ABSTRACT

This chapter examines art actions by the Voina group Pussy Riot and by Petr Pavlenskii. Designed specifically for their mass media impact, these works have played a prominent role in recent Russian oppositional culture. Comparing the actions to precursors in the Western artistic tradition, the chapter presents a range of notable distinctions, most importantly the reduction of the artist's body to 'bare life' as a form of staged enjoyment; and the involvement of state authorities as a framing device. It considers earlier Russian and Soviet actionist tradition and traces the distinctive aesthetic and political genealogy of the contemporary works. In recent years it has become quite common for Russian artists and activists to pronounce the death of actionism. In the late 2000s, the Voina (War) group and their splinter faction, Pussy Riot, achieved international recognition with a number of 'loud' (i.e., high-profile) actions that accompanied the build-up to the Moscow protests of 2011-12.