Thursday in Residence with Brad Fox

"On the Silent Witness"
Badr al-Habashi, an Ethiopian Muslim and former slave, met Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi, a visionary writer from the Andalusian elite, in Fez, Morocco, at the end of the twelfth century. For the next twenty-three years, they circled the Mediterranean together, dodging plague outbreaks, completing the hajj, consorting with sultans and graveyard lurkers. While Ibn ‘Arabi is among the most prolific writers in any language, Badr al-Habashi left almost no trace beyond manuscript signatures attesting to his presence as a listener. A resident at the Foundation, Brad Fox is currently writing a book inspired by the legacy of Badr al-Habashi as a historical figure, but also as a riddle. It is a cartography of ignorance, an inquiry into negative space, a premise in search of a form. In this Thursday in Residence, he discusses the project and present some of his early experiments.

Fondation Jan Michalski, Thursday 3 April 2025