Babi Badalov
Lives and works in Paris.
Born in 1959 in Lerik (Republic of Azerbaijan), Babi Badalov, a French citizen since 2018, now lives in Paris.
Babi Badalov’s pratice is a constant exploration of the limits of the language. He is particularly interesting in the way that language is able to isolate individuals from the people who don’t share the same language. Thereby, the artist covers current geo-political topics that echoes his own personnal experiences.
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After having lived in Russian, he tried to settle in Cardiff (UK), but his asylium application was refused. Sent back in Azerbaijan, he finally got the right to stay and live in France in 2011.
Great traveler and poet himself, Babi Badalov often introduces his own texts in his work : by combinating it with manipulated political pictures, he creates installations, objects, paintings and happenings that he used to qualified as « visual poetry ».
He benefited from numerous solo exhibitions, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (FR), the Gwangju Biennale, the New Museum of Modern Art in Saint Petersburg, the MHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, the De Werft cultural center in Geel (BE), the Cyclop in Milly-la-Forêt (FR), CASCO Art Institute in Utrecht (NL), La Verrière – Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in Brussels (BE), the National Institute of Art History in Paris (FR), as well as the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts of Lausanne (CH), Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm (SWE), YARAT Contemporary Art Center in Baku (AZ), and MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (ESP).
Group shows include the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (NL), the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow (RU), the Benaki Museum in Athens (GR), the MHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (BE), Le Plateau – FRAC Île-de-France in Paris (FR), the New Museum, New York (US), MOCAK – Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow (PL), the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (FR), Villa Arson in Nice (FR), Les Abattoirs – FRAC Occitanie in Toulouse (FR), the Museum of Soviet Art of Kmytiv in Kmytiv (UA), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (RU), Galeria Municipal do Porto in Porto (PT), Maison Populaire de Montreuil (FR), Bétonsalon – Centre for art and research in Paris (FR), Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna (AT), Kunst Meran Merano Arte in Meran (BZ), the Centre Pompidou-Metz (FR), the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv (UKR), the Transpalette Art Center in Bourges (FR), as well as MATHAF – Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar (QAT).
His works has entered numerous public collections around the world, including the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid (Spain), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the CNAP – Centre National des Arts Plastiques, the FRAC Île-de-France, the FRAC Midi-Pyrénées Les Abattoirs in Toulouse (France), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (Netherlands), the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (Russia), the MuHKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (Belgium), the Azerbaijan State Museum of Art in Baku (Azerbaijan), the Kunstmuseum in Emden (Germany), the Arina Kowner collection in Zurich (Switzerland), and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki (Greece).
Works
News & Press
Exhibitions at the Gallery
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The Last Museum
May 16 - August 2, 2025
Babi Badalov, To Walk, to Work, to Die
February 9 - March 9, 2024
The First Stone
October 13 - December 2, 2023
Ecce Homo
02 Jul. – 13 Aug. 2022
L’Obscur vient au Jour, Group Show
24 Jun. – 30 Jul. 2022
Rainbow Gravity
June 20 – July 18, 2020
The Border is a State of Mind
October 13 – November 16, 2018
Babi Badalov, De More Cry Sea
24 Mar. – 27 May. 2018
Witness
February 4 – March 4, 2017
Drawing by Numbers
January 27 – March 3, 2018
Babi Badalov, Art is Myth I am Real
May 20 - June 20, 2015
Matérialisme Hystérique
October 18 - November 29, 2014
