Art as a form of protest isn’t new. Think of Goya’s sketches of the Peninsular War, Picasso’s mural Guernica and now the works of Pussy Riot, the feminist art collective formed in Moscow in 2011 to challenge misogynism, the orthodoxy of the Church and Putin’s totalitarianism. The collective is the subject of an art show called Velvet Terrorism:Pussy Riot’s Russia now touring North America.
Created by Riot co-founder Maria Ayokhina and curated by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson Velvet Terrorism is a collection of videos, photographs and paraphernalia chronicling the collective’s non-violent fight with Russia’s repressive regime over the past 13 years. Pussy Riot wants free elections and basic human rights and uses performance and video to get its point across.
It’s hard to call the exhibition an art show; it’s more of an experience. Photographs are fixed to the wall with bright neon tape surrounded by hastily scrawled graffiti. Rock music screams from the speakers. The dominant colour scheme, bright pink and magenta conveys an angry vibe. So do the pictures. The images are provocative, even shocking. In one video, a rioter lifts her dress and urinates on a picture of Putin. In another, rioters storm Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and perform Punk Prayer, a punk rock diatribe against the Church’s cozy relationship with the State.
The group has paid a high price for its activities. Punk Prayer netted the protesters two years in prison for hooliganism. A steel door which leads to a 10 x 10-foot jail cell and excerpts from their diaries documents their incarceration.
Those members not in jail have been followed, harassed and beaten. Photographs show security forces pumeling protesters at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Original co-founders Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Ayokhina have fled Russia and are now living elsewhere continuing the fight through videos and public appearances. Velvet Terrorism is part of that outreach. Back in Russia, Pussy Riot lives on as new recruits protest, among other things, the war in Ukraine and the death of Alexei Navalny.
Sadly, their efforts aren’t appreciated in their native country. Most Russians dismiss their actions. Or maybe in a country where conformity is enforced and dissent is discouraged, the Russian people are afraid to support them. Which raises the question, why does Pussy Riot continue protesting when they’re met with such hostility?
Maybeit’s because, like Goya, they feel they have no choice but to speak out. Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russai shows what happens to protesters who challenge the system. But it also speaks of hope and courage. “Russia will be free,” a current protester said after being released from prison. “Collectively, we have no choice but to hope and push for it.”
