“The International is a nomadic wanderer, on land and in mind.” —Nicolas A. Moufarrege, “The Mutant International,” Arts Magazine, September 1983, p 20.

Bidoun hosts a day devoted to the lost-found work of the Egyptian-born Lebanese artist Nicolas Moufarrege (1947-1985). A wildly prodigious visual artist, writer, and curator, Moufarrege made work that remains at once wry, sophisticated, and exuberant in its pursuit of the “idiosyncratic/universal.” Contributors will speak to and about the distinct cosmopolitan enclaves in which Moufarrege lived, including Alexandria, Egypt in the 1950s, and those where he worked: Paris and Beirut in the 1960s and 1970s, and New York in the early 1980s.

These presentations will offer a lens through which to view Moufarrege’s emblematic engagements with painting and embroidery, graffiti and collage, Pop and the esoteric. The afternoon begins with a talk by artist Nick Mauss, presented with Visual AIDS, and concludes with a conversation among friends and associates from the five-odd years Moufarrege spent at the epicenter of New York’s East Village art scene.

Presented on the occasion of Nicolas Moufarrege: Recognize My Sign, on view through February 23, 2020.

SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS:

Theater, 2nd Floor
1-1:10pm: Introduction and Welcome by Larissa Harris and Negar Azimi

1:10-1:45pm: Talk by Nick Mauss, introduced by Kyle Croft and presented with Visual AIDS

1:45-2:05pm: Hala Halim on Alexandria followed by conversation with Negar Azimi and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

2:05-2:25pm: Robyn Creswell on Beirut followed by conversation with Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

2:25-2:45pm: Q+A with Hala Halim, Robyn Creswell, Negar Azimi, and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

Cafe
2:45-3:05pm: Coffee and refreshments

Galleries, 1st Floor
3:10-3:40pm: Bella Meyer in conversation with Michael Vazquez on Paris and New York City 

3:40-4:40pm: Alanna Heiss, Carlo McCormick, and Sur Rodney (Sur) in conversation with Dean Daderko on New York City 

 

Hosted by: Dean Daderko, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; Larissa Harris, Queens Museum; Negar Azimi, Bidoun; Michael C. Vazquez, Bidoun; Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Bidoun; Esther McGowan, Visual AIDS; Kyle Croft, Visual AIDS; Blake Paskal, Visual AIDS; Lindsey Berfond, Queens Museum

Bidoun is an award-winning publishing and curatorial project with a focus on the Middle East and its diasporas. To date, Bidoun’s initiatives have included a quarterly literary and arts journal, books, exhibitions, screenings, readings and symposia, as well as an itinerant library. A monograph about the late Iranian avant-garde theater director Reza Abdoh, co-published with MoMA PS1, KW Institute, and Hatje Cantz, is forthcoming.

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. In 2016, Visual AIDS published a volume of its DUETS series on Moufarrege’s work, featuring a conversation between Elaine Reichek and Dean Daderko.