Loneliness in art through 365 sex dates. Mischa Badasyan’s performance

mischabadasyanDuring the day of our conversation Mischa didn’t have sex yet, but was planning.

For 6 months artist Mischa Badasyan dated 182 people and still he has to have sexual relations with so many people to stress the connection between loneliness and sex.

French anthropologist Marc Augé’s “Non-Places” theory became the grounding for German based Badasyan to implement “Save the Date” project: each day during a year to have make sex with a different man.

Augé calls non-places those territories which doesn’t have enough memory or identity (supermarkets, airports, metro etc.), where people do not socialize to each other, thus creating an atmosphere of loneliness. This idea Mischa transforms to the non-places within the meaning of sexuality, where people gather together, have conversation, but don’t have sex, for example bars, pubs, parks, that is where he invites people for a date.

Serbia, Netherlands, Germany, these are the countries he had dates so far. He plans to visit Czech Republic, Denmark. What about Armenia?

“In April I want to come to Armenia. I hope I can date someone there,” – says Mischa and lists the places in Yerevan where he would like have sex: in Komaygi or near Victory bridge, although he admits that it will be hard for him to date someone in Armenia, because mostly people here are living with their parents.

At the beginning of the project Mischa told that he will date only men, but now he says: “I became tired of men, I became aggressive,” – he decided to date women as well. Besides, he confesses that this project kills him emotionally.

The concerns about that this project might negatively affect on public opinion toward LGBT people, artist comments: “This is about me and my feelings; I am not responsible to everyone. Heterosexuals do the same things, but no one talks about it.”

At the end of the project Mischa is going to make a sculpture from the bed sheets on which he had sexual relations. Sheets will be fixed by wood sticks and will be shook by wind.

Hovhannes Ishkhanyan