Davydtchenko is the artist-in-residence at Hong Kong’s The Catalyst gallery, an independent art space in Sheung Wan, until September 15, where he is sharing records of his extreme experiences as a multimedia show and offering unique gastronomic experiences in which members of the public can take part.
Challenging conventional norms has long been Davydtchenko’s agenda. His work – mostly installations and performance art that focus on food – explores issues such as waste in capitalist society, human survival and the collapse of civilisation.
The latter has plagued him since he was young, he says. Born in 1986 in a closed military town in Russia called Arzamas-16 – now renamed Sarov – he grew up in St. Petersburg, where he saw first-hand the violence of far-right groups.
Projected on a wall in his temporary home in Sheung Wan is an image showing a tattoo of three long lines running from his head down to his lower back. It was partly inspired by the tattoos he has seen on young Russians who have embraced radicalism.
“I turned the same painful act to myself, using a symbol of low-class violent Russian youth as a way to better understand their violent ways,” he says.
He has another tattoo above his right eye: the logo of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. He had that done during the Covid-19 pandemic to question whether there were alternatives to approaching the virus beyond what we were told by “Big Pharma”.
In 2021, while sporting the Pfizer tattoo, he filmed himself eating a small, live bat outside the European Parliament building in Brussels and offered the video for sale as what he claims to be the first NFT (non-fungible token) of a performance work. The extreme act prompted public outrage and he was briefly detained by Brussels police.
“When I found out that a specific mutation of bat was the source of the virus, I decided to ‘vaccinate’ myself by eating a live one,” he explains.
He insists that what he puts in his mouth has never harmed him, and that it is a capitalist myth that “anything wild in nature is dangerous, scary and should not be touched or eaten at all cost”. To prove a point, he underwent blood tests every three months while making Go and Stop Progress, each time getting the all-clear.
People accustomed to having food delivered to their table – or bought packaged and sanitised from a supermarket – might find Davydtchenko’s self-sufficient scavenging style hard to swallow.
Rats were his main source of protein during his time spent living with “the cataphiles”, a community of urban explorers who illegally tour the network of unused tunnels underneath Paris. (Later, in 2021, he lived in the rat-infested suburbs of Cologne, Germany, where he ate 100 of the vermin for his work titled Rat Race.)
Video footage of his time deep beneath the French capital plays at Catalyst, with some scenes showing him cooking in near darkness. Another shows him butchering a dead sheep he found as roadkill.
He is documenting his stay in Hong Kong and taking images that will be included in his upcoming book, called Death Book, which will be published in October.
He will also invite audiences for weekly gastronomic experiences.
“I am collaborating with chefs from Shia Wong Hip,” he says of the snake restaurant in Kowloon’s Sham Shui Po district that is known for serving snake soup. “The lady helping me with the gastronomic performances is nicknamed ‘Snake Queen’ – her real name is Chau Ka-ling.”
Audience members will be able to register to receive information on upcoming underground events.
As shown by Hong Kong’s snake soup tradition, what may seem unacceptable to some is sometimes merely an alternative culture that exists outside mainstream Western capitalist standards.
During his years living on roadkill, Davydtchenko worked with chefs known for preserving traditional French foods, their presence becoming part of his “performance”.
He honed his skills in butchering and brining, and experimented with different cooking techniques such as khorkhog, a Mongolian barbecue dish prepared with hot stones.
“I collected river stones and heated them with fire and put the whole animal inside, leaving it to cook over several hours … it gives a special flavour to the meat,” he says.
“In another technique, I buried the whole animal underground with hot coals and stones and left it for 24 hours to 48 hours, depending on its size, to slow cool the meat – it was very tender.”
The most ancient techniques, he says, were the most effective. Even vegan chefs were interested.
“Because the animal’s death was accidental, they [vegan chefs] could accept touching it and cooking this meat – they were excited about this. I got so immersed I did not consider myself an artist during this time frame.”
A graduate of London’s Royal College of Art, Davydtchenko is affiliated with A/political, a London-based arts organisation that for 10 years has pushed the boundaries of contemporary art.
“A/political represents the most radical voices in art and music,” a spokesman told the Post, “embracing taboo subject matter that usually comes with controversy and risk, pushing diverse and controversial perspectives to the foreground of a media sphere dominated by mainstream narratives.”
Above all, A/political provides artists with support, guidance and confidence to materialise artworks and ideas that other organisations would not, the spokesman says.
“Petr Davydtchenko is unique in his practice, dedicating years of his life to becoming the work himself in extreme situations.”
“Death Book”, The Catalyst, 2 Po Yan St, Sheung Wan, tel: 2773 1120. Ends Sep 15.
A talk from the artist on his past and current projects takes place on August 18, 5pm.
Gastronomic events start mid-August, limited seats only. Interested parties can email The Catalyst to register.
