Pussy Riot has released a stylish, sexy new video that looks nothing like an illegal performance staged in an unpredictable location. Instead, the group’s early aesthetic and principles have been abandoned in return for a traditional entertainment format.
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In a video “Chaika”, produced by David Andrew Sitek, who has worked with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pussy Riot still displays anti establishment roots by mocking Russia’s justice system. But the music style clearly has shifted as much as the founding principles of the group. From anti-bourgeois performance art that had both intellectual ambition and integrity it shifted to a commercial project that we are still urged to admire.
The all female feminist punk collective is deeply embedded in popular consciousness – as anti-Putin propagators. They reached public admiration for a 2012 anti-Kremlin performance “Punk Prayer” – set in a landmark Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow. It brought members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina two-year prison sentences for the crime of “hooliganism” – and also worldwide recognition.
We all remember campaigns to “Free Pussy Riot” that took place across the world. Behind the scenes, however, there was a legal battle over the ownership of Pussy Riot’s trademark name (commercial value estimated at one million dollars). For many, this raised questions about how committed the band is to anti commercial ideals. It also contradicted the band’s supposed ethos of inclusivity, which went so far as to declare that anyone could be a member of the band.
“We belong to leftist anti-capitalist ideology—we charge no fees for viewing our artwork, the spectators to our performances are always spontaneous passers by, and we never sell tickets to our shows. We are anonymous, because we act against any personality cult” was their original ideology.
The cult of personality was hard to avoid for Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina who, after being released from prison in 2013, flew to NY as their “first legal performance” to participate in Amnesty International Concert and lock in an embrace with Madonna (this caused the final split of the group – and was largely viewed as a publicity stunt).
Recently, Tolokonnikova, currently the only active member of Pussy Riot, visited Washington DC to support the Bernie Sanders campaign. She also appeared tone deaf at a refugee crisis fundraising event, organized by Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei, where she took selfies with Charlize Theron wrapped in a metallic blanket used for refugees.
“Be loyal to those in power, cause power is a gift from God, son”– the new song goes, Tolokonnikova in militia uniform and pink high heels mocking Russian corruption. Humor never hurts, of course, and the video is stylish. The famous golden loaf of bread (like the one found in former Ukrainian president’s residency) as an ultimate symbol of corruption–is an amusing gem. The question however remains: what is the new identity of Pussy Riot? Will its art still be able to produce any effective discourse about censorship and corruption or was in fact Punk Prayer an apotheosis of the group, an authenticity which could never be reached again?
The rest of the original members said in their earlier statement –“we think it is evident that the group has exhausted itself as an art project and it is not a live phenomenon any longer.”
Tolokonnikova didn’t respond to our interview requests.
https://heatst.com/politics/lin-manuel-miranda-hamilton-paul-ryan-puerto-rico/
