An exhibition area at an Austrian up to date artwork museum was broken on Saturday, December 7, in an obvious act of vandalism concentrating on a feminist artwork set up by Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founding father of the Russian activist and efficiency artwork group Pussy Riot.
The set up, a set of balaclava-clad crimson mannequins in punk platform black boots titled “Pussy Riot Sex Dolls,” is a part of Nadya Tolokonnikova’s exhibition RAGE on the OK Middle for Up to date Artwork in Linz, Austria (OK Linz). Photos reviewed by Hyperallergic present a shattered glass door on the entrance of a former Marienkapelle, a long-deconsecrated chapel that the museum makes use of as an exhibition area.
OK Liz described the incident as “an act of violence” in an Instagram put up. The museum mentioned a stone was used to destroy each the door and glass flooring of the exhibition. No surveillance footage was captured and there are not any witnesses of the suspected particular person or people, Tolokonnikova advised Hyperallergic.
OK Linz has not but replied to Hyperallergic’s request for remark.
Glass apparently from a shattered door of the deconsecrated chapel turned exhibition area the place the mannequins are displayed
Whereas the art work was unscathed other than just a few fragments of glass that landed on the dolls, Tolokonnikova, who lives in geographic anonymity as a result of she is on a Russian needed checklist, advised Hyperallergic in an interview that the incident seems to not be a “random act,” however moderately a “fundamentalist act against feminist symbols.”
The mannequins, the artist mentioned, are second-hand intercourse dolls she bought on Fb Market and dressed to duplicate Pussy Riot members.
“I placed the dolls in the chapel of the Holy Virgin because I believe feminists are sacred, and I’m convinced that the Virgin Mary is a feminist too,” Tolokonnikova mentioned in a press release.
The exhibition’s title comes from a 2021 Pussy Riot music calling for the discharge of political prisoners, together with the opposition chief Alexei Navalny, who died in disputed circumstances whereas in jail earlier this 12 months and whom Tolokonnikova described as a buddy.
View of the shattered glass door and flooring
The exhibition incorporates a four-meter-long (~13.2 ft) Damocles sword hanging over guests’ heads, meant to evoke the hazard activists reside underneath, and an set up devoted to the efficiency “Putin’s Ashes” (2022) that landed Tolokonnikova on a Russian needed checklist. Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot’s exhibition additionally consists of the brand new Icon sequence, portraits of ladies in balaclavas adorned with Thirteenth-century Slavic church calligraphy.
Russia arrested Tolokonnikova in absentia final November for her function in Pussy Riot’s “Putin’s Ashes” (2022) efficiency, during which she and 11 different balaclava-wearing girls burnt a picture of Vladimir Putin and bottled ashes of the dictator’s picture. She beforehand was sentenced to 2 years in jail over Pussy Riot’s 2012 anti-Putin feminist punk efficiency protest “Punk Prayer” contained in the Orthodox Christian Christ the Savior Church in Moscow.
The incident at OK Liz occurred the night earlier than the holy day of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mary, celebrated on December 8. Earlier this 12 months at a Linz cathedral, a sculpture included in a present of ladies artists that depicted the Virgin Mary giving start, titled “Crowning,” was beheaded after conservatives characterised it as blasphemous resulting from its portrayal of the start of Christ, which is taken into account to be a thriller of the religion. The sculpture’s head has not but been recovered.
Tolokonnikova believes that these seemingly reactionary incidents are pushed by a want “to not let artists question or even think about these deeply entrenched roles of feminine religion and broader culture.”
“It’s something that I saw in Russia,” Tolokonnikova advised Hyperallergic. “We do purely symbolic acts of protest, and even for that, we got jailed. It’s troubling to see it happening in Europe.”
Tolokonnikova mentioned she’s going to depart the glass as is for the rest of the exhibition, which has been prolonged twice due to its reputation and can now shut in June. She mentioned one of many exhibition’s curators, Michaela Seiser, urged leaving the remnants of the incident as a “message.”
Tolokonnikova additionally attributes the incident at her exhibition to an increase of right-wing actions globally. In September’s preliminary elections for chancellor, the nation’s Freedom Social gathering, which has origins in Nazi ideology and is described as Russia-friendly, gained its first nationwide election since World Conflict II.
Since touchdown on Russia’s needed checklist, Tolokonnikova mentioned she can’t journey to nations which have extradition treaties together with her residence nation.
“This kind of art has real-life consequences,” Tolokonnikova mentioned.
