Tiziana Pers is an academic, artist and activist. She investigates the parallels and connections that exist between racism, sexism, colonialism, speciesism and violence on ecosystems; and the possibility of coexistence in a more biocentric, and maybe post-human, perspective. Through her multi-disciplinary art project RAVE East Village Artist Residency in Friuli, Italy, she explores the role and responsibility of contemporary art in relation to the Otherness represented by animals.

Her ongoing project Art History consists of the exchange of her paintings for animals that are destined to be slaughtered. In this way, Pers has saved over 300 non-human animals. The project raises several questions about the attribution of economic value to sentient beings, as well as to works of art.

The Age of Remedy is an ambitious collective performance that invites participants to sign a contract and become part of an ongoing exhibition. Everyday objects – here, dinner plates – are transformed into performance devices. Upon signing a contract, participants acquire the plates and agree to stop consuming animal products when using them. The first contract signing, documented in an accompanying video of the same title, is the most intimate moment of the project, taking place between the artist and her son, Ivan. The video is presented alongside an installation featuring two pairs of plates and the associated contract displayed on a dining table. A numbered contract is produced for each pair of plates, with a total print run of 7,781,533,400 – the estimated human population at the time the work was conceived in May 2020, during Covid-19 lockdown. The contract leaves it open for participants to decide whether to embrace the proposed idea beyond the scope of this symbolic agreement, emphasising the power of personal choice.

Hands Off Sanctuaries! consists of nine placards that portray the nine pigs that were killed at a rescued animal shelter in the village of Sairano, near Pavia in Italy in September 2023, after law enforcement violently dragged away activists trying to defend them. 

Another series of works, The Sleepless Monkeys, refers to a controversial scientific experiment carried out in China: five monkeys were cloned from a genetically modified macaque that showed alterations in circadian rhythm, such as reduced sleep time and abnormal night-time activity accompanied by anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. Using images and videos from the internet as references, Pers painted the monkeys at night, trying to imagine what the passage of time might be like for someone who has never known the serenity of sleep, or maternal care, or even the naturalness of a habitat, which they will never be able to experience.

Finally, Do Not Forget / The World To Come, a neon sign displayed on the Syngrou Avenue façade of EMΣΤ, will upon the exhibition’s closure serve as a reminder for collective responsibility in light of our common future and that of the future of the coming generations.