The Townhouse gallery is holding an international, contemporary art sale in the form of a live auction on Saturday 6th June 2009. Over thirty renowned artists, many from the Middle East region and with strong connections to the gallery, have donated works that will be exhibited in the Townhouse Factory space for a week in the run up to the auction.

From 7pm guests will be invited to view work and then from 8pm have the opportunity to place their bids. Those unable to attend in person can ask the gallery to bid on their behalf.

All funds raised will go towards the gallery and its outreach program which offers free workshops to adults and children, including those with special needs and from under-served communities.

All art works and details of participating artists can be viewed online from May 15th.

Auction entrance cards are 150 EGP (100EGP for Townhouse Friends) including a catalogue and bidding registration. These can be purchased by contacting fundraising@thetownhousegallery.com. Likewise, for those who would like to bid by proxy please contact the gallery directly on the above email address.

Interview Magazine were big fans of our Dodi & Di lenticular pins at Art Dubai.

BIDOUN VIDEO LOUNGE

Bidoun Lounge during set-up, photo by Katrin Greiling

Basim Magdy, Maybe There is a Message, 2008, video on DVD, 6 min. 55 sec.

Bidoun once again hosted the video lounge, a space for video, talks and performances. The lounge was co-designed by Traffic, with typography by the Khatt Foundation, and kindly supported by the Emirates Foundation. Programs included FLOWERS (curated by Bidoun), ME AND HER AND OUR PUNCTUATION MARKS (curated by Christine Tohme), and THE MESSAGE (curated by Sylvia Kouvali).

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YTO BARRADA AT BASTAKIYA

Yto Barrada, The Magician, 2003, Video, 18 min.

Bidoun Projects presented a screening of Yto Barrada’s 2003 film The Magician at the Bastakiya Art Fair.

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THE INHABITANTS OF IMAGES: RABIH MROUE

Photos by Katrin Greiling

The Inhabitants of Images, a new performance by the celebrated artist/actor Rabih Mroué, co-produced by Bidoun, Ashkal Alwan and Tanzquartier Wien, was presented in the Bidoun Lounge.

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FLOWERS POSTERS

Limited edition FLOWERS posters by Yto Barrada, Babak Radboy and Shirana Shahbazi, commissioned by Bidoun and co-produced with the Dubai-based boutique S*uce.

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BIDOUN PARTY!

Bidoun and The Third Line hosted a celebration of Sharjah Biennial 9 and Art Dubai week 2009 at the Golf Park at the Hyatt Regency Dubai, featuring Un-drum / strategies of surviving noise, a sound performance by Tarek Atoui (produced by Sharjah Biennial 9).

Sunday April 19th, 2009 at 4pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue, New York
$8 in advance / $10 day-of-show

Bidoun and the Migrating Forms festival present a very rare and special screening of Parviz Kimiavi’s 1973 experimental satire, Moghollha (the Mongols).

Moghollha (The Mongols)
Parviz Kimiavi
16mm On Video / 92 min / 1973

Included in Jonathan Rosenbaum’s list of 1000 essential films, Parviz Kimiavi’s The Mongols (1973) is a leftfield satire and sharp commentary on the expanding presence of cinema and television in Iran. The story follows a filmmaker, played by Kimiavi himself and also named Parviz, as he struggles with both his own film and a looming assignment to oversee the installation of a television relay station in the remote province of Zahedan. Imbued by his wife’s thesis work on the Mongol invasion of Iran, Parviz’s anxieties coalesce and materialize in the form of surreal visions in which the origins of cinema are acted out by the Turkomans he hired to play Mongols in his own film. Together with Parviz, we watch as the would-be gang of Mongols wander the desert in search of their director and the answers to their pressing questions about the nature of cinema, all while the forthcoming introduction of television consumes the local village and its inhabitants. Kimiavi fashions a fantastical cinematic space rife with bizarre metaphoric imagery and Godardian references to film-making in order to draw a sarcastic parallel between the Mongol invasion and the hyper-accelerated modernization of 1970s Iran.