The Nomads by Pavel Babienko

Winner of the Drawing of the Year Award 2020

‘No one knows what really happened. The slightest experiments with gravity led to disastrous consequences. We ended up in space alone. Like a tourist with a backpack and compass in an unknown location we knew only direction and destination name. And though we’ve lost a roof over our heads, we have preserved everything that makes us humans. Our culture, our knowledge, and even bits and traces of wildlife.

Now all of humanity is one endless caravan of nomads in a vast blank space. We rebuilt our homes, our museums, our schools and our hospitals right in space, on the way to our final destination. Although we no longer gaze at sunsets and dive into coral reefs we still play football and watch movies. We fall in love and get married. We raise children and send the old men on their final journey. We will not get out of the ship and stretch on the grass in the sun. The only and final destination - Proxima B.’

Judges’ thoughts

“Pavel’s ‘The Nomads’ series of drawings captivated us immediately. They took us on a journey without needing to read any accompanying words. But when we did, the narrative was equally engaging. Exploring a forced life in space, the integration and connection of life as we know it in the vastness of space is a truly original narrative which is represented incredibly.

The imagination and detail is incredible both individually and together and we thought it was only right to award the entire collection as Drawing of the Year 2020.”