Point Centre for Contemporary Art
December 15, 2012–February 15, 2013

At the Point Centre, the Bidoun Library presented an array of publications pertaining to espionage, state-sponsored publishing, and the periodical propaganda of the Cultural Cold War. Site-specifically, the Bidoun Library Cyprus considered the 1970s — a pivotal decade in Cypriot history, marked by division of the country after [the Turkish invasion in] 1974 — through printed matter concerning the life and death of Youssef El-Sebai, the Egyptian writer, administrator, and Pan-Arabist. Sebai was the editor of the influential internationalist journal Lotus and General Secretary of the Soviet-sponsored Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau.

Youssef El-Sebai was assassinated in the gift shop of the Nicosia Hilton Hotel during an Afro-Asian Solidarity Organization meeting on February 18, 1978.

Point Centre for Contemporary Art
Megaron Hadjisavva
2, Evagorou Street
1057, Nicosia, Cyprus