PROTEST
The Russian punk band and anti-Kremlin activists deliver a protest message with irreverence and wit, writes Claire Keeton
Pussy Riot gives the police a run for their money
When Pussy Riot performers Veronika Nikulshina, Olya Kurachyova and Olga Pakhtusova step out their front door in Russia, they don’t know if they will be thrown in jail, or worse. Nikulshina says: “You wake up and don’t know where you will spend the night. The police station?” They look like any Gen Z artists — tattoos on delicate wrists, blue fingernails, dressed mostly in black, though Nikulshina’s wearing pink mules with white socks and Kurachyova has pink-washed locks — but these Pussy Riot members have an edge.
They are brave and sharp, their performances are mixed with razor-like humour.
To join the Russian anti-Kremlin punk group, whose number varies but is usually less than 12, you don’t need a Grammy award-winning voice. After all it’s mostly screaming.
What’s essential, says Kurachyova: “You need to be ready to fight and go to prison.”
Kurachvoya, Nikulshina and Pakhtusova are visiting Cape Town at the invitation of Italian performance artist Marinella Senatore.
“We never tell,” says Kurachyova, when asked if they will perform during the visit.
The trio from the anarchic collective, who fight for human freedoms like LGBT rights and freedom of expression, ran onto the pitch in the World Cup Soccer final dressed as policemen along with fellow band member Pyotr Verzilov to protest against Putin’s police state.
Kurachyova says: “Our point was that during the World Cup, Russian policemen behaved rather okay. They were polite and international media reported everything was great in Russia. We knew it was going to get worse after the World Cup, so we decided to use the final to remind the world about the problems.”
Russia has a lot of friendly people who know how to party, says Nikulshina, at which they all laugh.
But she says: “It is super sad for us that a lot of foreigners make YouTube videos that Russia is a great place. For local people, policemen are super bad, and it is getting worse.
“If you live in Russia you never know what might happen the next moment, even if you are not a political activist or artist. Even if you are an ordinary person, something awful can suddenly happen.”
Pussy Riot is famous for staging shows in bright neon tights and balaclavas which provoke outrage, like their 2012 performance against Putin in a Moscow cathedral.
Art needs a new language to influence people’s minds and inspire actions, they feel.
Pakhtusova says: “We have very serious problems, but we realised it doesn’t work to be very serious (pulling a long face). We must laugh at them, so we used bright colours and we were pretty successful for that moment.”
Asked how they got their uniforms for the World Cup protest, Nikulshina says: “As Vladimir Putin says, you can get a police uniform in every shop.”
French soccer star Kylian Mbappe returned a high-five when they invaded, unlike the hostile Croatian goalkeeper.
On Mbappe’s reaction, Nikulshina said: “Seeing me on the field he didn’t understand what is going on. He is such a pretty and very friend [sic] guy he wanted to interact with us.
“We had two weeks in jail with no access to a cellphone so we didn’t know what was going on.”
Nikulshina says they are not surprised at the crackdown after the soccer spectacle.
In September, Verzilov narrowly escaped dying from poisoning, before being treated by doctors in Berlin, Germany.
Nikulshina says: “We do not know the substance exactly but … this is a gesture to make us silent and afraid.
“He was unconscious in Berlin for a few days in hospital but now he is doing better and better.
“Right now our lawyer says it is not safe for him and me to continue our work in Russia.”
Kurachyova says: “We are always ready to be arrested but we never thought one of us would be poisoned.”
Last month Pussy Riot visited Hong Kong but the pro-democracy show they were to attend was cancelled.
Nikulshina says: “Russia is not China or Iran yet, but a lot of concerts have been cancelled by governors … they don’t understand that teenagers do a lot of these things (drugs and violence) because of their stupid laws and restrictions.”
More than 20 concerts have been cancelled this year in Russia, they said.
Pussy Riot dedicated their World Cup action to the dissident conceptual artist and poet Dmitri Prigov. The date of the final was the day before the 11th anniversary of his death on July 16.
Nikulshina says: “He was kind of our teacher on conceptual art as well as action. He wrote a lot about the heaven(ly) policeman which doesn’t exist in Russia.”
“I’m 21 and all my life has been under Putin’s control,” she says. “This has been a long summer. We have to be prepared for everything.” ● LS