BOOKS with Karima Boudou

Start your weekend with a journey through the ‘desert island reading list’ of Karima Boudou.

French-born Karima Boudou is an art historian and curator, trained in France and the Netherlands. In this BOOKS event, Boudou opens up her research into the remarkable life and archive of Mehdi Ben Barka (1920-1965), a major figure of Moroccan independence movement and an instigator of the famed ‘Third-Worldist’ 1966 Tricontinental Conference. As well as being a politician and pan-Africanist, Ben Barka was deeply engaged with literary and cultural life, including cinema. His political legacy in the context of 1950s and 1960s Morocco and the role of art history and archives in the causes to which he dedicated his rich life will be discussed.

Boudou will present parallel lists of books – first from the personal library of Ben Barka with the generous support and guidance of his son, and second with titles that have shaped Boudou’s life and work as an internationally active curator. The program is presented with the support of Institut Mehdi BEN BARKA, Mémoire Vivante, and with special thanks to Bachir Ben Barka.

BOOKS is a monthly events series that explores the ‘desert island reading list’ of guests at MELLY and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. The titles introduced in each BOOKS program go on sale, and become the inventory of our MELLY bookshop.