From Voina
Art collective Voina's call to journalists and the international community: Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is taking revenge on Voina by displaying imitations and stolen works!
Artists and journalists around the world! Members of art institutions! Еmployees of 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art!
The organizers of Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art are taking revenge on Voina by displaying imitations and stolen works.
This is a cry for help from the Russian art collective Voina. The situation surrounding the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, which lists some of you among the participants, has forced us to resort to such extreme measures.
We are talking about the following project: http://4th.moscowbiennale.ru/en/program/special_projects/impact.html
MEDIA IMPACT. INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ACTIVIST ART
Curator: by Tatiana Volkova
Co-curators: Anna Dikovich, Roman Minaev and Arseniy Sergeev
Architect: Maria Kalinina
Coordinators: Elia Kulchitskaya and Anastasia Shishkova
Voina has been announced as a participant in this project. However, this was done without our consent! Moreover, the works to be presented at the exhibition are either imitations that have no relation to us, or real Voina works that were stolen from the group while Voina activists were in jail. During the arrest of Voina leaders Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolaev in November 2010, the group was robbed of photo and video materials documenting recent Voina actions. The culprits were Russian police from the anti-extremism department ‘Center E’, which exists for the sole purpose of suppressing the political opposition and independent artists in Russia. Earlier, the group's entire physical and electronic archives were stolen by police stooges Pyotr Verzilov and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. While Voina leaders were incarcerated, those people were spreading misinformation in the press (including foreign press), claiming to be the leaders of the group and the authors of Voina actions, such as Dick captured by the FSB! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXQ3U3FSyw), The Palace Revolution (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBQBtnkmec&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL), Leo the Fucknut is our President (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-vGbKXKhGk&feature=related), How to Snatch Chicken (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fef_1279895437) and others.
In May 2010 Verzilov and Tolokonnikova broke into the garage where Voina materials were being stored and plundered the archives.
As you are no doubt aware, Russia has one of the highest levels of corruption in the world. Corruption permeates the country from top to bottom, especially among the authorities and bureaucrats of every kind, as well as the police and their lackeys. Common citizens and independent artists are powerless against this system of corruption, where all public officials and art curators (which in Russia is the same thing) cover up for each other in their greed for sponsor money. Civil servants commit their daily crimes with impunity. The citizens of Russia have long abandoned hope of changing the situation, they are merely trying to shelter and survive amidst the country's collapse. Everyone here is powerless, save for those in authority and those who serve them. This applies doubly to protest artists such as ourselves, who openly oppose the political regime and the utterly conformist, commercialized and corrupt art system which only serves the interests of the ruling elites. We have fallen victims to a trap set by the curators of the Moscow Biennale.
The organizers, ZHIR gallery and ARTPLAY centre, have included us in their project 'Media Impact. International Festival of Activist Art' fraudulently, against our will. The works they are trying to pass as Voina works are unauthentic, fake and plagiarized, and have no connection to us. They have done this before, and they are doing it knowingly, as we've contacted the organizers several times asking them not to include us in exhibitions without our consent. We categorically refuse to be involved in the rotten, corrupt and commercialized Moscow Biennale, which serves to simulate the existence of an art life in Russia for the international art community.
Nonetheless, our right to refuse participation has been violated and our works have been appropriated. In addition to the stolen works, the organizers intend to display imitations presented as authentic Voina works.
Note that this is happening at the very moment when we are powerless to defend ourselves by legal means. Voina is currently subject to heavy persecution by Russian authorities and police, and is on the brink of physical extermination. Voina members are being kidnapped from the streets and from their homes, they are being assaulted in the streets. Ever new criminal charges are being fabricated. The police have issued an international alert for Voina leader Oleg Vorotnikov based on bogus criminal charges. His wife, Voina activist and coordinator Natalia Sokol, is on the country-wide wanted list. The cops are out to arrest her and take away her son, Kasper Can't-Take-Our-Eyes-Off-Him. In November 2010, they initiated termination of her parental rights. Voina activists have had their personal IDs and possessions seized. This is happening in Russia, where it's impossible to so much as use public transportation or receive medical attention without documents. The group is being pounded into submission. Unable to live legally, Voina members have been forced to go into deep hiding.
