Russian artist Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, was arrested in absentia in Moscow on charges of “insulting the religious feelings of believers”. Tolokonnikova, who currently lives outside Russia, will face immediate two-month detention if she returns to her home country.
“Russian clown courts arrested me even though I wasn’t there – for my art once again,” Tolokonnikova said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic.
In March, the artist was placed on Russia's wanted list, following growing attention to her artwork “Putin's Ashes” (2022). The multimedia series consists of a video in which Tolokonnikova and 11 other women in balaclavas present a depiction of Putin in flames, and a group of artworks incorporating Putin's bottled ashes. Tolokonnikova's arrest comes less than a week since Russia sentenced another artist, Alexandra Skochilenko, to seven years in prison for an artwork in which she replaced supermarket price tags with calls to end the war in Ukraine.
The Russian criminal case against Tolokonnikova, opened earlier that month, revealed that the artist was under investigation for violating the “religious feelings” law, known informally as the “Pussy Riot” law. The charge calls for a fine of 300,000 rubles (~US$3,390), forced labor and a year in prison.
Tolokonnikova is no stranger to Russia's persecution of dissident artists or the country's ruthless judicial system. After his participation in the famous Pussy Riot performance in 2012 at Igreja Cristo Salvador from Moscow, Tolokonnikova and other members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were accused of “vandalism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison. The artist has continually created and exhibited her work and, years later, in 2021, she was named a “foreign agent”.
Putin's ashes were displayed at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles in late January and at the Container Gallery in Santa Fe this summer. Now, the exhibition moves to the Dallas Contemporary Museum and will be on display starting December 8th.
“I want to show Russia that it cannot silence or intimidate me,” Tolokonnikova said of her recent arrest. “Every time they try to do that, I will only respond with more volume and anger.”
Source: Hyperallergic