[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Courtesy-Pussy-Riot-_-Taisiya-Krugovykh-Vasily-Bogatov_013_IMG_A0A444C9966F-8-2.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Russian Pavilion, already a focal point for pro-Ukrainian protests at the Venice Biennale, has drawn fresh controversy after an Instagram post accusing the anti-Putin band and art collective, Pussy Riot, of censorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cPussy Riot asked us to remove the footage featuring them from the documentary film about the project,\u201d the Russian Pavilion wrote in an Instagram caption beneath an image bearing the words \u201cCensored on request by Pussy Riot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe caption continued: \u201c[Pussy Riot] wrote that they do not want their protests shown in the Pavilion \u2026 strange. We wanted to be honest and show what really happened, but it\u2019s turning into pure self-censorship. Apparently they are unhappy with their own performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCommenting directly on the post, Pussy Riot responded: \u201clol are you even allowed to use Instagram,\u201d referring to the Russian government\u2019s 2022 ban of Instagram and Facebook after Meta, the platforms\u2019 parent company, was designated an \u201cextremist organization.\u201d The move was widely understood as a response to criticism of Russian soldiers on the platforms following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou forgot this part \u2014 meta is an extremist org in Russia since 2022,\u201d Pussy Riot continued, adding, \u201cbtw which vpn did you use, or is this one of the perks of being in Italy??\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSpeaking to ARTnews<\/em>, Pussy Riot\u2019s Nadya Tolokonnikova rejected the framing of the situation as an \u201chonest dialogue about censorship,\u201d citing the Russian government\u2019s record of suppressing dissent within its borders: \u201cthese are murders and people who throw people in jail for crayon drawings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tTolokonnikova also pointed out what she described as an obvious power imbalance between the parties involved\u2014\u201ca random exiled girl with some help from my punk feminist friends taking on a literal nation state\u201d.<\/p>\n \n\tTolokonnikova added that the pavilion\u2019s post was \u201ca good self-own by the Kremlin idiots,\u201d suggesting that \u201ceventually their superiors will try to redact and remove any mentions of this,\u201d and speculating that \u201cwhoever runs their IG account got a little zealous and successfully trolled by us. Mission accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe \u201cdocumentary film\u201d cited in the pavilion\u2019s post appears to refer to the digital documentation scheduled to screen outside the Pavilion for the remainder of the Biennale\u2019s run. Ahead of the Biennale\u2019s pre-opening vernissage (May 5\u20138), the Russian Pavilion faced intense backlash from the international art and political communities, including threats by the European Union to withdraw funding for the exhibition over Russia\u2019s continued invasion of Ukraine. Amid mounting sanctions on Moscow, the pavilion\u2019s team reportedly coordinated with Biennale organizers to open only during the preview period for live performances tied to the exhibition \u201cThe Tree Is Rooted in the Sky,\u201d leaving films of the performances to screen on monitors installed in the building\u2019s windows.<\/p>\n \n\tThe plan did little to quell the controversy surrounding Russia\u2019s participation. Dozens of protesters crashed the pavilion\u2019s opening, chanting slogans including \u201cRussia kills! Biennale exhibits!\u201d Leading the demonstration was Tolokonnikova alongside other members of Pussy Riot. The dissident punk collective and art project joined forces with FEMEN, the Ukrainian activist group that describes itself as fighting patriarchy \u201cin its three manifestations\u2014sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship, and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe scene, as ARTnews<\/em> wrote, \u201cquickly took on something of the feel of a mosh pit at a punk concert\u201d: protesters clad in the hot-pink balaclavas synonymous with Pussy Riot mingled with others who bared their breasts and sent plumes of yellow and blue smoke\u2014the colors of the Ukrainian flag\u2014into the Venice sky. <\/p>\n The post has been updated to include a comment from Nadya Tolokonnikova<\/em>. A representative of the Venice Biennale did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/russian-pavilion-pussy-riot-protest-footage-censorship-claim-1234785093\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Courtesy-Pussy-Riot-_-Taisiya-Krugovykh-Vasily-Bogatov_013_IMG_A0A444C9966F-8-2.jpeg?w=1024″] The Russian Pavilion, already a focal point for pro-Ukrainian protests at the Venice Biennale, has drawn fresh controversy after an Instagram post accusing the anti-Putin band and art collective, Pussy Riot, of censorship.\u00a0 \u201cPussy Riot asked us to remove the footage featuring them from the documentary film about the project,\u201d the Russian […]<\/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-1933062","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\/1933062","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=1933062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1933062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1933062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1933062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}