"Art-attivismo” e resistenza al neo-totalitarismo: il caso dei gruppi “Vojna” e “Pussy Riot” nella Federazione Russa

In February 2007, the Voyna (War) collective was founded in Moscow by University students Oleg Vorotnikov (1978-), his partner Natalya Sokol (1980-), Pyotr Verzilov (1987-), a very young Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (1989-), who would later become famous as a member of Pussy Riot. At the time their link with and the movement of Moscow Conceptualism was clear. “Voina” carried out a spectacular series of projects, some of them bordering on pornography, as in the notorious performance “Fuck for the Heir Puppy Bear!”, staged in February 2008, to protest against the exchange between Putin and Medveev as Presidents of the Russian Federation. This and other actions were filmed and posted on YouTube and other social networks, immediately going viral. Access to internet and social media at the time was still free and provided a powerful means for these dissident groups to publicize their performances against the restoration of neo-Soviet ideology and to assert their non-conformist identity. The same M.O. was adopted in the actions of the group “Pussy Riot”, although with a different aesthetic and political attitude. While “Voyna” virtually disappeared from the public scene after the head of the group and his family fled the Russian Federation, the actions of Pussy Riot continued even after the arrest and the conviction of their main representatives. As said Tolonnikova immediately after being beaten with a whip by a policeman after a performance in Sochi in 2018: “Anyone can become a member of "Pussy Riot" All you need is political passion, create a song, record it, find a location, put on a colorful balaclava, and perform. Anyone can be a Pussy Riot.”