Petr DAVYDTCHENKO

Perftoran is a synthetic blood substitute developed at the end of the1970s in the USSR, prohibited by the Soviet authorities and even­tu­al­ly­mar­ket­ed by a private US company in 2000. This is both the title and thesymp­to­matic narrative to which it refers, chosen by the Russian artist Petr­Davy­dtchenko for his latest project. 

Petr Davy­dtchenko was born in modern Sarov (previously known as Arzamas-16), a closed military town in Russia, in 1986. Growing up in St. Petersburg, he experienced the violence of far-right groups. He later moved to Europe, where he developed his own artistic practice. For two years, he lived solely on a diet of fruit, vegetables and the remains of roadkill. For him, this way of life opposed an economy of excess, a utopian alternative to industrial over­pro­duc­tion. Elements of his work were presented at BPS22 as part of the group exhibition Us or Chaos.

When the pandemic first broke out, Davy­dtchenko asked himself what role an artist could play in such a situation. As a result, he decided to put all his energy and creativity into researching a vaccine for protection against COVID-19. He has surrounded himself with scientists, has read numerous medical reports, and has transformed the exhibition space of the Palazzo Lucarini Centro per l’Arte in Trevi, Italy, into a medical laboratory. He has devoted himself entirely to this new mission. He promises free dis­tri­b­u­tion of his possible vaccine. And above all, he is shouldering all the con­se­quences of his quest, including legal proceedings for the illegal practice of medicine, lobbying, censoring social networks, and more. A pre­sen­ta­tion of the current state of his research is on display at BPS22. 

Curator: Pierre-Olivier Rollin

EXHIBITION: 20.02 > 23.05.2021
OPENING WEEKEND: 20.02 - 21.02.2021. FREE ENTRANCE! On reservation.