1 week Ago By Evening Standard
A Russian artist and a Japanese chef are to serve roadkill at an exhibition in London this month, in a bid to challenge sustainability and “the politics of consumption”. Petr Davydtchenko’s latest installation takes the form of a fully operational restaurant, where the performance artist will champion lesser-eaten foods such as pheasant, venison, and even fox and badger. Called Kham: The Road, Davydtchenko has sought the cookery skills of chef Masayoshi Harahuchi, the former executive chef of the Michelin-starred Dominique Bouchet in Paris.
Harahuchi said the artist has “perfected the method of sourcing the freshest proteins” and has worked with him to create recipes for a “gourmet experience” using ingredients most of us pass by. For one night only, on April 17, the pair will allow guests to try – for free – a variety of roadkill dishes as small plates. It was in France that Davydtchenko survived entirely on roadkill, spending two years at the radical Foundry space at the foot of the Pyrenees, a former munitions factory taken over by artist Andrei Molodkin.
It was there that Davydtchenko made rabbit stew, fox head soup and donkey prosciutto, all with animals he found already dead. Perhaps most provocatively, he also cooked and ate dogs and cats, though these won’t be on the menu at his show in London. The exhibition, at the fittingly named Bacon Factory space in Kennington, will run until April 25, with a collection of photos, treated animal hides and meat products on display, as well as a new “unconventional” cookbook, the Death Book, which is to be released for sale this month.
It follows the first installment of Kham, an underground restaurant in Hong Kong where Davydtchenko worked with chefs from the renowned Shia Wong Hip Snake Restaurant in Kowloon. “Kham is a restaurant where the death of animals due to automotive technology is reconfigured as harbouring the capacity for regeneration and prolonged life,” the artist told the Standard. “Together with my companion, a renowned Japanese chef, we will communicate this new gastronomic code.
“These are animals that have been killed almost instantly. This is meat without the increased cortisol levels that you will find in an animal that has been killed in a traditional slaughterhouse. Free roaming animals without antibiotics in their systems.
The result is a healthier, tastier product.” Through art , Davydtchenko has been proposing an alternative food system for many years, commenting on the environmental, political, social, and cultural impact of meat consumption. His “peripheral existence”, he said, “interrogates the aestheticization of food and the ethical parameters that govern culinary acceptance.
” Kham: The Road, is on at The Bacon Factory, a space run by the artists’ collection A/Political, until April 25. Food will be served on April 17, with possible further dates to be announced. For more information, visit a-political.
org.
