What is the need for actionism and how does it work? Tolokonnikova, Pavlensky, Loskutov and others - about those who urgently need Pavlensky actionism, which is his fault

The current daily routine in Russia is primitive and monotonous, so that the Russian population gets from all information resources in almost the same way. Or there are moments when the world’s agenda “vibrates” and people come out of hibernation for an hour and change their view of the extra world. The initiators of such “vibukhs” are action artists, who have become the remaining stronghold of civil protest in today’s Russia.

Protest mysticism as a new form of expression of powerful thoughts

Actionism (action art – mysticism of action)- a modern form of mysticism that gained popularity in the 60s and 20th century. One of the most significant representatives was the Vidensk actionists. Then postmodern reality made it possible to obtain new insights from the observer, to speak to him sweetly and harshly. Viganously looking from the museum and exhibition halls, the stench exploded on the human body, as if they were causing and inflicting violence with special sadism. This was to make sense of the greedy knowledge of Another World War, since the body was always placed at the center of the exhibition.

Vidensk actionists became the first to destroy the sacred intimate space between the spectators and the author’s work. Their skin action is a large dose of psychological stress that instantly envelops your nerves. The demonstration of zlyagan, katuvan, primus torment is the result of a protest cry from the soul. All for the sake of a collective look at what is happening in the world and a gained look at the essence of the problems in order to identify them.

Günter Brus - action "Cock-shaking"

In Russia, similar processes of protest mystique were encouraged by Moscow actionists in the 1990s. Having become inspired by the apathy and hopelessness, they fanatically and meticulously began to create: Oleg Kulik, trying on himself the image of a dog, crawling along the street with crustaceans, snarling at passers-by and biting someone (the “Stop Taboo” campaign) about being protected by the very own Cerberus"), Ter-Oganyan rubav with a huge icon (action “Junior Atheist”), Oleksandr Brener went out onto Chervona Square wearing boxing gloves and shouting “Yeltsin, get out!” (action “First Mitten”), Anton Litvin hung bras on trees (action “The End of Peace”).

The stench penetrated the sphere of the unknown, touched Chaos, victorious trickster banter, played the role of temptations and buffoons of carnival culture. Her artistic gesture stripped the action to the unbearable between.

Oleg Kulik - action “The taboo remains, as it is protected by its own Cerberus”

Since the beginning of the 2000s, actionism in Russia has been developing new clear images: fewer spontaneous manifestations, more thoughtful actions. Artists began to explore all the possibilities of actionism, reflecting its meaning and texture: the planned plot of the action, the demonstration of the unknown side of the human psyche, the emotions behind the body, gestures and behavior Inki of the artist. performance; The presence of a pre-thought-out script, an emphasis on improvisation in the behavior of the Viconavians, and an active participation of the watching audience. happening; more profit before the process of the action from the side of the spectators, if the art action can be completely angry with reality - environment; the impossibility of finding a look in the middle of the work, even a handbag demonstration of a composition created from everyday objects, industrial products and materials - installation; mysticism, where the body can play the role of the canvas, and the gazer can act as a singer - body art.

We have compiled a list of the most prominent representatives of actionism of the 21st century in Russia:

1. Petro Pavlensky- having become aware of the extravagant action on Chervonia Square dedicated to Police Day. On November 10, 2013, the rock nailed its genitals to the stone brook, depicting human vigor before politics. On Pavlensky’s shell there are 7 great actions - “Seam” (sewn up mouth in the spirit of Pussy Riot), “Carcass” (the artist turned into a prickly thread against the law-making activity of the state), the already known “Fixation” on Chervonia Square, “Freedom” ( strikes with claws according to the burning idea, as a reconstruction of the Maidan), “Viddelennya” (cut earlobe as a sign of protest against the use of psychiatry for political purposes), “Threat” (under the fire of the door of the FSB on Lubyantsa as a symbol of terrorism on the side of the special services) and “Illumination” ( illumination) to the Bank of France with appeals to the Light Revolution).

Petro Pavlensky – “Threat” campaign

2. Pussy Riot- a punk group that staged a scandalous action on February 21, 2012 at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Climbing onto the pulpit, the actionists (four dozen members of the art group “War”) danced and chanted for forty seconds: “Virgin Mary, marry Putin!” Everything was filmed and posted on the Internet. The video evoked a great deep resonance, accumulating hatred and giving rise to such a protest in the temple on the side of believers. Bag: 2 cases by piece 2 articles 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism) were removed by Nadiya Tolokonnikova, Maria Alohina and Katerina Samutsevich. The fourth member of the group is still under investigation.

Pussy Riot - punk prayer at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

3. Art group “Vіyna”- the most radical grouping of action artists. They smelled and boldly broadcast their ideas through a close connection with reality: they organized an orgy in the Zoological Museum in support of the birth of Dmitry Medvedev, designated by Putin in 2008 (the “Fuck for Vedmedic's medical emergency"), overturned police cars ("Two" action, scattered At the Moscow court of the Madagascar Targans (action “Cockroach Court”), they designed, using a laser, images of skulls and tassels on the façade of the Budinka District of the Russian Federation (action “Storm the White House”).

