If the escalation of violence in the Middle East has made you somewhat forget the war in Ukraine, count on Maria Alyokhina, leading figure of the protest group Pussy Riot, to set your mind straight.
The Russian feminist artist has just arrived in Montreal with several of her friends and collaborators for an exhibition, a show and a big dose of rebellion against Vladimir Putin and his terrible invasion of Russia’s neighbor.
And if you think you’re a spectator of all this, think again. Pussy Riot’s North American tour, with Montreal as its first stop, hopes to awaken the protesters who lie dormant in all of us. “It’s important for us to come to North America, but even more so to the United States on the eve of next year’s elections. Our protest story took place in Russia, but we always say that what happened in Russia can happen anywhere. We want to tell people that it is important to fight for their rights, for their freedoms,” says Maria Alyokhina.
The Moscow artist is already in Montreal, less than two kilometers from the premises of The Press, but she prefers to hold this conversation remotely, by videoconference. Behind her, employees of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art hang the works from the exhibition Velvet Terrorismwhich will be inaugurated on Tuesday and which tells the epic story of the Pussy Riot collective, from its creation in 2011 to today.
And what an epic! Hooded feminist artists have always had the gift of making an impression with their punchy performances. It was their punk prayer, in the immense Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, which made them known to the whole world in 2012. “Virgin Mary, mother of God, banish Putin!” “, they intoned while standing in front of the iconostasis of this church, emblem of a New Russia which preferred to rebuild temples at great expense than to feed its starving population. “The head of the KGB, the Chief Saint, takes the protesters to prison under escort. Don’t upset His Holiness, ladies. Keep making love and babies,” says the first verse of the prayer.
They didn’t think they said it so well. Maria Alyokhina, Nadia Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samoutsevich, three of the four participants, were arrested in the following weeks. They were not 25 years old.
Surprisingly, Maria Alyokhina laughs today when she thinks about this episode in her activist life. Her diaphanous face lights up.
The first time I felt the absurdity of the situation in Russia was during the lawsuit we were brought for the punk prayer at the cathedral. It was really fun. In court, state lawyers used language from the Middle Ages to the 21ste century and everyone could see it. They called feminism a “mortal sin” and it was recorded in Moscow court documents.
Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina
“It was fun, but it became very clear from the start of this cause that the price for our performance would be real imprisonment,” notes the artist who, with Nadia Tolokonnikova, was sentenced to two years in prison. detention in a penal colony that she calls the “gulag”, in reference to the detention camps of the Soviet period.
International pressure did its work and a year later, they were amnestied by Vladimir Putin. They immediately resumed their artistic protest. The whole world saw them being beaten with whips by Cossacks when they intervened during the Sochi Olympic Games. This scene worthy of the Middle Ages (once again) was just one of the episodes of violence suffered by the members of Pussy Riot for repeatedly defying the head of the Kremlin and his court.
This physical violence was accompanied by an all-out campaign of propaganda and disinformation. Today, Maria Alyokhina judges that it is “the most powerful weapon” that Russia has against its citizens, but also against the rest of the world.
“In Russia, we often had to take the time to explain to people that we had not protested naked in a church against God (as was reported on television), but that we were clothed and protesting against Putin. It’s worth it because every time people understand what we do, they support us. Many Russians hate Putin,” explains the artist.
People always ask me why the Russians don’t protest. You only need to have followed Russia five years before the war to understand. The Russians protested, but were beaten, poisoned, imprisoned and kicked out of the country.
Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina
“It ended with a full-scale invasion at a time when all the opposition was either dead, behind bars or in exile,” she summarizes.
Sentenced again for supporting other Russian dissidents in addition to opposing the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine, Maria Alyokhina was in prison when the Russian president announced that he was preparing to invade Ukraine. She witnessed from a distance the repression of anti-war protests and the imposition of censorship laws.
Under house arrest, labeled an “enemy of the people” with her life partner, Lucy Shtein, she finally decided to flee Russia in April 2022. Disguised as a restaurant delivery girl, she escaped the vigilance of the police who surrounded her residence and was able to travel to Belarus. Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson obtained a travel document which allowed Maria Alyokhina to reach Europe. Together, they put together the exhibition which is now traveling to Montreal.
How does she experience exile, having resisted it for many years? “I’ve spent a lot of time abroad since 2014, doing shows, giving conferences or speaking to politicians, but this is the first time I haven’t returned in a year and a half. I keep dreaming that I’m going home to spend some time at home. That I have a normal life, that I am not on the list of Russia’s most wanted people. And I wake up abroad. I didn’t build a second house in another country. I live with a suitcase and in a bag. I continue to do what I do. I would like to help Ukraine even more than I do now. It’s a very strong emotion for me. I want to help this country, the Ukrainians deserve it, and I am so ashamed of what the Russian army has done and is still doing. This war was predictable, but as a human, I can’t stand by and watch what they do. It’s horrible, unacceptable and it must stop. »
Lyrics by Pussy Riot.
Pussy Riot in Montreal
The exhibition
The Museum of Contemporary Art, in its temporary premises at Place Ville Marie, will present the exhibition Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia (Velvet terrorism: the Russia of Pussy Riot) from October 25, 2023 to March 10, 2024. Maria Alyokhina will deliver an inaugural conference with the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, instigator of the original exhibition, on October 25 at 6 p.m. at Gesù. The next day, the artist will guide the public through the exhibition at 5:30 p.m.
Multimedia performance
From the book by Maria Alyokhina, Riot Days is a multimedia show telling the story of Pussy Riot. It will be presented at the Rialto Theater on 1er November at 8 p.m.