A large installation with square-cut textiles in different sizes and colors hung in a rectangular grid. On them, an assortment of figures, mostly consisting of hand-drawn words: discrimiNATION, Rain-Car-Nation, Mona Khartoum, Musulman-Musulwoman, WHOMAN, Joseph Boys Joseph Girls, Whomanism, 1001 arabian nights, 1001 arabian fights, and more. They are misspelled, collaged, fragmented, and fused, combining various alphabets with personalized typographies, all of which are features that permeate much of Babi Badalov’s (b. 1959, Lerik /Paris) visual poetry. At first sight, the constructed wordplays and pairings appear lighthearted and playful, but a closer reading taps into the artist’s serious interest in language barriers, borders, nationalities, normality, queerness, and the dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion.
Born in the small town of Lerik, near the Iranian border in the region of Azerbaijan, Badalov developed a significant part of his practice in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, where he went to art school. This was followed by a migratory odyssey to different cities in the US and Europe, partly as a paperless refugee. Assimilating new words that he encountered in new environments with those of languages he already knew became part of his artistic practice. The artist recently presented For the wall, for the world (2016) at the Palais de Tokyo, where he created wall installations incorporating his visual poetry as drawings upon different-sized square textiles in various white, blue, green, and brown hues collaged with found pictorial materials referencing the diverse socio-cultural context of Paris, where he currently lives. Language is used extensively here as well by way of calligraphy, typography, and bold wordplay. Pop cultural references are fused with the names of world leaders, while the images have also been reshaped and altered in a style that seeps through much of his work.
During a residency in Gwangju in the summer of 2016, Badalov is examining the political and cultural context of the city and further reflecting on his continued interest in systems of communication as they are formed through language. AM
self-presentation:
I am Art east my art based on my oriental past family life soviet post-soviet a now occidental free independent immigrant life in European democratic free society memories impression my reaction my feeling complain happiness my mission is mixing culture mission its questioning about fast-growing multiculturalism about how strongest peaceful aspect is culture in all time in our civilization my art is my tool for dialoging sharing possibility maximal approaching to everyone its my strongest defend from capitalism consumerism it’s my scream my screen as my face I believe culture is future—future is culture because only culture can unite humanity only poetry inspiration as its pure phenomenon of human nature mystery language of from deep soul of everyone.
I strongest believe to mysterious power of music and dialogue with poetical inspiration, I believe music can unite our soul it can reflect through ours eyes speak for us share or feeling it can keep away enemies.
