Nadya Tolokonnikova sold “Putin’s Ashes”
“Did you go to church on Christmas?” - Nadya Tolokonnikova asks me. I choked on a fake egg at a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles where we met for lunch. No, I haven't been religious for a long time. "I did not have time to. I love the church and the choir,” continues Nadya. It is difficult for many to separate Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot from demonism - everyone remembers her performance “Mother of God, drive Putin away” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The feelings of Orthodox believers were hurt. My Orthodox Jewish friends wouldn’t have been either if this had happened in the synagogue. It is obvious to few, but Nadya’s punk prayer service has nothing to do with religion - it is a subtle, complex metaphor about the substitution of the concepts of God and power. In Russia, Tolokonnikova was not understood, just like all the protest characters. For some reason, you cannot disagree with either Putin or God.
In America, Putin is the embodiment of Woland. Such an uncompromising force of evil, masquerading as good, arouses not only hatred, but also insane admiration among many Americans. Tolokonnikova’s protest art, given the global chaos, is timely and popular. Art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch, who had a hand in promoting the most important artists of our time (Cicely Brown, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons), provided Nadya with his gallery in Los Angeles for her video installation “Putin’s Ashes.” In the middle of the desert, twelve women in red balaclavas burn a giant portrait of Vladimir Putin and collect the ashes in glass flasks. The whole process is projected onto the walls accompanied by meditative cosmic music. Exhibits were brought to the gallery - red buttons in pink plush frames, pressing which will rid the world of Putin and sexism, as well as flasks with the “ashes” of the president. The button went to a private collection in New Mexico the day before the opening of the exhibition; two more works and 100 grams of ashes were purchased by the Taschen family, which owns the Taschen publishing house.
The ideas of Tolokonnikova, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, are convex - Putin, sexism, dictatorship - this is a global manifesto of women's freedom. Protest art produces a noticeable resonance only because it is prohibited and punishable in Russia. In America, you can criticize the authorities as much as you like, burn portraits of Biden - no one cares, there is no precedent, this is commonplace.
After standing quietly by the flasks with the inscription “Putin’s ashes” and listening to the punk prayers of Pussy Riot, at night I woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. I go through passport control at the Russian border, a red button with the words “psilocybin” lights up, and the police surround me. There is a handful of vitamins in my hand, and I swallow them all instantly. The cops beat me with batons, and then they take me in a car and say: “Now we’ll see which Telegram channels you are the admin of.” Two more of my friends dreamed of similar stories. It seems that the detachments of the Russian Guard have mastered the metaphysical space and it is now possible to take cuffs for a protest thought even on another continent.
