Artforum Reviews Alum Bani Abdi’s Exhibition

Artforum reviews Bani Abdi’s (MFA 1999) exhibition, They Died Laughing at the Gropius Bau, Berlin. According to the article, the exhibition includes video works spanning over two decades and investigates imperialism and mechanisms of control employed by states in South Asia. Included in the show is An Unforeseen Situation where Abdi underscores the absurdity of nationalism in Pakistan by way of considering the choreographed patriotism fueled by the Punjab Ministry of Sport missions in breaking multiple Guinness World Records. Moreover, the exhibition primarily features videos that reference “news reports and human interest stories” which she then intertwines with fiction.