Art group “War” – event “Storm the White House”

4. Liza Morozova- The author of over 70 performances, shown in Russia, Europe and America, his creative style is close to the Serbian master of performance Marini Abramovic. Liza Morozova demonstrates her performances, body art, and installations at art exhibitions. Their artistic methods are not aggressive and are on par with other actionists: anti-war performance, where Morozova is naked with her eyes sealed with tape and is tempted to throw a toy tank over her heads (performance “Batkivshchina” a-mati"), because there are beautiful girls who gently hug their partners in a friendly way. exhibitions (performance "Testing the Glamor").

Liza Morozova – performance “Batkivshchina-Mother”

6. Katrin Nenasheva- The girl who walked the streets of Moscow for 23 days this summer in virtual reality eyepieces. Using VR eyepieces, she looked at images and panoramic videos of psycho-neurological boarding schools, where people have been unable to go beyond their limits for decades.

The first action of Katrin Nenashova was called “Don’t be afraid”, which paid respect to the problems of women’s post-prison adaptation. As part of the action, Katrin walked around Moscow in a prison uniform, together with Nadiya Tolokonnikova, sewed a Russian ensign on Bolotnaya Square and bare her head from the Kremlin.

Katrin Nenasheva – action “Between here and there”

Another action, “Punishment,” was dedicated to the theme of cruelty against children’s budyns. Three important artist-actionists wore a medical blanket behind their backs and in public places knew the punishments that were given to orphaned children: she stood on peas and ate salt. At the end of the action, she gave a loving bandage to a disabled boy.

Greedy, unintelligent mystique

In the current realities, the Russian marriage is reduced from obvious ignorance and fear to actionism. Artists of this type of mysticism are branded as divine and evil spirits, holy fools and villains. But they will continue to chew the river at the river and press on the sore points of the marriage and power.

Much like a book or a film, the “here and now” mode presents the entire spectrum of meanings and ideas, desires and fears, past and future. Let go of this mysticism, which looks like a miracle, a garden, abominable, majestic, with a hundred pastures and barks, yet its mission to protect the protest spirit is very ugly and inexplicably dying.

DMITRY ZHATUKHIN

Massacres of protest by action artists constantly evoke a wide resonance, after which everyone forgets about them until such a performance. Let’s highlight the butt of the recent revolution in Lubyantsa. However, these other unreasonable inhabitants are not the only performances that were controlled in our region. Russia has other actions, and about the greatest performances that we can remember, this post tells us.

Rukh E.T.I., “E.T.I. - Text"

1991 r_k, Chervona square

The pioneers of what is commonly called Moscow actionism, the creations of Anatoly Osmolovsky “Rukh E.T.I.”, are placing their bodies on the Brukivtsi Chervona Square with the word starting with the letter X. Formally, the performance will coincide with the release of the 15th quarter the 1991 law on morality, which included a ban on obscene huskies in urban areas. This very action is considered by many art critics to be the starting point for Moscow actionism through the profound resonance it evokes.

Oleg Kulik, “The Dog of Legends”

1994 RIC, Yakimanka,
Marat Gelman gallery

At the fall of the leaves in 1994, the Kiev artist Oleg Kulik first showed Moscow his famous dog man - one of the symbols of the radical mysticism of the 90s. The naked Kulik on the Lancuse jumped out of the doors of Marat Gelman's gallery on Yakimantsi, the other end of the stake with whom was Oleksandr Brenner, another prominent Moscow actionist. Then Kulik never showed his “dog” performances: in Zurich, Stockholm, Rotterdam and New York. According to the artist’s words, we realized that the “dog cycle” had come to us, then, when they began to ask him to join his image at the close for pennies.

Oleksandr Brener, “What David didn’t do”

1995 RIC, Lubyanska Square

The artist Oleksandr Brener, who has followed 90 years of knowledge of people and legislation, on May 11, 1995, overtook the flow of cars, standing in the center of Lubyanskaya Square, where the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky had previously stood, and loudly shouted: “Hello! I am your new commercial director! In another of his most famous actions, Brener carried out a few months before: the people on Chervona Square in boxing gloves and shouting: “Yeltsin! Come out, you fucking bastard!” In 1997, the artist left Russia for the last time.

Anatoly Osmolovsky, Avdey Ter-Oganyan,
Kostyantin Zvezdochetov and others, “Barikada”

1998 RIC, Velika Nikitskaya street

Before the 30th century of the French student revolution, a group of Moscow actionists blocked Velikaya Nikitskaya Street with empty cardboard boxes, chanting the cry “It’s forbidden to fence!”, “You are being deceived!” and “All power is gone!” This largest mystical action was held in Moscow: nearly 300 people took part in it. The authors of “Barikady” - artists and friends of the magazine "Radek" - identified their work as testing non-traditional technologies of political struggle in modern Russia.

