(Humlebæk) The first exhibition retracing the work of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot opened on Wednesday in a Danish modern art museum, the Louisiana, in the presence of four members of the Russian collective.
Produced under the leadership of Maria Aliokhina, a member of the group since 2011, the retrospective, which brings together photos and videos accompanied by numerous texts and explanatory drawings, was partially presented in an art gallery in Reykjavik last fall.
Approached by an Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson, and the Danish museum, the young woman then “started to collect works to show more and more actions, which are mostly unknown in the West,” she said. explained to AFP.
Three other members of the feminist collective, very critical of Vladimir Putin’s regime and mobilized against the war in Ukraine, were present at the inauguration of the exhibition in the famous museum, known for its political positions.
“Salman Rushdie first reappeared here in 1992, after the fatwa. In the 1980s, we organized many exhibitions on Russia, perestroika and human rights,” recalled its director Poul Erik Tøjner.
“So this institution has a certain power when it comes to showing these kinds of things, telling them.”
For Ms. Alyokhina, “if people read what I wrote (along the exposition), they will understand much better what is happening, what happened and what is happening now.”
“They will see our country all the way to hell,” she stressed.
Pussy Riot rose to fame after a performance deemed scandalous at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in 2012. There, young women sang a punk “prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to “drive out” Vladimir Putin.
Three of them, including Maria Alyokhina, were sentenced to two years of detention in a camp for acts deemed blasphemous. Ms. Alyokhina was released in December 2013.
Since then, the group has continued to denounce “totalitarianism” in Russia through various artistic performances presented during the exhibition.
In September 2021, Ms Alyokhina was sentenced to a year of “restrictions” on her freedom for calling for protests against the arrest of main Russian opponent Alexei Navalny.
Russian justice then toughened these measures, converting them into a prison sentence, which led the young woman to leave Moscow, disguised as a meal delivery girl.
The exhibition is on display in Denmark until January 14, 2024 before continuing to Montreal, Munich and Vancouver.