Bady Dalloul (b. 1986, Paris) is a multimedia artist whose work entwines historical events, personal facts, and fiction. His works are imbued with sociological and historical reflections on his heritage and issues of global migration. Reflecting on territorial demarcations, Dalloul questions Western-centric historiography and knowledge production. Through drawing, video, and objects, Dalloul engages a dialogue between the imagined and the real by questioning the logic of writing history.

Dalloul is the recipient of the Prize for Arab Contemporary Creation awarded by the Friends of the Institut du Monde Arabe in 2017 and the Sciences Po for Contemporary Art Prize.
Bady Dalloul has had solo exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2025); Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, UAE; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar (2022); Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan (2019).
 

Project Name: Drawing in matchboxes,2026

Medium: Ballpoint pen drawing, marker pen on Bristol board, framed in matchboxes

Size: 4.1 x 2.7 cm each

Project Brief:

The artist’s practice started with his younger brother Jad when they were both children. At the time, they imagined they we were kings of fictitious countries; Jad had Jadland and Bady, Badland. Bady started drawing everything that could made his “country” realistic, embarking on drawing banknotes and stamps in full size. The artist was fascinated by how such a small object could carry so much meaning, and has continued drawing on that scale since.

Since 2016, Bady Dalloul has drawn more than eight hundred minuscule drawings, each pasted into a matchbox. At first, these small works mostly showed scenes from the Syrian civil war, reflecting what the artist was seeing of his country through screens and news broadcasts.
Later, he started to use the matchboxes as diaries. He records quiet scenes from his daily life in Japan and the United Arab Emirates over the years, mixed with ever-present images of conflict and brutality.