International Mutant:
Nicolas Moufarrege in Time and Space
Queens Museum
Saturday, February 15
1-5 pm
“The International is a nomadic wanderer, on land and in mind.”
—Nicolas A. Moufarrege, “The Mutant International,” Arts Magazine, September 1983
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 cities in which Moufarrege lived and worked—distinct cosmopolitans enclaves, from 1950s Alexandria to 1960s Beirut, 1970s Paris to 1980s New York. 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.
Participants:
Nick Mauss
Hala Halim
Robyn Creswell
Bella Meyer
Alanna Heiss
Carlo McCormick
Sur Rodney (Sur)
Hosts:
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