With this in mind, Voina is unable to take legal action against the corrupt Russian art curators. For Voina members, any court appearance, or any public appearance in general, is likely to end in arrest and incarceration, at the very least. There have been threats and attempts of physical violence against Voina activists coming from the police. Several Voina members are already being investigated under framed-up criminal charges which could land them 5 to 7 years in prison. Our hands are tied, and the organizers of the Moscow Biennale are using this opportunity to do as they please, appropriating our works and displaying them without so much as asking for our consent.
Voina, which has been listed as a participant in this infinitely conformist exhibition, has not received so much as a notification, or any correspondence at all from the organizers, the curators Tatiana Volkova, Anna Dikovich, Roman Minaev and Arseniy Sergeev. Consequently, Voina has not submitted, and is not planning to submit, any materials for the exhibition. We are entitled to make this decision.
The curators of the Biennale have intentionally avoided notifying us of their desire to have Voina as a participant. We would refuse any such offer from corrupt art bureaucrats, and they realize it. Because of this, they have to act covertly, quietly. Their aim is to discredit the opposition activity and the protest art of Voina. They are shamelessly exploiting our complicated situation, they are using the police persecution and the direct police order on suppressing Voina to have their way with our works. They will not stop at anything, including deceit, fraud or theft.
The organizers have deceived not just you, the participants, but the media as well. The fraudulent exhibition is already receiving press coverage, with our alleged participation being advertised as one of the highlights of the event.
http://www.inyourpocket.com/russia/Moscow/4th-Moscow-Biennale-of-Contemporary-Art_72379f
Festival of Activist Art
The first ever festival of ‘activist art’ taking place at the ArtPlay design centre from 24 September to 10 October will bring (providing they don’t get arrested beforehand) yet more artists involved in political and social activism to the Biennale. US political pranksters The Yes Men and the Silence=Death Group are slated to get involved in the loosely organised festival alongside some 30 other (largely Russian) activist-artists. The Moscow faction of the controversial Voina group will also take part and are likely to gain as much interest from the art media as from the police. Currently fighting legal battles in St. Petersburg for audaciously tipping over police cars, Voina have gained the support of Britain’s Banksy and become famous for their outlandish and often shocking ‘performances’. Their most notorious gesture was in 2010 when they painted a giant phallus onto a St. Petersburg drawbridge which faced the local branch of the FSB (formerly the KGB). Their other actions have included staging a mock orgy in a biological museum, beaming a giant skull and cross bones onto a Moscow parliament building, throwing cats at cashiers in McDonalds and filming as one of their crew stole a chicken from a supermarket by hiding it up where the sun don’t shine.
http://www.inyourpocket.com/russia/Moscow/concerts-culture-events-entertainment/Exhibitions/Media-Impact-International-Festival-of-Activist-Art_86043v
A bold expression of dissent and protest, this festival of activist art will bring together dozens of groups from across the world including US political pranksters The Yes Men, Belarussian dissident Marina Naprushkina and the Moscow faction of the notorious Voina Group. Voina, who once painted a giant phallus on a St. Petersburg drawbridge, were recently jailed for upturning a police car and are currently being helped financially by British street artist Banksy and hence can be expected to draw particularly wide interest
http://www.afisha.ru/exhibition/70265/ (in Russian)
International Festival of Activist Art ‘Media Impact’
Installations, new media, performances.
Artplay gallery, Sat, 24 Sep - Mon, 10 Oct
(as part of 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art)
‘Media Impact’ is set to become one of the most interesting events of the Biennale. International as well as small-town art collectives will congregate in Moscow - ‘not by Voina alone’. There will be live events as well as an exhibition of past actions. Works by such important American collectives as Gran Fury and The Yes Men will be displayed; Kavecsprojects from Greece and Organ Kritisсher Kunst from Germany will deliver live performances.
We call for your assistance to help us overcome this situation of legal absurdity and flat-out theft, shamelessly organized and carried out by the curators of the Biennale against artists who are powerless to fight back.
We call for a boycott of the Moscow Biennale, which is wallowing in a cesspool of corruption, blatant falsifications and endless lies.
VOINA
Voina group activists:
Oleg Vorotnikov, ideologist
Leonid Nikolaev, president
Natalia Sokol, coordinator
Alexey Plutser-Sarno, media artist
Kasper Sokol
Yana Sarna
Jenny Curpen
Ksenia Ermoshina
Charles Swain
lawyers for the group:
Dmitry Dinze
Ilnur Sharapov
Sergei Petryakov
16 September 2011
Artists and journalists around the world! Members of art institutions! Еmployees of 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art!
