOUN means 'without' in both Arabic and Farsi. In our contemporary context, it connotes the statelessness in which many of us find ourselves-sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not.
BIDOUN is not limited by political boundaries drawn onto maps. Its very essence is the fluidity of geographies and a challenge to the myth of singular and absolute representation. Yet we are cautious with our role as culture broker. While we acknowledge the reductionist tendencies of orientalism, BIDOUN also resists obsessing over cultural difference.
This is not about being authoritative. Rather, BIDOUN is an experiment: a collection of voices whose sum total aims to engage.
Lisa Farjam Founder, Editor-in-Chief
Lisa Farjam started Bidoun in the fall of 2003. She graduated with a BA in Literature from Bard College in 2000. She lives and works in New York City.
Negar Azimi, Senior Editor
Negar was based in Cairo until 2004, working as a curatorial assistant at the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art. She is a member of the Beirut-based Fondation Arabe pour l'Image, with whom she is working on photographic projects in Iran and the greater Arab region. She studied politics at Stanford and Harvard, and is now at Columbia, where she's pursuing a PhD.
Antonia Carver, Editor
Besides Bidoun, Antonia is the Middle East correspondent for Screen International, and contributes to the Art Newspaper. Based in Dubai, she works as a programme consultant to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Scotland, and the Mini Film Festival, UAE. She was the project editor for the photography survey BLINK (Phaidon, 2002).
Hassan Khan, Contributing Editor
Hassan Khan works with music, sound, image, text and concept. Khan's work has been installed, exhibited, performed and screened in independent spaces, festivals and instituitons around the world. He has been published in various magazines and journals and has served as senior editor at ALIVE Magazine. He lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.
Cindy Heller, Art Direction
To contact one of the editors write to info@bidoun.com with their name in the subject.