Purple Magazine
— S/S 2017 issue 27

Bidoun Magazine

NEGAR AZIMI story #3 by MAURIZIO CATTELAN and MARTA PAPINI portrait by QUENTIN DE BRIEY MAURIZIO CATTELAN — How did your publishing venture get started? NEGAR AZIMI — Bidoun is a baby of the post-9/11 period. Our story begins with Lisa Farjam, an Iranian-American who grew up between the US and Dubai and dreamt up the idea of a glossy, intellectually curious magazine that spoke to people like her — and me — which is to say, cultural mongrels who grew up between places, between languages. Bidoun means “without” in Arabic, and, in a way, Lisa conjured the peculiar psychic state of being from everywhere and nowhere at once — without geography. You know, the first issues of the magazine flipped from left to right — backward — mirroring the way Arabic and Farsi script are read. It was a quaint gimmick! Now an antique, of course. I’d like to…

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