This browser-based work visualizes the linguistic instability embedded in the Azerbaijani script. Across the 20th century and into the post-Soviet period, the alphabet underwent successive official reforms that repeatedly rewired literacy and collective memory: Arabic script remained in use until Latin was selected as the sole official script in 1929 (after a period of coexistence in the 1920s); the Latin alphabet was reformed in 1933 (with a further adjustment in 1938); Cyrillicization was legislated in July 1939, the new Cyrillic alphabet was approved in November 1939, and the switch took effect on 1 January 1940; the Cyrillic alphabet was simplified in 1958; after independence, a Latin-script alphabet was introduced on 25 December 1991 and revised again on 16 May 1992. The piece presents any Azerbaijani word as a living, unstable entity. Letters continuously morph between their historical variants: Arabic ش dissolves into Cyrillic Ш, which blurs into Latin Ş. The transformations follow an organic choreography, waves of intensity punctuated by pauses and sudden accelerations, accompanied by generative bell-like tones that shift microtonally with each change. This interactive fragment forms part of Dairəvi Dairə (Circle Circular), a larger installation centered on Mirza Alakbar Sabir’s poem “The Child and the Ice”, a text that exists across all these alphabets, each version a palimpsest of political upheaval.

Farhad Farzali is a sound artist exploring the intersection of traditional and marginal cultures, popular aesthetics, and contemporary music. His work documents neo-folklore in Azerbaijan and beyond. Exhibited globally, he has showcased and performed at the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (2014), Venice Biennale (2019), and Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (2023). His works are part of Yarat Contemporary Art Space and other major museum collections in Azerbaijan. Сurrently lives in Berlin.

Aiganym Mukhamejan (b. 1999) is based in Amsterdam and is a multimedia artist who employs ironic selfportraiture
to reflect on Kazakhstan’s evolving cultural and political identity. Her work often engages with
themes of tradition and modernity, feminist perspectives, and the socio-cultural transformations occurring
in contemporary Kazakh society.