Petr DAVYDTCHENKOPerftoran

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.