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Bidoun was created as a platform for ideas and an open forum for exchange, dialogue, and opinions about arts and culture from the Middle East.

Bidoun's primary goal is to bring together cultural expressions from a vast and nuanced region. Bidoun also addresses some of the widespread misconceptions about the region and its Diaspora by inciting readers to take a fresh look at the Middle East and its peoples, too often presented as one-dimensional or stagnant.

Bidoun means "without" in both Arabic and Farsi. In our contemporary context it connotes the statelessness in which many of us find ourselves sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not.

Bidoun is not limited by political boundaries drawn onto maps. Its very essence is the fluidity of geographies and a challenge to the myth of singular and absolute representation. Yet we are cautious with our role as culture broker. While we acknowledge the reductionist tendencies of Orientalism, Bidoun also resists obsessing over cultural difference.

This is not about being authoritative. Rather, Bidoun is an experiment: a collection of voices whose sum total aims to engage.