Ivan Pérard at Lagune Ouest

Artist: Ivan Pérard

Exhibition title: Impossibility of Peace in the Brain of the Bullied

Venue: Lagune Ouest, Copenhagen, Denmark

Date: June 24 – August 13, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Lagune Ouest, Copenhagen

from i was 9 to when i was 13 I got beaten up every day. By 3 boys from my class. It developed into a weird kinda-like stockholm syndrome, that I became the one who had to run, until they caught me, kicked, beat, sat on my arms and humiliated me, whatever they wanted. You can probably imagine, years. Protected by society in Ebeltoft. – This exhibition starts from my desire for a Protector, an omnipotent and fair weapon, for mine and everyone’s safety, against them. I know cultivating that type of overlord is misunderstood and wrong. We can’t have that good of a time with Quantum AI carrying miniguns, rocket launchers and railguns in daily life. But I wish. Unfortunately it’s a reflected wish. Therefore here: Self-defense systems for domestic spaces.

Nothing happened in a vacuum, two groups were onlookers, on the wall my silent classmates. Through working with this exhibition I have come to realize that they had their own problems, probably, as a child I saw them as loud and quiet. Today I see them clearer. …It’s not a story you tell, nobody has known this side of me, when i’ve been telling the “where I’m from” -part… Later I’ve been a survivor, the type that has left it behind. It never happened. But it nags, the desire for weaponized safety against evil.

Don’t like peeing next to other men, hate their ritual of standing in the bushes going “ahhh”, can’t sleep in public transport, always awake, last to sleep, every night. It’s a long list of small things that keeps me far removed from normal life. Never ends. – The other (smaller and fuck them) group is the teachers, my bullies had powerful parents in the local society, and we were the lowest class, newcomers. The teachers stood by because of their own fragility. Pipe smoking adults.

They never think of me for one second, for me they’re tattooed on the inside of my being with iron and sulfur.

I transform them here.

Sacrifice them in techno-blood until they behave. Weaponized idols. Stick and stones.

I never wanted to talk about this, but I want to show you in sculpture. Images of wishes. Images of surviving.

– Text by Ivan Pérard

Ivan Pérard (1984, DK) studied from 2011-2021 at Akademie der Bildende Künste Wien. He has recently been showing works at MAK Vienna Biennale (Vienna), Ungefaehr5 (Cologne), Loggia (Münich) and Den Frie Udstillingsbygning (Copenhagen).