Pyotr Pavlensky - Russian action artist: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Petersburger Pavel Pavlensky critics have declared the most significant artist of the past year. He is one of the few modern authors whose name is well known even to those who have never been interested in any art. The famous "artist" Pyotr Pavlensky has repeatedly attracted the eyes of firefighters and policemen.

Biography

Pyotr Andreevich Pavlensky was born in 1984 in Leningrad.

Studied at the Art Academy. A. L. Stieglitz in St. Petersburg. In my fourth year, I entered an additional educational program at the Pro Arte Institute.

Neither the academy nor the institute did not finish, leaving just before graduation. I never received my diploma. This is all Peter did for ideological reasons.

In 2012, Pyotr Pavlensky created a political propaganda magazine dedicated to contemporary art in the context of politics. The good attitude of the publication to feminism and gender issue has become important. The purpose of the magazine was to overcome the cultural chauvinism that the state and the apparatus of its ideology are implanting.

Pavlensky's work

The paintings of contemporary artists reflect political and other issues through the prism of art. Art is work with meanings and with the form of expression of these meanings.

Pyotr Pavlensky's paintings touched upon various issues. The early works of the artist were photographs and collages. Already during his studies, Pavlensky was interested in social problems and the human body as their solution. The "Cartography" project is designed in the form of photographs of scars on naked human bodies, and was aimed at combating violence. Society perceived the scars in the form of crosses as an insult to faith, and the paintings were asked to be removed from the exhibition or replaced with others.

On Victory Day 2012 at the exhibition, Pavlensky introduced everyone present to the series, the head of which was the fictional character protodeacon, a symbol of anarchism and the inconsistency of the church's information policy. The propagandist artist showed how the church gets into other people's business. Pavlensky, realizing that he would not be allowed to see the protodeacon, hid his entire plan from the administration of the exhibition hall before the exhibition.

However, the artist soon got fed up with institutional art. The artist Pyotr Pavlensky stood aside and spoke in the third person. He decided to go to actionism and became a person who took responsibility for what was happening.

Promotions held by the artist

Seam

Pyotr Pavlensky gained fame thanks to the action in support of the group "Pussy Riot". In July 2012, the artist, with his mouth sewn up, stood for an hour and a half nearKazan Cathedral with a poster on which there was an inscription about the replay of the action of Jesus Christ. The police took the artist to a psychiatrist, but he recognized him as sane and released him. Pavlensky explained his behavior by saying that he wanted to show the ban on glasnost to a contemporary artist.

Carcass

In the spring of 2013, Pyotr Pavlensky organized a protest action against the unfair policy of the authorities in the Russian Federation called "Carcass". Half-bent and naked, the artist, wrapped in a "cocoon" of barbed wire, lay in front of the building of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.

Pavlensky later explained that there are many laws against people who intimidate them. As if driven into barbed wire. All this is done to turn society into weak-willed cattle, which has the right to perform only mechanical actions.

Fixation

In November 2013, Pyotr Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the paving stones. According to Pavlensky, the action has become a metaphor for apathy, political indifference and the fatalism of society.

The artist was charged with hooliganism, but a day later he was released due to an erroneously drawn up protocol. Later, another case was brought against the artist for this trick.

The action was actively discussed by society and the professional environment.

Group action "Freedom"

In February 2014, Pyotr Pavlensky became a very famous participant in the Freedom group action. The action was dedicated to collective liberation, and therefore was carried out by a collective subject.

At 8 o'clock on the bridgebrought fifty car tires, metal sheets, as well as black and blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine. The protesters assembled a barricade out of tires and set it on fire.

Action is a symbol of the struggle for freedom. The protesters urged everyone to stand up for the Day of Defense of Freedom.

The action lasted 20 minutes and ended after the arrival of firefighters. The police detained four protesters, among whom was Pyotr Pavlensky.

Promotion "Separation"

In October 2014, Pyotr Pavlensky sat naked on the fence of the Institute of Psychiatry in Moscow and cut off his earlobe. The action is a protest against the use of psychiatric interventions for political purposes. According to the artist, just as a knife separates a lobe from an ear, politicians define the difference between insane and reasonable people. The psychiatric wall helps them in this. Bureaucrats in white coats cut off unnecessary pieces from society that interfere with their normal world.

The actions of the artist Pavlensky are a game with the audience, which is transferred to political grounds. Actionism enriches the world with new elements that it so lacks. It is similar to rebellion and retains an irrational will, framed by thoughtful actions. Viennese Actionism and Van Gogh are the forerunners of Pavlensky's Actionism.

Attitude of society towards Pavlensky's works

Pavlensky's works are interesting for the art community. Paintings by contemporary artists are often ahead of the critics and have a problematic-symbolic character.

Liberal critics were delighted with the artist. Two actions of Pavlensky in St. Petersburg reflect the intelligibility and conciseness of art. The artist's actions are plastically expressive, which is often lacking in other activists who are trying to use avant-garde performance.

Liberals explain Pavlensky's behavior by the fact that he is trying to create a cultural society through the media. In other words, his actions can be called artistic. And it is impossible to punish for them, because it would be an encroachment on freedom of speech. The artist has the right to self-expression.

On the Internet you can find lectures for beginner actionists or for people who are interested in this problem. It also explains the nature of expressionism, conceptualism and performance.

Russia creates new art for its people, the liberals have already found the right heroes.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova explained that Pavlensky acts on the verge of art and politics, which puts critics in a new position for them.

Valentin Dyakonov expressed a negative opinion on Pavlensky's shares. He believes that scary and radical gestures cannot draw attention to the problems of society, you can only create PR for yourself in this way and raise violence to another level.

In October 2013, Pyotr Pavlensky's action "Carcass" was awarded the alternative prize "Russian Art of Activists-2013" - a diploma dedicated to the memory of Georgy Dorokhov in the section "Actions Implemented in the City Space".

In December 2013, Pyotr Pavlensky received first place in the top of the most significant artists in the art of Russia according to the Artgid magazine.