The organizers of Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art are taking revenge on Voina by displaying imitations and stolen works.
This is a cry for help from the Russian art collective Voina. The situation surrounding the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, which lists some of you among the participants, has forced us to resort to such extreme measures.
We are talking about the following project: http://4th.moscowbiennale.ru/en/program/special_projects/impact.html
MEDIA IMPACT. INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ACTIVIST ART
Curator: by Tatiana Volkova
Co-curators: Anna Dikovich, Roman Minaev and Arseniy Sergeev
Architect: Maria Kalinina
Coordinators: Elia Kulchitskaya and Anastasia Shishkova
Voina has been announced as a participant in this project. However, this was done without our consent! Moreover, the works to be presented at the exhibition are either imitations that have no relation to us, or real Voina works that were stolen from the group while Voina activists were in jail. During the arrest of Voina leaders Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolaev in November 2010, the group was robbed of photo and video materials documenting recent Voina actions. The culprits were Russian police from the anti-extremism department ‘Center E’, which exists for the sole purpose of suppressing the political opposition and independent artists in Russia. Earlier, the group's entire physical and electronic archives were stolen by police stooges Pyotr Verzilov and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. While Voina leaders were incarcerated, those people were spreading misinformation in the press (including foreign press), claiming to be the leaders of the group and the authors of Voina actions, such as Dick captured by the FSB! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXQ3U3FSyw), The Palace Revolution (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBQBtnkmec&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL), Leo the Fucknut is our President (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-vGbKXKhGk&feature=related), How to Snatch Chicken (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fef_1279895437) and others.
In May 2010 Verzilov and Tolokonnikova broke into the garage where Voina materials were being stored and plundered the archives.
As you are no doubt aware, Russia has one of the highest levels of corruption in the world. Corruption permeates the country from top to bottom, especially among the authorities and bureaucrats of every kind, as well as the police and their lackeys. Common citizens and independent artists are powerless against this system of corruption, where all public officials and art curators (which in Russia is the same thing) cover up for each other in their greed for sponsor money. Civil servants commit their daily crimes with impunity. The citizens of Russia have long abandoned hope of changing the situation, they are merely trying to shelter and survive amidst the country's collapse. Everyone here is powerless, save for those in authority and those who serve them. This applies doubly to protest artists such as ourselves, who openly oppose the political regime and the utterly conformist, commercialized and corrupt art system which only serves the interests of the ruling elites. We have fallen victims to a trap set by the curators of the Moscow Biennale.
The organizers, ZHIR gallery and ARTPLAY centre, have included us in their project 'Media Impact. International Festival of Activist Art' fraudulently, against our will. The works they are trying to pass as Voina works are unauthentic, fake and plagiarized, and have no connection to us. They have done this before, and they are doing it knowingly, as we've contacted the organizers several times asking them not to include us in exhibitions without our consent. We categorically refuse to be involved in the rotten, corrupt and commercialized Moscow Biennale, which serves to simulate the existence of an art life in Russia for the international art community.
Nonetheless, our right to refuse participation has been violated and our works have been appropriated. In addition to the stolen works, the organizers intend to display imitations presented as authentic Voina works.
Note that this is happening at the very moment when we are powerless to defend ourselves by legal means. Voina is currently subject to heavy persecution by Russian authorities and police, and is on the brink of physical extermination. Voina members are being kidnapped from the streets and from their homes, they are being assaulted in the streets. Ever new criminal charges are being fabricated. The police have issued an international alert for Voina leader Oleg Vorotnikov based on bogus criminal charges. His wife, Voina activist and coordinator Natalia Sokol, is on the country-wide wanted list. The cops are out to arrest her and take away her son, Kasper Can't-Take-Our-Eyes-Off-Him. In November 2010, they initiated termination of her parental rights. Voina activists have had their personal IDs and possessions seized. This is happening in Russia, where it's impossible to so much as use public transportation or receive medical attention without documents. The group is being pounded into submission. Unable to live legally, Voina members have been forced to go into deep hiding.
