Kamin Mohammadi

Eastern Underground

This articles appeared in Impressions magazine April/May 2006

Produced from collaborations from all corners of the globe, art magazine Bidoun offers an exciting glimpse into the rarely seen world of contemporary Middle Eastern fashion, youth culture, art and lifestyle.

As visitors to destinations in the Middle East will know, the reality of the region is very different to the images we see on our televisions every night. From Beirut to Tehran, Cairo to Dubai, there is a discernible buzz in these cities, one that has little to do with traditional images and everything to do with forward-looking modern life. There is a flowering of cultural life, a boom in the modern art scene of the Middle East, one that is driven by intelligence, creativity and bemused engagement.

And this verve and vitality is nowhere more apparent than in the pages of Bidoun magazine. Created as a platform for ideas and an open forum for exchange, dialogue and opinions about arts and culture from the Middle East, Bidoun aims to bring together a range of cultural expression from this vast region and not only does it feature articles about and even by artists, it features the art itself, often commissioning pieces for show in the magazine’s pages and on its cover. And the publication is distinctive not just for its unique approach to contemporary culture in the Middle East, each issue is also a gorgeous tome, beautifully produced, artfully put together and reflecting with its tone the humour and irreverence of the subject matter.

Founded by Editor in Chief Lisa Farjam in autumn 2003, Bidoun (which means ‘without’ in both Farsi and Arabic) ‘ has been around in my head, and the heads of others, for a while longer,’ says Farjam, who was born in Iran, raised in Dubai and studied in the US. The name, she says, ‘reflects the statelessness in which many of us find ourselves – sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not,’ and the magazine aims to cross borders and reflect contemporary fluidity. As Farjam says: ‘ when I moved to New York, and felt “bidoun”, I looked around for any coverage that accurately reflected the Middle Eastern arts scene as I knew it, or even just the Middle East per se, and I realised that there were no magazines at all that accurately reflected the vibrancy and dynamism of life in the region’.

A perfect example of the multi-national identity of many people from the Middle East, Farjam found it hard to accept increasing volume of negative news stories, and stereotypical coverage of a region apparently constantly ravaged by wars or in thrall to property developers. ‘It’s still very rare to see any coverage in the mainstream news that reflects a day-to-day picture of the Middle East,’ she reflects. ‘I wanted to produce something that was beautifully designed, fun to read, that reflected the humour, and the commitment of artists, designers, architects, film makers and so on in the Middle East.’

It is safe to say that she – and her team of editors based around the world – have succeeded. Each issue – published quarterly – is loosely based around a theme (the latest issue examines the theme of tourism and is out 20 March) and distribution takes place in the Arab world and Iran as well as in the US and UK, and through subscriptions (visit www.bidoun.com for details). As Lisa says, ‘We decided the magazine would be “bidoun” in itself, in that it wasn’t really ‘from’ anywhere: we [the four editors, Lisa herself, Negar Azimi, Antonia Carver and Tirdad Zolghadr] debate, edit and organise the issues by email, from Tehran, Dubai, Cairo, Zurich and New York, and rely on a network of contributors based in the region and beyond; the magazine is designed and produced in New York, but then distributed worldwide.’

The lack of a central office or base has not affected the magazine’s running. In fact, one could say that the very nature of the team is a reflection of the modern, borderless ethos of Bidoun. Farjam explains the editorial process: ‘We try to sometimes meet up, but I don’t think the team has ever all been in the same room. We just don’t have the budget for the airfares! So we rely on the internet and email. Luckily, we know each other well enough now to avoid too many of those notorious email misunderstandings.’

Bidoun ’s ties with artists are strong, with three of the editors having done and continuing to do curatorial work. This year Bidoun plans to branch out and into galleries with a series of collaborations with institutions such as PS1 at MOM and the Oxford Modern Art Museum. This spring, at London’s Counter Gallery the magazine will present ‘Bidoun in 3 Easy Steps’, a three-part exhibition with each part hosted by a different artists all of whom have collaborated with Bidoun. The first part will be hosted by Iranian artists Shirin Aliabadi and Farhad Moshiri, the second by Joana Hadji-Thomas and Khalil Joreige, and the third by Faouzi Rouissi featuring work by the Shahrzad Collective, from 29 March to 6 May. (visit www.bidoun.com for more details).

This is just the beginning. According to Farjam: ‘We travel as much as we can, attend events like arts biennales and symposia, maintain dialogues with gallerists, curators and artists we know and love. The exciting thing is that there are so many artists we have yet to encounter, so the work is just beginning. We’re looking at an incredibly diverse, rich set of countries. Nothing is uniform or predictable about these corners of the world.’

And the nature of the region is what inspired Bidoun’s nature as primarily an art magazine: Farjam explains it by pointing out that ‘something is happening in all of these cities, and the arts are either a means of being a part of it or a repository for expressing it, documenting it. The arts are so intimately linked to expression, politics and beyond in that part of the world. At the same time, it’s a language that everyone can engage with.’

And engage they have – circulation has more than tripled since launch to 18,000 now, very impressive for a niche title. It has particularly taken off in the US and Lebanon, but is distributed throughout the Middle East, Europe, UK and US. And subscriptions are from everywhere, from Yemen to Saudi.

Reactions to the magazine vary, says Farjam: ‘Some people react with predictable surprise along the lines of “I had no idea it was so contemporary over there”. That’s frustrating but it’s also fine if at a certain level we play that role in making people think beyond their narrow preconceptions.’ Just as important are the collaborations that the magazine has inspired between artists in the West and East, as well as the attention it has garnered in cultural and academic circles, among people who have nothing to do with the region. Farjam is excited by this: ‘While our primary intention is to give a voice to young writers from the Middle East, we also have many writers who are based in London, Paris or New York and have had nothing to do with that part of the world at all,’ she says. ‘Who would imagine Christopher Hitchens or Elizabeth Rubin would write for the same publication as young bloggers in Tehran or Cairo?

‘The other day a Lebanese journalist told one of our editors that the most exciting thing for him in coming across Bidoun was that it finally, uniquely, treated the Middle East as part of the world, and identified its writers and artists as international practitioners. I guess this sums up our vision.