Gay Russian Performance Artist To Have Sex With A Different Man, Every Day, For A Year

Mischa Badasyan, a 26-year-old Russian performance artist based in Berlin, has raised a few eyebrows with a proposal for his next performance. Badasyan, who is openly gay, says he plans to sleep with with a different man, once a day, for a year.

Badasyan’s “Save the Date” project purportedly intends to push the boundaries of a reality he says is “inspired by the gay condition, Taiwanese artists, and French philosophy,” according to Arts.Mic. Badasyan says that he’s well versed in the relatively anonymous and short-term hook-up culture, owing partly to his younger years.

THE HOLE OF GLORY from Mischa Badasyan on Vimeo.

“I would go to [the park],” Badasyan said, “every night and have sex with guys… until 5 o’clock [or] 6 o’clock in the morning. And I was always… I felt very bad, I was crying all the time. I am always sad after these kind of meetings.”

By having sex with a different man every day for a year, Badasyan intends to comment on the culture of loneliness and throwaway sex that some connect to gay culture writ large but that really only represents a subset of a wider spectrum.

What’s more, Badasyan cites the work of French philosopher Marc Auge, who wrote about “non-places,” places where people don’t communicate with each other and where they lose their identities. Badasyan says that, through engaging in sex with a different person every day, he, too, will become something of a non-place.

“Eventually I’ll be like a non-place,” Badasyan says, “so it’ll be like a supermarket. I’ll go on the date and then I’ll go back.”

And just how does he plan to accomplish this feat? Partially through the same apps and culture he’s commenting on. Badasyan will rely on apps like Grindr and Scruff, but he will also be on the prowl at festivals. If he hits a dry spell of eight or so hours, perhaps, he might even go to a sex club or cruising in the park.

“It’s easier for a gay man to do this kind of project,” he said. “It’s why I feel lonely. Straight people don’t have these kind of applications, so many gay chats, in terms of cruising, sex clubs, sex bars, they don’t have as many opportunities as gay people.”

And how will this performance actually be seen? Well, Badasyan isn’t going to be performing in front of an audience. Through awareness of the project, though, Badasyan says that the audience will become “second parties” to the work. He will also create public performances using photos, videos, and audio that are inspired by his experiences. So no video for you, if you were wondering, but you’ll see slices of life inspired by Badasyan’s sexploits.

If you’re wondering, Badasyan will be using protection as he goes on this odd odyssey. An HIV organization will provide Badasyan with condoms, and the artist even says he thinks of the project as a sort of social project.

“I’m going to be promoting safer sex,” Badasyan says.

The kicker, oddly enough, is that Badasyan has already picked out the first and last people he will have sex with at the beginning and ending of the year.

“I like to keep it open,” Badasyan says. ” I don’t want to say it’s going to happen like this, because it’s performance art,” he said. “The whole idea, why it’s art, why it’s a performance, is the process — the process of finding someone.”