Pink City I (Promo Video: How to Survive)
Single-channel video with sound, colour, 3 min
2018
Pink City I begins with surveillance footage of violent incidents circulated online, borrowing the visual language through which media produces fear, exposure and the desire for protection. Against these images, Abdullayev appears as two versions of the promotional figure, advertising Pink City: an imagined shelter for anyone in danger. Presented as a place without greed, violence or betrayal, the city resembles both a utopian promise and a product being sold. Through the contrast between threat and safety, exposure and escape, the film questions the simplified division of the world into good and evil, revealing how such oppositions can reproduce intolerance.
Directed, performed and edited by Agil Abdullayev.
Pnk City II (As Soft Boys Go Deeper)
Single-channel video with sound, colour, 14 min
2021
Pink City II returns to this imagined refuge, but moves further inward. The film unfolds through essays, voice-over, staged scenes and dreamlike landscapes, following a protagonist whose inner life shifts between memory, fantasy and self-invention. Pink City becomes a fluid, genderless space where identities lose their authority and other forms of existence can be rehearsed. Rather than presenting sanctuary as a fixed destination, the film treats it as a psychological space assembled through language, colour and performance. Moving through trauma, desire and resilience, the work considers how imagination can interrupt imposed realities and create room for queer self-recognition and transformation.
Directed by Agil Abdullayev.
Performed by Fargana Abdulla.
Cinematography by Chicheck Bayramli.
Voice by Agil Abdullayev.
Sound design by Farhad Farzali.
Text editing and translation by Nigar Ibrahimbayli.
Special thanks to Chaikhana Media and Durna Safarova.
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Single-channel video with sound, colour, 3 min
2018
Pink City I begins with surveillance footage of violent incidents circulated online, borrowing the visual language through which media produces fear, exposure and the desire for protection. Against these images, Abdullayev appears as two versions of the promotional figure, advertising Pink City: an imagined shelter for anyone in danger. Presented as a place without greed, violence or betrayal, the city resembles both a utopian promise and a product being sold. Through the contrast between threat and safety, exposure and escape, the film questions the simplified division of the world into good and evil, revealing how such oppositions can reproduce intolerance.
Directed, performed and edited by Agil Abdullayev.
Pnk City II (As Soft Boys Go Deeper)
Single-channel video with sound, colour, 14 min
2021
Pink City II returns to this imagined refuge, but moves further inward. The film unfolds through essays, voice-over, staged scenes and dreamlike landscapes, following a protagonist whose inner life shifts between memory, fantasy and self-invention. Pink City becomes a fluid, genderless space where identities lose their authority and other forms of existence can be rehearsed. Rather than presenting sanctuary as a fixed destination, the film treats it as a psychological space assembled through language, colour and performance. Moving through trauma, desire and resilience, the work considers how imagination can interrupt imposed realities and create room for queer self-recognition and transformation.
Directed by Agil Abdullayev.
Performed by Fargana Abdulla.
Cinematography by Chicheck Bayramli.
Voice by Agil Abdullayev.
Sound design by Farhad Farzali.
Text editing and translation by Nigar Ibrahimbayli.
Special thanks to Chaikhana Media and Durna Safarova.
