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ART DIVING INTERVIEW
Petr Davydtchenko: on aesthetics and power DENIS: How would you define “aesthetics” and “beauty”? Are they still relevant? PETR: In my mind, they remain extremely relevant. Both are powerful weapons for enrichment and destruction, which define each other in the intimate way that lovers or long time friends do. Aesthetics is a perception and can be framed. Beauty remains much more elusive. In terms of my work, I build narrative through aesthetics, sometimes deliberately overburdening a body of work with minimal, clean, and polished appeal. This is a conscious way of referencing the complexity of what is deemed as the darker sides of human nature. It becomes a question of seduction, taking things that are problematic, horrible and perhaps too grim to grasp and making them attractive. If a person is attracted to them, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are beautiful. Beauty doesn’t Beauty doesn’t have to be aesthetic. It can be the description have to be of what happens after aesthetic. It can the initial attraction when it becomes clear be the description that the subject is acof what happens tually repulsive. In my recent show at Harlan after the initial Levey Projects Gallery attraction in Brussels, examples
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of this include the reworking of motorcycle oil tanks recovered from accidents or the piece ‘They Walked in Line,’ which is a custom made track suit (made in collaboration with Swedish designer Elsa Suneson). The light fabric, cuts and lines are intended to be aesthetically pleasing; a haute couture line that modifies the Adidas tracksuit that is so popular in many subcultures, including Russian Gopniks and Skinheads. As an object it’s beautiful, but what it represents is a violent and hostile subculture with its own uniforms and rituals. I used this suit as a type of second skin for a performance work titled ‘Petty Vanities’ where I offered vodka and free head shavings. On somebody else’s body, this could be the uniform worn for ruthless attacks. DENIS: What is political power to you? PETR: I associate political power with fear and oppression, historical shifts and potential futures that both frighten and fascinate me. Political power is a power that dictates conditions we live in. Those conditions can be better or worse, but there is always a dilemma. To draw a parallel with art, there is always a basic idea, which we might call a condition. It might be as simple as choice of a material, which dictates the tone of the whole construction or work. When I work with power structures, I tend to represent them as physical structures in space; towers, ambiguous architecture and other pillars that are usually made from steel. My recent piece ‘Swallow Me,’ for example is a sort of table whose width was consciously determined by
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