Avdey Ter-Oganyan, “Junius the Atheist”

1998 RIC, “Manege”

The famous performance by Avdey Ter-Oganyan at the exhibition "Art-Manege-98": cutting the huge icons of "The Savior Not Made by Hands", "The Mother of God of Volodymyr" and "The Almighty Savior". According to the words of the curator of “Art-Manege” Olenya Romanova, in this manner the artist opposed his art to the world of orthodox Christianity. The performance was blamed on the fascination of the voyeurs, and Ter-Oganyan was hit with a criminal case for the article “The destruction of the national, racial and religious warlock,” which was closed in 2010, literally after the term of limitation has ended. Ter-Oganyan left Russia in 1999.

Oleg Mavromatti, “I Can’t Believe My Eyes”

2000 RIC, Bersenivska embankment

The most famous performance by actionist Oleg Mavromatti: in the courtyard of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, he was tied to a wooden cross, nailed to it with flowers, and on his back with flowers were written the words: “I am not the son of God.” This action does little to desacralize physical suffering. On Mavromatti, a criminal case was also opened for the charges against the rogue inter-national and inter-religious warlock; in the 2000s, you had to leave Russia.

Group “Bombili”, “Car race of the unworthy”

KVITEN 2007 ROKU, Pokrovsky Boulevard

The group “Bombs” was created by scientists and spyrobots from Oleg Kulik’s studio Anton “Madman” Mikolaiv and Oleksandr “Superhero” Rossikhin. On the day of the “March of the Misfits”, April 14, 2007, a “family” was driving through the streets of Moscow, in which a man and a woman were driving. In this way, the Mitzi wanted to say that control over marriage is similar to control over sexual life. Who respects this action so much that it fueled the growth of the new Russian actionism.

Group “Bombili”, “Bila Line”

TRAVEN 2007 ROKU, Krimsky Val

At the same time, the “Bombili” group organized another similar action - just like Gogol’s “Viya”, they christened the klaida kolo along the line of the Garden Ring. Kolo closed on Krimsky Val, and the artists themselves declared that they wanted to cleanse Moscow of the evil spirits that had filled the center.

Group "War"
“***** for the decline of the vedmezha”

BEREZEN 2008 ROKU,
Biological Museum named after Timiryazev

The action, which forever symbolized the image of the main action group of the late 2000s, among the distant, seemingly everyday mysteries of people: one-hour sex of several couples at the biological museum ahead of the 2008 presidential elections. Behind the words of the activists, at the moment when Volodymyr Putin voiced that his attacker, unknown to anyone at that time, Dmitro Medvedev, “the edge of justice has come,” and the stinks have been transferred to the whole of my current misery.

Group "War"
“Lyonya ***** is crooking the federals”

2010 RIC, Kremlin embankment

On May 22, 2010, Viyna activist Leonid Nikolaev, better known as Lionya *** (Crazy), hit the FST service car with a flashing light near the Great Kamyan Bridge. For this action, Mikolaev was charged with the article “Hooliganism”, which carries the maximum punishment for an arrest of up to 15 days.

Group "War", "Lobzay Smittya"

2011 rik, “Kitay-Misto” and other metro stations

On 1st February 2011, in accordance with the law “On Police”, activists of the group “Vina” staged an action near the Moscow metro: Nadiya Tolokonnikova and Katerina Samutsevich kissed a police officer ї. Tolokonnikova later indicated that the wives were more shocked not by those who kissed them, but by those who treated representatives of the same status as them.

Pussy Riot, “Virgin Mary, Putin’s wife”

2012 RIC, Cathedral of Christ the Savior

There is a rumor about the “punk prayer” of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, it seems, in the most remote corners of Russia, and there is no need to hear about it. After the performance, two of her convicts - Nadiya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alokhina - were sentenced to two years of freedom for the article “Hooliganism” and sentenced in 2013 to amnesty. , two months before the official end of the term. Nadiya Tolokonnikova repeatedly witnessed the action in the KhHS nearby.

Petro Pavlensky, “Fixation”

2013 river, Chervona square

First Moscow and now the most publicized action of the St. Petersburg actionist Pyotr Pavlensky: the naked artist nailed his scrotum with a flower to the stone brook of Chervonoya Ploshcha. Pavlensky himself later explained that the action became a metaphor for the apathy and political indifference of the Russian marriage. Many activists of the 90s gave Pavlensky’s work a high rating, and then the Minister of Culture Volodymyr Medinsky recommended that all lovers of Pavlensky’s creativity should visit the Museum of the History of Medicine and Psychiatrists ї.

