Victor Yudaev

Victor Yudaev was born in 1984 in Moscow (RU), he lives and works in Marseille (FR).

Victor&me.

I started writing a story about victor before victor was born. Since then, victor&me have been really close, even though we have different lives and have never met. I know about Victor as much as he knows about himself. Victor is a true thinker, and I learn a lot as long as victor lives and also by the way he lives. He rarely speaks as he has no patience for words, and he is very busy. Nevertheless, it is quite simple to write about him, as we are often in the same places; he always leaves just before and because I arrive, ‘victor has just left,’ but he leaves many things, pieces of evidence, traces – thank you, Victor – which are shared almost everywhere. And it is I who must pick them up and deal with the consequences. I follow victor almost everywhere; he is a great walker and spends a lot of time strolling. I suppose he is driven by simple curiosity, as it is difficult to piece together all his wanderings into a single system. The more I follow Victor, the more I discover and learn, but he himself always remains at a distance from me, at the distance of an outstretched hand. One could say within arm’s reach. ‘From a distance, we can see more,’ he might say. Everything I know about victor comes from traces, treasures, and abandoned objects. By collecting his letters, I learn about his correspondents, his parking receipts tell the story of his travels. Victor carefully composes his collection of records and books, according to their historical reference, their author, or their subjects. But, likewise, their size matters. I read his essays, which are not written to be published, his notes on vexing trivialities as well as the most insoluble riddles; sometimes I see victor’s dog wandering the streets. I know exactly that it is his, because once, like the dog, these streets were painted by victor.

Victor Yudaev studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and graduated from ENSBA Lyon in 2015. He participated in the Lyon Biennale in 2017 and 2019. He was selected by Neïl Beloufa for the 20th Prix de la Fondation d’entreprise Ricard in 2018. Among his recent exhibitions: MN_01 by Media Naranja (Marseille, 2018), at the Centro de Arte Wifredo Lam, Havana (2018), Les Baigneurs at Diagonale (Montreal, 2019), Vous voulez partir, déjà ? at Bonnevalle (Noisy-le-Sec, 2019), They had a house of crystal pillars at Belsunce Projects (Marseille, 2019).