The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Bani Abidi: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series: Tuesday, March 1, 12:00 - 1:15 p.m. CT
Click HERE to join via Zoom.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation services and have ASL Interpretation.
Join us live for a virtual lecture by artist Bani Abidi followed by an audience Q&A.
Bani Abidi (MFA 1999) has been working with the moving image for the past two decades. She has consistently blurred the edges between fiction and fact while gleaning from the dark absurdities of everyday life. Her staged scenes and anonymous characters struggle with enacting small gestures of resistance within broader dynamics of state power and nationalism. Abidi, who also draws and photographs, uses humor in all its gravity and firmly believes in the agency of laughter.
Abidi’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation (2019); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2017); Kunsthaus Hamburg (2016); Gandhara Art Space, Karachi (2016); Dallas Contemporary (2015); Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany (2014); and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, United Kingdom (2011), among others. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland (2021); 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2021); 13th Shanghai Biennial (2020); Lahore Biennale (2018); Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany (2017); Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi (2016); Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, United Kingdom (2016); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Latvia Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (2015); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2014); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2012); Kochi-Muziris Biennial (2012); 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi (2012); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2011); 10th Lyon Biennale, France (2009); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); Singapore Biennale (2006); and Asia Society, New York (2006), among others.
Abidi’s work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; British Museum, London; Tate Modern, London; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Devi Arts Foundation, Gurugram, India; and Sharjah Art Foundation, among others.
Presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and SAIC Alumni Engagement.
Portrait credit: Bani Abidi. Photo: Schokofeh Kamiz
Artist Website
Gallery Representation
Visiting Artist Program: Bani Abidi
Parker Yamasaki | F Newsmagazine | March 6, 2022
Bani Abidi Dissects the Performance of Male Power
Mark Rappolt | Art Review | December 17, 2021
BANI ABIDI*
Chloe Chu | Art and AsiaPacific, vol. 126 | p.62-63 | November 1, 2021
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
How Pakistani artist Bani Abidi's new US show represents the Global South
Lemma Shehadi | The National News | October 23, 2021
Sharjah Art Foundation Collaborates on Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Al Bawaba | October 11, 2021
Bani Abidi: ‘One gets fatigued in the face of rampant patriotism’
Vandana Kalra | Indian Express | August 16, 2020
Bani Abidi: ‘What you see in my films is what I know’
Federica Bueti | Ocula Magazine | October 11, 2019
At Berlin’s Gropius Bau, A Biting Survey of Pakistani Artist Bani Abidi
Greg Nissan | Frieze Magazine | August 15, 2019
Bani Abidi’s stirring works make a mark at Berlin’s Gropius Bau Museum
Avantika Shankar | Architectural Digest India | August 9, 2019
Insider and Outsider: Bani Abidi interviewed by Virginia Whiles*
Virginia Whiles | Art Monthly, vol. 430 | p.1 | October 1, 2019
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
The Frame as Borderland: Secular Gazes and Believing Bodies in Bani Abidi’s The Distance From Here (2010)*
Adnan Madani | Moving Image Review & Art Journal, vol. 7 (2) | p.236-250 | September 1, 2018
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
‘I Love You’ _ Bani Abidi
Bani Abidi | Vimeo | 2016
The Speech Writer by 
Bani Abidi: Videos, Photographs and Drawings by 
Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan by Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago
Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared (September 4, 2021 – June 5, 2022) at MCA Chicago follows on from Bani Abidi: They Died Laughing at Gropius Bau, Berlin and Bani Abidi: Funland at the Sharjah Art Foundation.
Bani Abidi: Funland at Sharjah Art Foundation
The survey exhibition Bani Abidi: Funland (October 12, 2019 – January 12, 2020) explores the artist’s practice over two decades and includes a focus on the contemporary art scene of 1990s Karachi presented through archival materials and artworks from the period.
Bani Abidi: They Died Laughing at Gropius Bau
Bani Abidi: They Died Laughing (June 6 – September 22, 2019) at Gropius Bau brings together moving image and print-based works that span two decades.
10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
Bani Abidi’s sound installation Memorial to Lost Words (2016–18), which pays homage to the more than one million Indian soldiers who served in World War 1, is included in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10).
Film screening: The Distance from Here at Jameel Art Centre
Bani Abidi’s video The Distance from Here (2010) is included in Gallery 9’s film program The Distance from Here (December 1, 2021 – January 22, 2022) in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at Jameel Arts Centre.
Film screening: democracies? at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Bani Abidi’s moving image work Reserved (2006) was included in MoMA’s screening series democracies? (January 19 – 31, 2021).
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977-98).