Petro Pavlensky. "Viddelennya"

2014 RIC, Institute named after Serbsky

At the same time, following a psychological and psychiatric examination of the Ukrainian lyricist Nadiya Savchenko, who was not allowed to work with the Ukrainian consul and lawyer, Pavlensky Prov. launched the “Vivdilennya” campaign: he cut himself with a kitchen knife and earlobe, sitting on the floor of the Institute of Psychiatry named after Serbsky. The purpose of this action, according to the words of the artist’s lawyer, was to condemn the psychiatric labels that are hung on people who do not fit into the framework of the public thought.

“Blue top”, “Devil, why are they kicking. Desecration of the Mausoleum"

Sichen 2015 Rock, Chervona Square

Members of the group “Blue Vershnik” Oleg Basov and Yevgen Avilov on September 20, 2015 doused the Lenin Mausoleum with holy water shouting “Get up and go.” After the actions of activity, which brought out the sense of their origin in the cleansing of everyday minds in the wake of the Radian fall, ten days of arrest were taken away.

Katrin Nenasheva, “Don’t fight”

Cherven 2015 ROKU, Chervona square

The 30-day campaign of performance artist Katrin Nenashova to encourage the improvement of wives, which also ended on Chervonia Square. For the past month, only one woman walked around Moscow in a prison uniform, and on the final day, her comrade-in-arms, Hanna Beauclair, shaved Katrina’s head two short days from the Kremlin. Not being able to finish the performance, the girls were saddled with three pounds.

Petro Pavlensky, “The Threat”

leaf fall 2015 ROKU, Lub'yanska Square

“The threat of imminent reprisals hangs over everyone who is within the reach of external security devices, wiretapping, and passport control. Military courts will liquidate whatever they wish. Terrorism can only be realized without the help of the creaturely instinct of fear. Against this human instinct, an insane, dry reflex is disturbing. This is a reflex to fight for life. And let’s live in order to start fighting for someone else,” - this is how Petro Pavlensky commented when the door fell at the head of the FSB alarm. At the Tagansky Court of Moscow, where on the 10th of November, a virok was wined at the artist’s right, Pavlensky wants to try him for terrorism - like “Crimean terrorists”, director Oleg Sentsov and anarchist Oleksandr Kolchenko. The court decided to reclassify on the right and sent Pavlensky to a month in pre-trial detention.

Anatoly Osmolovsky (one of the founders of Moscow actionism): I think it’s even better that this kind of daily mysticism emerges as actionism. And it’s good that there is a cry of extortion among broad sections of the population, because the desire for the avant-garde is burning and a daily mysticism lies in those who are not opaque. In this world of total brilliance, absolute clarity and uncompromising balacanina there is a kind of “hardcore” haircut. The axis of present-day mystery is this haircut, and it’s not for everyone’s teeth. And so it may be. And then we need to raise even more degrees.

Petro Verzilov (communal activist, member of the art group “Vіyna”): It seems to me that actionism is such a secret instrument, like a howitzer or an artillery installation.

Nadiya Tolokonnikova (participant of the Pussy Riot group, served at least two convictions for hooliganism): Oh my God, I don’t smell anything.

Verzilov: This is such a complex setup that you still need to learn how to master it. And this dislike by people is explained by the fact that they simply do not understand how this instrument works. For example, the classic line: having said that, you have everything for PR. It seems that people who live in media products in this sphere are all working for PR. The “Russia-1” channel in the PR plan is richly sophisticated, even if it is not action-oriented.

Tolokonnikova: I am absolutely not suitable, because today’s mysticism is a particularly complex sphere. Whatever sphere a person engages in professionally becomes complicated simply because he thinks about a number of problems at every hour of the day. Nuclear physics has a rich history of modern science. And the mystery that we call classic, I think, is no less complex, no less modern. In addition, as far as I know, a large number of events are carried out by artists in college stakes, but they don’t tell anyone about them and don’t post videos on the Internet. Therefore, I would not call media directness the main sign of actionism.

Osmolovsky: This is mysticism - it’s very simple for that sense that you can paint a black square on your skin. Then you marvel at Rembrandt’s painting and go crazy: “I definitely can’t do that.” And then you look at the “Black Square” and realize: I can do it. And then the following conclusion: if you value that you can paint the “Black Square” - paint! Start from tomorrow! Whose sense is the mission of daily mysticism, so that all humanity becomes artists, and the whole world becomes mysticism. І Pussy Riot for performance is like Malevich’s “Black Square” for painting. I want performances to be true, but they are not necessarily media-sensitive and visible. In the 70s, conceptualism, the group “Collective Actions”, went into the forest, and were present at their actions from five to fifteen people.

