Born 1971, Karachi, Pakistan
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Karachi

Bani Abidi employs a unique approach to form in each of her works, which are individually crafted to their subjects. Abidi’s works have focused on the contemporary conditions of Pakistan and its immediate region — in particular, issues of security, the idiosyncrasies of democracy, the peculiarities of urban and social change, and the instrumentalised patriotisms that underlie the relationship between Pakistan and India. More recently, as Abidi has lived, travelled and practised in different parts of the world, her work has also focused on negotiating culture and belonging, explored memory, and imbalances in the telling of histories.

Memorial to Lost Words 2016–18 pays homage to the memory of more than a million Indian soldiers who served in World War One — including some 70 000 who gave their lives — and whose accounts have been largely excluded from history. The work is presented through an immersive sound installation produced by Abidi and an arrangement of letters drawn from the book Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters, 1914–18 (1999) by David Omissi.