The Local, Germany
Aug 8 2013

Naked in the train: artist shocks Europe

Published: 7 Aug 2013 14:33 CET

A Berlin-based performance artist is raising eyebrows in European
capitals with a risque drive to expose the role of advertising in
every day life – by pulling his trousers down in public.

Standing in a crowded U-bahn, trousers around your ankles, with just
an iPad shielding your privates from the gaze of curious strangers
might not be everyone’s idea of art, but for one Berlin-based
performance artist, it’s all in a day’s work.

With his provocative ‘live advertising’ stunt, Mischa Badasyan says he
is breaking boundaries – and sometimes local laws – to get people
thinking about the prevalence of advertising in public spaces.

Armed only with a blank-screened iPad and a t-shirt declaring `Your
advert here’ in various languages and an arrow pointing to his
genitals, Badasyan is touring European capitals as a ‘walking
billboard’ to see how locals react.

But the artist was disappointed to find that few onlookers have so far
taken up his offer to use him as a living, breathing poster boy.

`I was surprised to get negative reactions or aggressive feedback,’
Badasyan, 25, told The Local. `Some people shouted at me in Berlin,
they didn’t like my idea at all.’

The Armenian-born artist, who came to Dresden as a student in 2008,
said he wants to `break stereotyped thinking’ and challenge social
norms with his art. He aims to take his ‘ADbuster’ pants-down project
to every European capital.

So far he has hit landmarks and public transport in Berlin, Vienna,
Paris, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest and Rome – at times with explosive
results.

`In Italy two guys blamed me for disturbing and reckless behaviour
towards children. One guy screamed at me and violently pulled up my
trousers,’ Badasyan told The Local.

`In France I got in trouble with the security guards at the Pompidou
Centre, they tried to call the police but I ran away.’

Badasyan feels the influence of advertising – particularly what he
sees as manipulative sexualised adverts – on modern life is often
ignored.

`Every step of your life in modern society is influenced by
advertisement,’ the artist writes on his website. `Each commercial
advertisement can be viewed as an invasion of privacy.’

But many who spotted the trouser-less Badasyan in a public place did
not immediately catch the point of his message.

`Mostly people asked me why I was doing it and what on earth the iPad
was doing there,’ he said. `Some people found it funny.’

`Some supported my idea that we have to rethink … billboards with
sexual ads in the city,’ he added. `Just a small number of people
absolutely supported me and liked my campaign.’

Yet in the end, Badasyan said it did not matter what people thought,
as long as his work provoked a reaction.

`I always have a message but my performances are open [to
interpretation],’ he said. `People should have their own idea about
what they see in my works.’

Josie Le Blond