With this in mind, Voina is unable to take legal action against the corrupt Russian art curators. For Voina members, any court appearance, or any public appearance in general, is likely to end in arrest and incarceration, at the very least. There have been threats and attempts of physical violence against Voina activists coming from the police. Several Voina members are already being investigated under framed-up criminal charges which could land them 5 to 7 years in prison. Our hands are tied, and the organizers of the Moscow Biennale are using this opportunity to do as they please, appropriating our works and displaying them without so much as asking for our consent.
Voina, which has been listed as a participant in this infinitely conformist exhibition, has not received so much as a notification, or any correspondence at all from the organizers, the curators Tatiana Volkova, Anna Dikovich, Roman Minaev and Arseniy Sergeev. Consequently, Voina has not submitted, and is not planning to submit, any materials for the exhibition. We are entitled to make this decision.
The curators of the Biennale have intentionally avoided notifying us of their desire to have Voina as a participant. We would refuse any such offer from corrupt art bureaucrats, and they realize it. Because of this, they have to act covertly, quietly. Their aim is to discredit the opposition activity and the protest art of Voina. They are shamelessly exploiting our complicated situation, they are using the police persecution and the direct police order on suppressing Voina to have their way with our works. They will not stop at anything, including deceit, fraud or theft.
The organizers have deceived not just you, the participants, but the media as well. The fraudulent exhibition is already receiving press coverage, with our alleged participation being advertised as one of the highlights of the event.
http://www.inyourpocket.com/russia/Moscow/4th-Moscow-Biennale-of-Contemporary-Art_72379f
Festival of Activist Art
The first ever festival of ‘activist art’ taking place at the ArtPlay design centre from 24 September to 10 October will bring (providing they don’t get arrested beforehand) yet more artists involved in political and social activism to the Biennale. US political pranksters The Yes Men and the Silence=Death Group are slated to get involved in the loosely organised festival alongside some 30 other (largely Russian) activist-artists. The Moscow faction of the controversial Voina group will also take part and are likely to gain as much interest from the art media as from the police. Currently fighting legal battles in St. Petersburg for audaciously tipping over police cars, Voina have gained the support of Britain’s Banksy and become famous for their outlandish and often shocking ‘performances’. Their most notorious gesture was in 2010 when they painted a giant phallus onto a St. Petersburg drawbridge which faced the local branch of the FSB (formerly the KGB). Their other actions have included staging a mock orgy in a biological museum, beaming a giant skull and cross bones onto a Moscow parliament building, throwing cats at cashiers in McDonalds and filming as one of their crew stole a chicken from a supermarket by hiding it up where the sun don’t shine.
http://www.inyourpocket.com/russia/Moscow/concerts-culture-events-entertainment/Exhibitions/Media-Impact-International-Festival-of-Activist-Art_86043v
A bold expression of dissent and protest, this festival of activist art will bring together dozens of groups from across the world including US political pranksters The Yes Men, Belarussian dissident Marina Naprushkina and the Moscow faction of the notorious Voina Group. Voina, who once painted a giant phallus on a St. Petersburg drawbridge, were recently jailed for upturning a police car and are currently being helped financially by British street artist Banksy and hence can be expected to draw particularly wide interest
http://www.afisha.ru/exhibition/70265/ (in Russian)
International Festival of Activist Art ‘Media Impact’
Installations, new media, performances.
Artplay gallery, Sat, 24 Sep - Mon, 10 Oct
(as part of 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art)
‘Media Impact’ is set to become one of the most interesting events of the Biennale. International as well as small-town art collectives will congregate in Moscow - ‘not by Voina alone’. There will be live events as well as an exhibition of past actions. Works by such important American collectives as Gran Fury and The Yes Men will be displayed; Kavecsprojects from Greece and Organ Kritisсher Kunst from Germany will deliver live performances.
We call for your assistance to help us overcome this situation of legal absurdity and flat-out theft, shamelessly organized and carried out by the curators of the Biennale against artists who are powerless to fight back.
We call for a boycott of the Moscow Biennale, which is wallowing in a cesspool of corruption, blatant falsifications and endless lies.
VOINA
Voina group activists:
Oleg Vorotnikov, ideologist
Leonid Nikolaev, president
Natalia Sokol, coordinator
Alexey Plutser-Sarno, media artist
Kasper Sokol
Yana Sarna
Jenny Curpen
Ksenia Ermoshina
Charles Swain
lawyers for the group:
Dmitry Dinze
Ilnur Sharapov
Sergei Petryakov
16 September 2011