Bani Abidi was born in Karachi, Pakistan. She moved in Berlin in 2011. Her work was shown at the last Documenta 13th (June 9th – September 16th 2012).
For the past six years, lot of her work was mainly about the very hierarchical society of Pakistan which defines politics, social and class relationships. Even the film she has shown at Documenta came from her interest in how traditional politicians like having statues made of themselves. But now she is moving away from that issue.
“I have started thinking a lot about individual people, individual in the society, who are kind of helpless and frustrated and their ways of coping with life. They are the generation that saw the creation of Pakistan and India, the separation; it is also the generation that keeps accumulating knowledge and a sort of archive of all sort of experiences”. Abidi talks also about the art scene in Pakistan. “Art is very elitist. Galleries are still much closed off spaces, although artists manage to work across all class sectors. In Pakistan there are lots of contradictions. It seems very narrow from the outside, about issues of intolerance, but artists also get by by making extremely critical and brilliant works.”
Interview by Tiziana Casapietra