Last year I and U never ever could imagine

Babi Badalov is a visual artist and poet whose work spans conceptual art, visual poetry and linguistic activism. As a migrant and polyglot, his life journey spans multiple geographies and languages, such as Azerbaijani, Russian, Arabic and French, which are interwoven in his work like a fabric of resistance against systems of cultural and political exclusion. He currently lives and works in Paris. 

The phrase that gives this piece its title, Last Year I and U Never Ever Could Imagine, alludes to the COVID-19 pandemic, encapsulating that collective sense of unreality in the face of an unexpected historical event. In this piece, Badalov transforms the experience of confinement and global uncertainty into a space for graphic and textual experimentation. Using calligrams and typographical games, he dismantles normative language to create a visual poetic field in which anguish, memory and criticism converge.

Raúl Martínez Arranz