Act & Punishment

In 2011, two young activist artists, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, broke away from the Voina collective and founded the punk rock group Pussy Riot, whose purpose is to actively protest the social status of women in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. To do so, they stage their performances, a mix of actionism, art and politics, in public places that represent the power of institutions in Russia. During a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the two activists were arrested, along with a third group member, Maria Alyokhina. They were accused of vandalism motivated by religious hatred. On August 17, 2012, they were tried and sentenced to two years in jail. This became a hot topic worldwide, as was the video, uploaded on Youtube, of their performance in the cathedral, which only lasted forty seconds before it was stopped, with an overblown reaction, by authorities. The Pussy Riot became a symbol of the struggle for freedom of speech and free expression, continuing the long Russian tradition of political dissidents called holy fools: figures who weren’t afraid to tell the most unpleasant truths and publicly accuse the tsar of his misdeeds.