ABSTRACT
This chapter presents major exponents of Russian art activism's 'golden age' of 2007–2015 and some of their key performances. The exhibition traced the roots of contemporary Russian art activism back to the poet and conceptualist artist Dmitry Prigov. A thorough discussion of Prigov in the context of late- and post-Soviet Culture is found in E. Rutten. Art group Voina was formed in Moscow in winter 2007, when Natal'ia Sokol's and Oleg Vorotnikov's art group Sokoleg fused with Leonid 'Fucked-Up Lyonya' Nikolaev's art group Bombily. In contrast to political direct actions, Voina distanced themselves from ideology, regarding rebellion as an end in itself. The rapidly developing Western media narrative presented Pussy Riot reductively as a 'feminist punk band' and was quick to pigeonhole the activists as anti-Putin, effectively downplaying their messages of global relevance. Pussy Riot appeared anonymously in colourful home-knitted balaclavas and expressed themselves strictly collectively, implying that in principle anyone could become Pussy Riot.
