Join artist Bani Abidi, editor Saira Ansari, and contributor Abeera Kamran on Saturday 18 March from 11am - 1pm for the launch of Abidi’s first monograph The Artist Who (Hatje Cantz, 2022), taking place at Common Room, Warehouse 51.

Envisioned as an artist project, the publication explores notions of humour, playfulness and experimentation by engaging with forms of writing, design, printing, and assembly. Containing documentation of artworks created over two decades as well as archival material and a rich selection of texts, it represents the wide range of relationships Abidi has fostered during this period.

One of Pakistan’s most notable contemporary artists, Abidi creates videos and multimedia works that interweave autobiographical fiction with sociopolitical commentary and satire. Her practice explores the sobering realities of the political conditions, bureaucracy, and urban infrastructure in Asia, exposing the absurdities emerging from the dysfunctionalities of everyday life.

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Biographies

Encompassing video, photography and performance, Bani Abidi’s practice draws on everyday as well as historical events to explore issues of nationalism and state power. Solo shows have taken place at Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Sharjah Art Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Gropius Bau, Berlin, amongst others; group shows include the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 8th Berlin Biennial, Guggenheim Museum, New York, and documenta 13, Kassel. Abidi lives and works between Berlin and Karachi.

Saira Ansari is a writer and editor who employs creative non-fiction to think about art practice and criticism, feminist histories, gardens, grief, science fiction, and South Asia and its real and imagined peripheries.

Abeera Kamran is a graphic designer and typographer based in Birmingham and Karachi. She has just completed an MA Research in Typography at the University of Reading, where she is also a lecturer in Design. Her research investigates the design and technological challenges associated with publishing Urdu in digital devices. She is currently working on a typographic framework for global scripts.