UPDATE: According to an interview with ANIMAL, this action was not sanctioned by Voina, but was undertaken by a former member of the group (Pytor Verzilov, pictured below being taken away in handcuffs) who continues to act on Voina’s behalf. What’s more, if what is said in the interview is true, the roaches never actually made it to the courtroom, which is why there is no documentation besides the below pictures of preparations being made. Voina’s current member Oleg Vorotnikov alleges that the idea was stolen from him, and elsewhere in the ANIMAL interview, Voina’s Alexei Plutser-Sarno describes Verzilov as a fraud, a kleptomaniac, and a snitch. The current Voina members are still responsible for the punk concert and penis painting, both described in more detail below.
UPDATE: RebelArt has posted pictures of Voina preparing the action, and is reporting that 3,500 cockroaches were released in the courtroom. One of Voina’s websites has more, including some of the ones below.
The court’s decision in the much-discussed Forbidden Art exhibit was handed down earlier this week, with fines for the defendant curators Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, for inciting religious hatred. The radical artists collective Voina was on hand for the verdict.
In addition to grabbing headlines by painting a giant penis on the St. Petersberg bridge recently, in 2009, Voina disrupted the Taganskiy District court during the hearing of the Forbidden Art case with a one-song punk concert, performing as the punk collective Cock In the Ass. The song they chose was All cops are bastards from the new album PLEN, a Russian acronym for “Fuck the Police Those Motherfucking Bosses.” Watch in the video below.
As judge Svetlana Aleksandrova announced the verdict, stating that “the artwork at ‘Forbidden Art’ is very gross and very offensive for viewers and humiliates their sense of human dignity,” Voina released thousands of cockroaches into the courtroom before being detained.
3,500 roaches hit the courtroom floor
Voina’s Pytor Verzilov being detained (Image credit: Denis Sinyakov / Reuters in The Moscow Times)
The curators have vowed to appeal.
Five members of the art activist group Culture Beyond Oil poured non-toxic black oil around the British Museum’s world famous Easter Island sculpture, in protest at BP’s sponsorship of the museum.
UPDATE: Experimental geographers who were able to attend this event, and others who couldn’t be there, can download the template of the Notes for a People’s Atlas of Greater Boston map and get submission instructions here.
Groundswell and the Design Studio for Social Intervention present a discussion of mapmaking as an activist practice with Daniel Tucker.
The presentation will focus on Daniel’s involvement with the Experimental Geography exhibit (2009) and his organizing of the We Are Here map archive. We will also provide blank maps with the political border of the Greater Boston Area so that we can craft submissions for Notes for a People’s Atlas, and we’ll explore ongoing mapping projects by attendees. Artists, activists, cartographers, and everyday experimentalists encouraged to attend!
Download the flyer PDF in print-ready or web-only format.
Why maps?
Because maps are a visual tool for sharing information with others. Because they can be produced by many people and combined together to tell stories about complex relationships. Because maps are never finished and only tell part of a story that can constantly be expanded upon. Because power exists in space, struggle exists in space and we exist in space. Because we cannot know where we are going if we do not know where we are from.
Daniel has worked as a cultural and political organizer in Chicago for the last ten years. From 2005-2010 he edited AREA Chicago – the print/online publication dedicated to researching and networking local social and cultural movements in Chicago.
Join us on July 28th at 7:ooPM at the Design Studio! The location is on public transit, is wheelchair accessible, and doesn’t cost a thing.
Copenhagen Poverty Walks invites residents and tourists to “experience the city from the perspective of homeless people.” The guided tours are directed by people experiencing homelessness, who offer their stories and personal experiences.
Poverty Walks is organized by the NGO project Udenfor (Outdoor).
Urban agriculture kits v3.0 are available now from WindowFarms.org, a project by artists Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray, and developed in residency at Eyebeam in 2009.
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