“I want to show things how they are.”
Meet Maria (Masha) Alyokhina of the Russian activist movement Pussy Riot, who has been protesting against the regime of Vladimir Putin through public, colourful and non-violent actions for over a decade.
“The system pretends to have a serious face. That’s how they want the fear to go inside you and paralyse you. And we believe that the smile and humour break this fear.”
Maria Alyokhina describes today’s Russia as a totalitarian regime and the development since 2012 as “the road to hell”, reaching a low point with the attack against Ukraine in 2022.
“Since the full-scale invasion, I believe the world should unite and protect Ukraine. The main focus now should be on them. I just cannot share all my emotions because it’s a constant shame. It’s a constant dark shame. I don’t want Putin to win Ukraine.”
In the interview, Alyokhina also reflects on the role of the West in the years between Putin’s so-called re-election as President in 2012 and the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
“Pussy Riot reacted to injustice. When we see something that is unfair, we react. It happened step by step. There was no huge plan of resistance. Of course, revolution is the thing that lives in the heart. But we used what we had. We have been naked in front of the system. But we did something.”
Maria Alyokhina was born in Moscow in 1988 and grew up in 1990s Russia. She remembers “people lining up everywhere for food, clothes, vouchers.” Alyokhina was raised by her mother, a programmer, and did not meet her father, a math teacher, until she was 21. She hated the Russian educational system and changed schools four times: “They taught you not to think. They wanted us just to follow the rules. Obviously, I didn’t like it at all.” Alyokhina studied journalism and creative writing and was an environmental activist.
In 2011 Alyokhina joined the feminist-activist art collective Pussy Riot. At the time, the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had announced that he would again be running for president in the upcoming Russian elections in March 2012. Rooted in punk, humour, poetry and pure rage, Pussy Riot has become known for their famous spontaneous and courageous actions challenging the Russian regime. In 2012, they staged their first action on Moscow’s Red Square, performing a song that mocked Putin. Using colourful clothes, disguises and protest songs in their face-off with the Russian authorities, the collected actions of Pussy Riot stand out as some of the most powerful political art of the 21st century.
Several of Pussy Riot’s performances are legendary by now, including Punk Prayer, which took place in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012. As a result of the action, three of the group’s members, among them Alyokhina, were sentenced to two years in prison. They were charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” The trial and imprisonment received huge international attention. Viewers from all around the world also caught sight of four members of the group, disguised as police officers, running across the pitch during the 2018 World Cup final match between France and Croatia in Moscow.
Recurrent themes in Pussy Riot’s feminist, anti-Putin practice include freedom of expression, human rights, LGBTQ+ rights and the release of political prisoners, while recent actions and works feature anti-war statements and support for Ukraine. From the perspective of cultural history, the work of Pussy Riot is rooted in Dadaism and Fluxus and, in a broader sense, in the political art of 20th-century actionism while taking the methods of happening and performance art to the extreme in the unprotected environment of public spaces.
Pussy Riot deploys sudden actions with a surprise factor, which they document in photos and video. They also publish and perform punk music on tour, publish books, participate in debates and give political speeches. Today, Pussy Riot amount to more of a movement than a delimited collective. Pussy Riot is active in small groups and in a variety of non-coordinated projects throughout the world. Their motto is: Anyone can be Pussy Riot.
Maria Alyokhina from Pussy Riot was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in September 2023. The interview took place during the installation of the exhibition Velvet Terrorism – Pussy Riot’s Russia at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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