Going Backwards in a Circle (2025) | HERBARIUM COLLECTION

Viktor Petrov

40x40x10 cm, glass ceramic, silver coating

The starting point for the work “Going Backwards in a Circle” lies in the laboratories of SCHOTT AG in the late 1970s. At that time, the company patented two innovative glass-ceramic types: Zerodur, which later became the substrate for the world’s largest astronomical mirrors, and Ceran, widely known as the material for cooktops.
The piece I created for the Herbarium collection is part of this ongoing research project. It explores the aesthetic, social, and political implications that arise from the division of labor—separating and hierarchizing productive and reproductive work. Using one of the earliest techniques for making astronomical mirrors, chemical silvering, I coated a used Ceran plate and inscribed it with the question „Did you turn off the stove?“, styled to resemble an excerpt from a scientific diagram. By playfully reminding the viewers of their house chores the work aligns the mundane with the exceptional,which is inscribed in the material and design history of glass-ceramics.

Viktor Petrov (born in 1991 in Pleven, Bulgaria) works and lives in Berlin. Viktor Petrov’s oeuvre brings together the social, the architectural, and the political body in a dialogue about structural violence. By carefully studying and combining mass products and construction materials, Petrov aims to deconstruct and rearrange the visual syntax of the predominant patriarchal, class, and economic narratives. His creative practice is research-based, both in theoretical and practical terms. Its conceptual grounds are tightly intervened with the construction techniques and the materials chosen specifically for each project. In this manner, the artist transforms polycarbonate riot shields into facade elements to address the abuse of power in democratic states or uses glass ceramic cooktops to explore the structural inequality between productive and reproductive work. Petrov explicitly works on the topic of architecture as an instrument of structuring space and reinforcing ideologies as opposed to his understanding of artistic practice as a mean of questioning and eroding these. This is the reason why his sculptures and installations contain a sense of controversy that creates tension and adds a small pinch of humor on top.
Petrov’s work has been awarded the UdK Art Prize, the Ursula Hanke Förster Prize, the Karl Hofer Scholarship, Deutsche Bank Atelier Scholarship, NEUSTART+ scholarship, and the BAZA Award 2023 for young contemporary art in Bulgaria. Petrov has exhibited in various museums, galleries and art venues across Europe.

Website: viktorpetrov.com