Artem Loskutov (founder of the Novosibirsk mystical action “Monstration”): Then the media were different. Media outlets provide information about those that are being developed immediately, for the next 15 days there will be no more. And try to compete with this flow of information. It's scandalous. You are about to take part in a secret dialogue, find out your point of view, and you need to work in such a way that you feel it. For whom should I have to go to jail? When such a great place as Moscow is busy and there are no delays, there is no need for new things. It is tamped with a necessary warehouse so that the huge message of activists can be felt. The same thing happens with people that it is not a political statement, but rather a mystical one.

Osmolovsky: The scandalousness of the performances seems to be something that doesn’t matter. Let’s take for example the performance of Avdey Ter-Oganyan, who chopped up the rich Sofrino seeds (typical icons of the Sofrino production enterprise. – Editor’s note). For this, he threatened the prison term, and also emigrated. Why did a repressive machine run over him? Literally a month before this, a group of “Corrosion of Metal” appeared, which, in the eyes of the Orthodox, was engaged in absolutely satanic sabbaths. There you can show Jesus Christ up on the mountain with your feet, and everything that is good. Ale “Corrosion of metal” may be. And the name is Brintsalov (Russian entrepreneur and politician, from 1995 to 2003 he was a deputy of the State Duma. – Editor’s note).

Tolokonnikova: And who gives Sector Gaza? I was simply extremely pleased when I sat at the sewing machine in the prison workshop, convicted of religious hatred, and every time in my place, where I was less likely to change, the song sounded on repeat: “Opa, opa, green fence, /D ivki... [fucked ] butt - so you need it!

Osmolovsky: Don't know. Ale mitzi – these are the people who are defined without any dahu. And this evokes greedy hatred among the owners. When Pussy Riot climbed onto the salt, through this there was a wild cry - but Kirkorov appeared on this salt, and Putin there, having caught my tongue, and not seeing anyone from whose drive the same negative emotions.

Petro Pavlensky (action artist; the most important action took place during the fall of leaves in 2013: Pavlensky relaxed and nailed his scrotum with a flower to the brook of Chervonoya Ploshcha): I don’t respect that actionism is This is a direct connection to the current mystique. Today’s mysticism contrasts itself with the mystique of the traditional, the classical. Actionism cannot be either classical or modern. Diogenes masturbated on the square - Brener also masturbated. According to Christian mythology, Jesus was nailed to the cross – Axis and Mauromatti nailed themselves to the cross. It’s tough every hour. The people appear unprotected, so they cannot help but get out. This creates unnecessary circumstances, and with its action it signifies a political situation. Whether the myth is more political in principle, you will know in which regime you are alive and what you have to do with it or not. And actionism, which is a political mysticism, deserves respect that people are aware of beginning to use the instruments of power. The intoxication of people, court proceedings, the psychiatric system, smіttya, ideology, propaganda of snake oil – these are all the tools of power. It is a political idea to set the right tools for your own goals. And the purpose of mystery is free practice, the struggle for the instillation of free thought.

Osmolovsky: I am absolutely no good with you, I don’t even bring everything up to the political. There may be existential problems. What sense does your performance on Brukivtsa Chervona Square have at once both political and existential. And speaking in a historical context, in Russia there was a tradition of holy fools, who carried out various performances and actions. For example, if Nikola Salos gave Ivan the Terrible a piece of raw meat. Ivan the Terrible then destroyed Novgorod and went on to destroy Pskov. Ale yogo zustriv, this blessed one upon entering the place and starting to give him meat: “Eat, Ivanko.” And it’s the hour of dawn, and it seems terrible: Why are you throwing meat at me? Toy says: “Well, it’s like human meat.” After this, Ivan the Terrible turned around and left. And this was a feat, but Ivan the Terrible was a real hero. And if we look at the middle-class Western European culture, then there was a fundamentally different tradition - courtly temptations. Blazen is a human being, as much as he can afford, but he will soon sleep under a king or a duke. This is a conformist culture. There is no one behind the holy fools.

Volodymyr Ovcharenko (founder of one of the oldest Moscow galleries - “Regina”, where more than one artistic event was held): What is present here is one of the patriarchs of Russian actionism, which originated from Ro This is the mystique of the 90s, and the representatives of the new generation. During the period between the other half of the 90s and the end of the 2000s, it is not immediately clear what significant mystical actions were lost in the history of mysticism. Perhaps actionism is a form of mysticism, as it tends to appear and we are aware of the necessity of promoting this type of artistic dialogue. The contagion of politics and the economy is a major collapse of some giant strata. And this is why the young are blamed for the need of the wealthy. Chantly, we still love new artists and new promotions. I don’t know whether their degree will be higher or lower. We can only say that it is still very much alive.

Loskutov:“Monstrations” is also a kind of giant gymnastics. Five thousand people are following us. We give people a superprimitive form of learning - the fate of a walking exhibition, a happening. Just take a stick, glue a paper to it, write it down, and you can get it done. It's simpler, lower brother combo, guitar and mask and go where to play. Therefore, such a conclusion appears.

