Bani Abidi: Early Video Works

Our second Screening Room gathers three video shorts – Mangoes (1999), Anthems (2000), and The News (2001) – by the Berlin-based Pakistani artist Bani Abidi, made while Abidi was a student at the School of Art Institute in Chicago. In these early works, Abidi employs satire and absurdist humour to draw attention to how the political borders and cultural distinctions between India and Pakistan are discursively constructed and performatively reinforced through nationalist narratives and everyday practices. This online Screening Room coincides with Wildfire I, II, III, a programme of film screenings and conversations curated by Abidi that will take place at Ibraaz between December 2025 and February 2026.

Two expatriate Pakistani and Indian women (played by the artist) sit and eat mangoes together and reminisce about their childhood. An otherwise touching encounter turns sour when they start comparing the range of mangoes grown in their respective homelands. 

Addressing the role of music in the creation of patriotic sentiment, Anthems shows a split screen image of two young women (played by the artist) dancing to popular Indian and Pakistani songs. Their activity is private and they are (seemingly) unaware of each other.

The News is a mock news broadcast from either side of the Indo/Pak border. Presented on two monitor screens, a Pakistani and an Indian news presenter (played by the artist) relate separate versions of the same news event.