Agil Abdullayev
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In Agil Abdullayev’s three-channel video, trees are both trusted and protective protagonists. Radicals Between Trees
and Dicks (2024) is the outcome of several years of research into queer cruising culture in Azerbaijan and neighboring
countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia region. The term ‘cruising’ refers to the pursuit of sexual encounters
between homosexual men in public spaces such as parks, or discreetly designated private spaces. Over the past five
years, Abdullayev visited around thirty such sex spaces, documenting their own observations and recording the
experiences of others in interviews, conversations, and visual recordings. The research dealt with the various facets
of cruising in profoundly repressive societies in which homosexuality is still highly taboo and people are exposed to
severe discrimination and violence due to their sexual orientation. In the resulting film Abdullayev blends elements
of autobiography, reportage, choreography and sound design to create an intimate and joyful meditation on danger,
desire and belonging.
