Results for “russia”
Pussy Riot: Punk Prayer on Trial
In 2012 members of the feminist collective Pussy Riot performed a 'Punk Prayer' against Vladimir Putin in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Three were convicted of 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' and imprisoned.
Pavel Otdelnov
Contemporary Russian painter documenting industrial ruin and collective memory, among the artists whose exhibitions have faced pressure and censorship in Russia over politically sensitive and anti-war themes.
Pussy Riot
Russian feminist protest-art collective whose 2012 'Punk Prayer' in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour led to the imprisonment of several members for 'hooliganism' — one of the defining art-censorship cases of the 21st century.
Israel Rouchomovsky
Odessa goldsmith who created the 'Tiara of Saitaphernes', bought by the Louvre in 1896 as a Scythian-Greek antiquity. two years before the Louvre acquisition, two dealers Schapschelle Hochmann and his brother Leiba, had commissioned Israel Rouchomovsky, a skilled goldsmith from Odesa, to make the tiara. They let him believe that it was intended as a gift for an archaeologist friend and provided Rouchomovsky with details from recent excavations to aid his design. It wasn't until news of the Louvre scandal reached him that Rouchomovsky learned of the fate of his creation. He traveled to Paris in 1903[2] and presented himself as the maker of the tiara. Experts at the museum refused to believe him until he demonstrated the ability to reproduce a portion of the crown. Embarrassed, the museum hid the object away in storage. The Louvre had been fooled in one of the greatest archeological scandals of the century. Isreal was an amazing goldsmith/artist who was duped by a couple dirty dealers.
Voina
Few contemporary art groups have generated as much controversy—or as many criminal charges—as Voina ("War"), the Russian performance art collective founded in 2007. Part political activists, part conceptual artists, and part provocateurs, the group rejected galleries, museums, and the commercial art world in favor of disruptive public performances that challenged the authority of the Russian state. Voina believed that the artwork wasn't an object—it was the event itself. Their performances ranged from surreal pranks to acts of vandalism, often ending with arrests and international headlines. Among their most famous actions was Dick Captured by the FSB (2010), in which they painted a 65-meter phallus on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg. When the bridge opened, the image stood erect, pointing directly at the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). The work became an instant symbol of artistic defiance and, remarkably, later won Russia's state-sponsored Innovation Prize for contemporary art. Other performances were even more confrontational. Members overturned police cars, staged mock executions, interrupted court proceedings with punk concerts, welded shut the doors of an elite restaurant, and organized provocative demonstrations criticizing corruption, police brutality, censorship, and political repression. More than a dozen criminal cases were eventually brought against members of the collective. The group's history also intersected with another famous activist collective. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Pyotr Verzilov were early members of Voina before splitting from the group in 2009. Two years later, Tolokonnikova co-founded Pussy Riot, whose anti-Putin protest inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour attracted worldwide attention. Their performances intentionally erased the boundary between art, activism, and crime, forcing audiences to confront uncomfortable questions about power, authority, and free expression. Voina demonstrated that in the twenty-first century, one of the most powerful canvases wasn't a museum wall—it was the street itself.
The Bored Guard Who Gave a Painting Eyes
On his very first day, a security guard grew bored and drew two pairs of eyes in ballpoint pen on the faceless figures of Anna Leporskaya's avant-garde painting 'Three Figures'.