{"id":1923458,"date":"2026-05-06T10:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1923458"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:54:31","slug":"pussy-riot-and-femen-join-forces-in-anti-russia-protest-in-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1923458","title":{"rendered":"Pussy Riot and FEMEN Join Forces in Anti-Russia Protest in Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pussy-riot-femen-venice-biennale-protest.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\u201cRussia kills! Biennale exhibits!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDisobey! Disobey! Disobey!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cArt for show, graves below!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBlood is Russia\u2019s art!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSlava Ukraini!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThose were some of the chants from a few dozen protesters, some clad in pink balaclavas, some with bared breasts, floral crowns, and messages scrawled across their bodies, outside the Russian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale on Wednesday morning. Like clockwork at 11 a.m., under light rain in the Giardini, the group descended on the structure, inside which the country\u2019s official national participation is on view. Some protesters carried guitars, mock-performing to punk rock and hip-hop blaring from large portable speakers. With that soundtrack and with hundreds of observers and press crushing in to support, cheer, and\/or shoot video, the leafy area outside the pavilion\u2019s green-painted facade quickly took on something of the feel of the mosh pit at a punk concert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe protest was led by Nadya Tolokonnikova and other members of Pussy Riot, the famous protest band and art project, who joined forces with FEMEN, which describes itself as \u201can international women\u2019s movement of brave topless female activists painted with the slogans and crowned with flowers.\u201d Founded in Ukraine in 2008, the latter group fights patriarchy \u201cin its three manifestations\u2014sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship and religion.\u201d Protesters sent up plumes of pink smoke, echoing their headwear, alternating with yellow and blue smoke, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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FEMEN and Pussy Riot protest. <\/span>Courtesy Pussy Riot, Taisiya Krugovykh & Vasily Bogatov<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cRussia is waging a war against what they call the \u2018collective West,\u2019\u201d Tolokonnikova told a gathering of press before the action, \u201cso it\u2019s surprising to me that Europe still opens doors for Russian propaganda. It\u2019s not about free speech and censorship. If the Venice Biennale really cared about censorship, instead of Russian artists, they would work with artists who are currently incarcerated for supporting Ukraine, for standing up against the regime, for burning military draft offices. Those people are in jail for thousands of years for mostly ridiculous charges.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTolokonnikova has proposed that she and her allies take over the Russia Pavilion, and put in its place an alternative exhibition that would demonstrate how Russia is \u201conce again turning into a gulag,\u201d Tolokonnikova has said. Their proposed show, \u201cResistance Imprisoned,\u201d is on view through May 31 at Ritsch-Fisch Galerie in Strasbourg, France. Incarcerated artists are included, along with former political prisoners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf art is meant to represent a country at the Venice Biennale\u2014something like the Olympics of the art world\u2014then artists imprisoned for their anti-war, pro-Ukraine stance are the real face of modern Russia,\u201d said Tolokonnikova in a statement supplied before the action.<\/p>\n

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Pussy Riot and FEMEN protest outside the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.<\/span>Courtesy Pussy Riot, Taisiya Krugovykh & Vasily Bogatov<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery Russian artwork shown this year stands on an invisible pedestal: Ukrainian blood,\u201d said FEMEN\u2019s Inna Shevchenko in the statement. \u201cYou won\u2019t find it in the catalogue. But it is the only material that truly holds this pavilion together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPussy Riot\u2019s actions have previously earned them prison time, including after they filmed a music video in 2012 in a Moscow church, calling it a \u201cpunk prayer\u201d to save Russia from its president, Vladimir Putin. They were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in prison.<\/p>\n

\n\tRussia\u2019s participation has been highly contested due to its ongoing war in Ukraine, ever since the country announced in March that it would return after not organizing a show for two straight editions. Some 22 high-ranking politicians representing European nations signed an open letter calling Russia\u2019s presence \u201cdeeply troubling.\u201d In April, Ukraine imposed sanctions on five Russian cultural figures who are involved with organizing Russia\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n

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Crowds protest outside the Russia pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Signs read \"enjoy the show, ignore the war\" and \"art for show, graves below\"<\/div>\n<\/div>
Pussy Riot and FEMEN protest outside the Russia pavilion at the Venice Biennale. <\/span>Brian Boucher<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tJust days before the show was to open to the press and VIPs on Tuesday, the Italian culture minister launched an investigation into any \u201cirregularities\u201d in documentation sufficient to prevent the pavilion from opening to the public on Saturday, including issues related to entry visas obtained for the Russian artists and their delegation.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter 20 minutes or so, the protesters retreated. Outside the US Pavilion nearby, a speaker at a press conference was reading a statement indicating that the US artist, Alma Allen, is making an argument for ambiguity. There was, however, no ambiguity at the Russia Pavilion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/pussy-riot-femen-protest-venice-biennale-russia-1234784186\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pussy-riot-femen-venice-biennale-protest.jpeg?w=1024″] \u201cRussia kills! Biennale exhibits!\u201d \u201cDisobey! Disobey! Disobey!\u201d \u201cArt for show, graves below!\u201d \u201cBlood is Russia\u2019s art!\u201d \u201cSlava Ukraini!\u201d Those were some of the chants from a few dozen protesters, some clad in pink balaclavas, some with bared breasts, floral crowns, and messages scrawled across their bodies, outside the Russian Pavilion at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1923458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1923458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}