'Кровь Бедняка (The Blood of the Poor)' by Vitaly Bezpalov at Oktogon, Wuppertal

„We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.“ 1

Кровь бедняка (“Blood of the Poor”²) by Vitaly Bezpalov (born 1985) is neither an homage to the lower classes nor a plea to the high society. In his first institutional exhibition in Germany the young artist from Moscow presents his personal take on the state of contemporary poverty. The main character of his story is an average citizen. In contrast to the needs of “Otto Normalverbraucher” (a term that came up after 1945, meaning “everyman”) today‘s standards and demands are based on loan and lease. The motto is: don‘t buy it, lease it.

Max Mustermann leads a consumption oriented life and catches himself constantly spending more money than he earns. The sociological observation by Bezpalov is an interdisciplinary transformation of everyday alchemy into artistic practice. In his contextbased works the artist primarily uses material from everyday life, especially familiar objects from around the office. Archaeological, amorphous creations allude to a non-linear timeline and are representative of his recent work. ‘always coca_cola II’, ‘Rameses II’, ‘urasia circ’, ‘open in obscurity’, ‚roses are red, that‘s how i became a songwriter’, ‘Rhythm of the Night’ or ‘Never was happiness so unattainable and freedom so dead II’ sound like common poetic notes.

With great sensitivity Vitaly Bezpalov manages to create cultural-political connections and to refer to current global topics. The consumption obsessed, common mortal in Кровь бедняка is waiting in vain for a meeting with Tyler Durden³. The Capitalist value system successfully creates the illusion of being in control of yourself – and of not being controlled by your own credit card debt. According to Bezpalov, human blood is the new petroleum, “extracted” from 7 billion people.

— Roman Zheleznyak (Translated by Ann-Katrin Drews)

1. Dave Ramsey: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. 1994 2 Léon Bloy, “Le Sang du Pauvre” (“Blood of the Poor”). 1909 3 Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club. 1996