Osmolovsky: You need to create the tradition of “Monstrations” in all places. And then just once - and all LGBT rights are gone. There will be gay parades for you.

Ovcharenko: Why do you make such a fuss about this topic, Anatoly?

Osmolovsky: And I am for the rights of minorities.

Verzilov: This is all that prepares us for the uprising, that mysticism is camouflaged preparation for the uprising.

Osmolovsky: In Russia, there was a full-fledged system of institutions of daily mysticism, museums, festivals, this and that, five to ten - I guess that this energy is small and would otherwise manifest itself. Our prospects, as Arkady Pivnichny sang, are even frowning. In Russia there is absolutely God's will - this obscurantist chauvinistic propaganda, this character called Putin, who, in my opinion, has already gone where he is going. From now on, the degree of reaction on the part of artists, I guess, will improve. Once I started working on my shares, I was not ready to sit in prison. Now people are already ready to sit at the vault. And we have a sense of great traditions - the same people's will... We can go to hell.

Tolokonnikova: It seems to me that this became especially noticeable after Putin was inaugurated for a third term. We were imprisoned the day before, and in this sense the food was given sooner to Pyotr Pavlensky than to us. We acted in this buried epic from the end of 2011 to the beginning of 2012, when “Get Putin” was extinguished, which was, in essence, conformist for our middle class. The thought of prison punishment was crazy, but it didn’t prevail when hundreds of thousands of people came out on the streets next to you.

Pavlensky: This is the fear that they will close you down, that there will be repressions, this is also a management tool that needs to be used. If you stupidly give in to him, then it turns out that you are a conductor of the will of the ruler. Of course, you shouldn’t stand in front of anyone, so they’ll put you in jail. As if I just wanted to be imprisoned, I wrote and ransacked the store. But for me, the greatest success is not to put Vlad in hopelessness. Create such a situation so that the instruments of power are destroyed, they begin to work against themselves, and thus become involved in the artistic process. Then the victory of mysticism is expected. Pussy Riot attracted a huge number of people.

Osmolovsky: I respect that the man has no right to go to trial. Whose sense is that the fact that Pussy Riot got into trouble is bad luck. Because the distance is ruined. When a person is imprisoned in prison, it is impossible to speak about this mysticism more objectively, and it is impossible to criticize the one who is sitting in prison.

Tolokonnikova: Since the artist has enough inner strength to ensure that the artist continues to behave well and not become a victim, then I respect that he has the right to work. How did Masha Alokhina fix it? Vona turned her back to the camera and noticed the destruction. They wholeheartedly discussed in court that she was 10 days behind the official date. There she just went crazy there... [fucked]. In my opinion, it's great. This is mysticism. And if a person is able to work, then she can do it until the end. For me there is no other food available. Tolstoy's theme is so satisfying - that it is necessary for sensible people to go to the people, grow a beard and dig the earth from them at the same time. So, given that we set ourselves political goals, why should we, cutting our own balls, come to the attention of pop culture, become sane? Why should we wonder about these foods that we need, at the same time as our professionalism? It will be absolutely unintelligible to most.

Ovcharenko: The general public, but the elite. To present the history of the region there is a museum. The museum holds exhibitions and collects. What do you want to know, who of you, young boys, wants to go to the museum?

Tolokonnikova: I watch the museum every day in my comments.

Pavlensky:Є information field. The artist or activist creates a precedent for this information field. And then it is necessary to deprive it of free access to absolutely everyone. If you want, mentally, to take a photograph of the action and hang it on the wall near the studio, where pornographic films are made, be kind. If you want a bottle on the label, be kind. Please let us know the political situation clearly. Less important otherwise. I was talking about political mysticism, and there is also another category - formal mysticism. Mystery as decoration. These are the same things that I want to miss in life. It doesn’t matter what the institution, the interlier, or the regime shapes it. Because the mysticism of a deputy is not prostitution. Political mysticism is the same as the mysticism that forgives.

Osmolovsky: As long as the mystery is correct, there is no need to deal with formalities. I am for all types of art - painting, sculpture and performance, actionism. Ale actionism - on the right of the young. This requires form - moral, physical. In actionism there is a great number of such speeches, which are important for people in the past. For example, I was already in the 90s. This is all you do - and then the entire nervous system is damaged. People who were involved in actionism in the 1990s all either preferred to sit on antidepressants. You know, just as a terrorist has three fates, an actionist has seven fates. Therefore, if I believe that I am moving behind the preparation of the position. And I hope you will have a chance to think about this topic in about an hour. Because people are like people who wear out.

