Bani Abidi


Bani Abidi is a Pakistani artist working with video, photography and drawing. She studied visual art at the National College of Arts in Lahore and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2011, she was invited for the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program, and since then has been residing in Berlin.
She is known for her use of humour as a way of negotiating realities that are often difficult and absurd. She likes to mock power and side with ordinary people, empowering herself and others by means of tools with which authority can be dethroned and ridiculed. Her observations and works draw inspiration from everyday life in the cities where she has lived, from snippets of news, and from the grand narratives presented daily to its people by the State. She works most frequently with video, but is also interested in other possibilities of creating meaning through time, so also makes sequential drawings, photographs and sound installations.

Early life and art background

Abidi was born in Karachi, the capital of Pakistani province of Sindh, in 1971. She lived in New Delhi and Karachi, and currently resides in Berlin. In 1994, she chose to study painting and printmaking, earning a Bachelor of Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan. From 1997 she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, completing a master's degree in 1999. While attending the Art Institute, she developed a profound interest in cinematography. She incorporated films with her other practices of art to produce works that address issues with nationalism and post-colonialism, specifically India and Pakistan. Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex due to a number of historical and political events. Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, even though the two South Asian nations share linguistic, cultural, geographic, and economic links, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion. Her interests are drawn upon the lives of individuals that are affected by these disputes.
Not only has she depicted subjects that deals with the historical events that occurred between India and Pakistan, she has created documentaries that portray the minority groups in Pakistan such as the Hindus, Christian and Zoroastrian—emerging into the twilight to briefly claim some space in a public sphere that is increasingly hostile to religious differences.

Works and experiences

Bani Abidi has shown her works in exhibitions and film festivals internationally and participated in numerous residency programs since 1996. Films like Mangoes and Karachi—Series 1 display her compassion towards ideas and subject manners that often depict religious, social, and political commentary.
In 1999, her film Mangoes touches the lives of a Pakistani and Indian women who eat mangoes together. They share each stories about their childhood that heightened sense of nostalgia and nationalism that exists in the Indian and Pakistani Diaspora. These women stress the idea of a shared history, while they eat a mango.
For Karachi—Series 1, she photographed non-Muslim Pakistanis in the street at dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, when the metropolis is quiet as Muslims sit down to break their fast. Abidi renders visible the Hindu and Christian minorities, which together constitute less than five per cent of the population, acknowledging that the city is their home too by inviting them to carry out mundane domestic activities—reading a newspaper, ironing, arranging flowers—in public space. Abidi states that the work is "a way to think about the presence of communities that have lived in the city since before the country came into being. As non-Muslims, they have somehow slipped out of mainstream life and are increasingly marginalised and invisible."
As she thought "Pakistan is actually only depicted in news media and almost never through film, literature or art", in 2000, she started working primarily in video instead of just using photography to comment upon politics and culture. "I prefer to engage with things I may or may not find important at my own discretion, and feel a bit throttled by the world’s anxious curiosity about Pakistan. So I think I make a conscious effort to stay away from a flat definition of what is critical or political, both conceptually and visually." Abidi stresses, however, that her work does not only look at Pakistan, "It's about power, security, and militarised architecture; and it's about the vulnerability of regular people." Although there were only few artists, especially female artists working with video and photography, she believed it would succeed, "As for the media of video and photography, they are only now starting to be used by younger artists."
She also tried to participate in numerous residency programs between 2000–2012. In 2011/2012, she was the artist in Residence at DAAD Artists Residency in Berlin.
She has shown many of her works in different exhibitions, which proved that her works was evocative to the people, in both politics and culture.

Major installations and performances / Selected published works

2014'Funland' Karachi Series II
2013A Table Wide Country
2012Proposal for a man in the sea
2011The Speech Writer
2010Section Yellow
2009'Karachi' Series -1
2008Intercommunication Devices
2008Security Barriers A-L
2007The Address
2006RESERVED
2006The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing
2004Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner
2001The News
2000Anthems
2000... so he starts singing
1999Mangoes

Ideas and conceptions

The ideas and concepts of her works were all from her own divided biography. Her works consist of heavy political and cultural elements, the tension between Pakistan and India in particular . Her works showed her critiques to culture and politics, most of the time, she comment through absurd vignettes and humorous.
The sense of political and cultural elements came from her first trip to India when she was 21 years old. It was the very first time for her to feel her own place in the North Indian history. When she was studying in Chicago, she ended up the friendship with many Indians. It had then turned to an understanding of the contradictions between the conflicting national identities between Pakistani and Indian. The cross-border friendships between Indian and Pakistani was described by Bani Abidi as "seamlessness" and "comfort" in which the friendships gave her a pleasant surprise because it was unlike the exclusionary national narratives produced by the two countries. Selected works belong in the Guggenheim Collection.