"My work serves as a mirror, reflecting society's deep-seated habits and dysfunctions, while posing thought-provoking questions to institutions and to my audience alike," explains Younes Baba-Ali. His works are born in situ, infused by the essence of the place, and take shape through a dialogue with the viewer. The public space becomes a stage - his arena of intervention - hosting a critique formed from his observations and experiences attached to specific situations or places. Based on observed phenomena, Baba-Ali forms a visual contextual narrative, using sound, video and photography, as well as objects as tangible witnesses extracted from reality. Whether the subject is social or political structures, Younes Baba-Ali analyzes and brings to the surface contempt, incoherence and injustice through humor and irony, ranging from public interventions in strategically chosen open spaces to installations. 

In Younes Baba-Ali's work, everything is negotiable and nothing is what it seems at first sight. His work is protean, calling on the keenest observational senses to provoke the viewer into reflection, challenging them to (re)act: "my aim is to subtly compel viewers to take a stand, challenging them to reflect on the complexities of contemporary life."

From Brussels to Dakar, passing by Casablanca, Naples and New York, Younes Baba-Ali's sharp observational voice shines through in every fiber of his work. He seizes context to create a visual narrative, challenging established norms deeply rooted in society, from power dynamics to the various hierarchies that exist. He transforms the ordinary citizen, his viewer, into an accomplice in acts of provocation against the established order, society's dilemmas and taboos.

Working with sound is a cornerstone of his work. In SIRENS, 2021, Younes Baba-Ali hijacks one of the most emblematic sounds of big cities - sirens, which resonate and call out both day and night. He transforms the piercing ringing into a hum of voices and humor, giving residents the chance to be heard, strengthening human connections. In Paraboles, 2011, he examines the place of migrants within their new habitat through satellite dishes futilely searching for signal, their functioning disrupted by the artist to demonstrate the difficulties of (re)connecting through electronic noise - as much to the environment of origin, as to the new land of welcome. In Cabinet des Confidences Populaire, which took place in 2019 as part of the Lubumbashi Biennale, Baba-Ali introduces into the public space a cabinet where every passer-by can express himself, an anonymous confession to the reflection of Lubumbashi. The action amplifies the voice of the Lushois, while juggling notions of disconnection and globalization through language and popular resistance. 

In addition, Younes Baba-Ali maps certain behavioral or cultural practices on a global scale. For example, as early as 2012, with the "Carroussa Sonore" project in Morocco, Younes Baba-Ali examined the place of street vendors in major cities, a research project that has been underway for over 10 years. He continued this project in 2014 with the work "Untitled (megaphones)", then in 2016, with "Vu'Cumprà", a narrative around the hawkers of Naples. "Vu'Cumpra" (literally: you buy) is the pejorative term used in the Neapolitan dialect to allude to these peddlers. In 2018, in Dakar, he created "Without Negotiation", a filmed public performance, exhibited with a set of showcase objects accumulated without negotiation during the artist's journey to Dakar by cab, accepting any offer made to him during the car's stops - the accumulation of objects as a portrait of a stratum of society is frequent in his work, accompanying many performances and installations. In 2024, during his residency at the Villa Albertine in New York, he documented and studied the network of street vendors as he roamed the multicultural neighborhoods of Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. The soundscape of street vendors is a narrative that transcends borders and cultures, existing in every major city on a global scale - and the artist demonstrates how these vendors have become an integral part of the metropolitan landscape. This anthropo-sociological approach permeates his entire universe, providing an understanding of the societal strata revealed in the works.

In 2024, Younes Baba-Ali set up in Dakar to develop a three-part project whose starting point is pigeon racing. "LOFT DKR" is an experimental pigeon loft that collects and studies data from birds, equipped with a tracking chip (GPS coordinates and flight dynamics) to generate and create sound compositions during the pigeons' aerial performances. Divided into three locations, this project includes interactivity at "LOFT DKR - Gëstukaay bi (Laboratory)", a multimedia installation at Selebe Yoon, and finally LOFT DKR - Li jot a am (State of the place)", a place dedicated to archival work (in collaboration with Aude Tournaye) and the setting up of an online cartography (in collaboration with Carole Diop) at the Délégation Wallonie-Bruxelles in Dakar. In its entirety, "LOFT DKR" is an interactive laboratory offering an immersive experience.