Marina Abramovich

Russia, Moscow, 1975 (repeat 2005)
Promotion "Thomas Lips"

Purpose: “Thomas’s Lips”, a performance, more recent than the repetitions of Abramovich of 2005, is the most autobiographical work of hers. The famous Serbian experimented extensively with the limits of the capabilities of the human body, and this is neither the most dangerous nor the shocking of from the bright point of view, but the artist herself has seen him from low wealth more than once . During the performance, Abramovich made a kilogram of honey and drank a liter of red wine, smashed the stones with her hand, cut a five-pointed communist star on her stomach with a razor, twisted her boot, and then lay down on a sheet of ice in front of her. and the cross, directing itself into the living environment. Suddenly, she added music to all the fortune-telling events - a Russian song about the Slovenian soul, which the artist sang long ago, through long-lasting wounds in her life. The symbolic ritual became for her a way to reconnect with the communist and orthodox past of her homeland.




Rudolf Schwarzkogler

Austria, Viden, 1965
Promotion “3rd promotion”

Purpose: In the 60s, Schwarkogler, together with other Austrian artists, launched the famous “Wednesday actionism” - in their own style and all at the same time they shocked the enormity with crooked mystical actions at a rate for self-rolling. While planning his performance, Rudolf described Yogo this way: “The head rests on a piece of lard. Black liquid drips from the bandages on the eyes of the fat. A hand with nails, stuffed with black varnish, rest on the head.” In 1969, Schwartzogler ended his life by self-destruction - which, perhaps, became his main act of mysticism.




Tanya Bruguera

Cuba, Havana, 1997-1999
Promotion “Vantazh Proviny”

Purpose: In 1997, Bruguera's family collected spies from a military building near the Cuban capital. Guests could see how the naked artist stood with the crooked carcass of a lamb tied to her neck and generously ate the earth mixed with water, putting seeds in her mouth and chewing ice. The performance lasted for many years and created a scene of collective self-destruction of the Indians on Liberty Island, when the Spanish colonizers began to abuse its native population (the Indians also lost the land, through which death occurred). The performance brought Brughese great popularity in Zakhad and, at the same time, once again attracted critics and the public from further works.




Petro Pavlensky

Russia, Moscow, 2013
Promotion "Fixation"

Purpose: “Fixation” (that was the title of Pavlensky’s dedication to his genitals before the brook of Chervonoya Ploshcha) - the artist’s third action with elements of light masochism on the 10th of leaf fall, on Police Day, in fact naked Pavlensky nailed his scrotum with flowers to the edge of his head. The social commentary before the event sounded like this: “The naked artist who marvels at his eggs, nailed to the Kremlin brook, is a metaphor for apathy, political indifference and the fatalism of the current Russian marriage.” Maidan Pavlensky was deprived of a police escort and a day of stay at the hospital. Investigators have completely destroyed the law about this hooliganism, although it was already closed.




Boryana Rossa

Bulgaria, Sofia, 2004
Promotion “Remaining Valve”

Purpose: The authorship of the Bulgarian artist, feminist activist (and the squad of Oleg Mavromatti) is due to one of the most radical women’s actions - “The Remaining Valve”. Before the speech, she herself is closest to the technique of Pavlensky’s work: declaring about the future, more specifically, gender boundaries, in 2004, Boryana Ross publicly sewed up her vagina. The title of the work “The Remaining Valve” directly refers to Lenin’s famous article of the same name, dedicated to criticism of Stolipin’s reform. Thus, the action has not only a gender, but also a political subtext.




Oleg Mavromatti

Russia, Moscow, 2000 r_k
Promotion "Don't Believe It"

Purpose: In the 1980s, Mavromatti was best known as the editor of a magazine (with a long history of “There Is No Time”) and the leader of two punk bands. From the beginning of the 90s, I joined the team of radical representatives of Moscow actionism. Working together with Anatoly Osmolovsky and Oleksandr Brener, being a participant in the movement “ETI” (“Expropriation of the Territory of Mystery”) and creating the art group “Sects of the Absolute Kohannya”. On the 1st of April 2000, Oleg Mavromatti held the action “I Can’t Believe My Eyes”, at which time they drank on a wooden platform, and on the back they scribbled the inscription “I am not the son of God” with a razor. With his work, the artist criticized the power of the church in the current Russian marriage. For what, please, I will be sentenced for article 282 “Rozpalyuvannya inter-religious and inter-ethnic war.” Without paying attention to the court, Mavromatti hastily migrated to Bulgaria, then to the USA and still lives outside Russia.

While our materials are focused on actionism, which has come to a head, most readers are likely to cry out at most of the unreasonableness, and at most of the guilty hostility. To learn more about nutrition, we have prepared a series of materials about the history of actionism, its tools and work. In the first article, the editor of the “Mystery” section of the Colta website, Sergey Guskov, explains how actionism works and why wine is needed.

How does it work

I recently knew Mikhailo Zaikanov. Having created a secret group on Facebook, where, however, I immediately wrote down hundreds of friends who called for other possible participants. There, he explained the essence of the action, what was being prepared, presented the scenario and described it for the sake of the lawyers whom he had previously consulted. In advance (of the same group on FB), journalists and bloggers arrived on the scene from afar. It's time, it's time. People gather and make their way to McDonald's from the Pushkinska metro station. The police are asking to disengage and the standard “not to cross pedestrians.” The participants of the action, having earned their right, go.

Social networks have photographs, and news sites publish materials: the action is called a flash mob, the participants are called political activists. Every now and then the details are recreated. These are interpreted, and different senses are invested in them accordingly. The promotions, in all their sincerity, appear directly in the documentation - photos, videos, descriptions. The evidence is not so rich, but human memory is not a great thing: details are forgotten, fantasies are added. Therefore, Mitzi tries to call those who will represent their action.

This one of the scenarios is far from unique, although it is characteristic. The preparatory stage, as well as the implementation of the plan, can be complex or simple, it can involve more or fewer participants. There is only one technology: to base everything, such as painting, sculpture and video art, on the talent of a particular artist and furnishings.

What is politics like here?

Actionism has always had one foot in the territory of radical politics, along with a huge support and fight for rights. You have to drink often and accept it in such a way that it is a kind of protest. I would like to forget that, first of all, artists choose topical subjects in a playful form, and in another way, they need political themes in most cases for the most rapid development of internal artistic nutrition, but and their spouses.

Sometimes it is difficult to say that what we have before us is a political or artistic action, a movement of mysticism or a huge protest. It turns out that it’s easy to finish, although there is no universal rule. Just an eye opener. That's why it's super cool. It is clear that Jan Palach’s self-inflation at Praza in 1969 does not remain in the territory of mysticism, just like the action of the group “Vіiny”, since they commemorated Dmitry Prigov in the Moscow metro, is not at all about the politics of the underground rosuminni.

In Russia, where public politics is daily, whatever action takes place in the great city - and mystical actions are recklessly carried out on their own - is seen as a threat to the “order of speeches” on the one hand by those who maintain this order, and from another - those who want it change. This is such an over-worldly politicization of the actions of Viina, Pussy Riot or Pyotr Pavlensky. And this reaction did not deprive the government, but most of the inhabitants of the region - although, for example, in the 1980s and 1990s, the activities of Moscow actionists were handled less aggressively and buried, and they sang without pathos. Shvidshe, yak divactvo and hooliganism. After all, the “roaring 1990s” are something that has never happened except for the actions.

The authorities of the FSB and other police didn’t give a damn about artists until they encroached on the sacred. In 1999, members of the group “Positive Control Commission” climbed onto the Mausoleum with a banner “Against everyone”, where they were covered. Therefore, according to the law, if the majority of citizens voted against all elections in any election, presidential or parliamentary, then all the many candidates will be removed from the vote, which threatens the political system that has emerged. This oversight was later corrected by the authorities, and the activity of action artists began to be punished. I touch. And the ironic “Monstration”, and the world-famous dances in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and the arrival of the eggs to the Brook on Chervonia Square, rolled over fences, ended in criminal investigations, and then proper repressions.

In Russia, where public policy is daily, whatever action takes place in the city - and mystical actions are recklessly carried out on their own - is seen as a threat to the “order of speeches”, on the one hand, by those who maintain this order, And from other things, those who I want to change something.

Is this necessary and why does it look like that?

Artistic actions allow us to better understand the history of the region and the mood of the family. The most beautiful events, like the best films and books, can be said in more than an hour, without the help of history. It's so obvious. The daily mystique has the power to turn to topical plots, or those that need to be avoided - not always in an obvious manner - it helps to take a different look at those that are about to happen. When in the 1990s, at the site of the erected monument to Dzerzhinsky, the artist Oleksandr Brener called out to passers-by: “I am your new commercial director!”, it was a sign of the era that had changed - in place of one “shrine” came another.

The artists themselves in their actions, like most creators in other media (paintings, installations, video), often invest in things that are not the same as those who will benefit from them. In this case, artists can even seriously and comprehensively talk about the political background of their activities, and, in addition, the internal logic of the development of mysticism, the evolution of the artist himself - and those before get lost. However, the very expansion of actionism is connected, first of all, with the fact that mystity is always looking for and finding new, accessible ways of dialogue with the observer. Viden's actions took to the streets and other public places at a time when it was no longer possible not to note the influx of snakes and the information space that they create. Today’s artists reacted in the same way to the Internet and social media: the same actions of “Vina”, Pussy Riot and Pavlensky without whom simply would not have been noted.

The most widespread reaction: “Everything is worthless, we ourselves can earn it, the axis used to be a real mystery.” But at any given moment, the painting changed with the influx of new surroundings (which does not mean that the painting will not become a relevant media in the future - everything is possible), the classics are stuck in copies - in well-handled albums or at least . People, including those who are overwhelmed by mystical actions, have a different view of speeches in the same way as there are dozens of fates, and from the knowledge that accepts changes, traditionally I'm sorry. In this way, the people of today were overwhelmed by a mysticism that was new to any era.