ArteActa

ArteActa 2018, 2:35-54

Tělo jako nástroj politického odporu

Marcela Magdová

The article delves into the artistic actions of Pyotr Pavlensky, which took place during 2012-2014 in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, looking at them in the context of Russian actionism, especially artists from the 90s and 2000s, and briefly touches upon some previous events labeled as conceptual, searching for analogues and differences within these activities. Pavlensky's work is characterized by the explicit manipulation of parts of his own body, and the moment of the "absolutization of the action." The article is most of all interested in visual metaphors of the limitation of civil rights, which are typical for Pavlensky, and with which the artist expresses his disapproval of the emerging mechanisms of power. Meanwhile, Pavlensky's work is put in context here with the theory of the social anthropologists Nancy Sheper Hughes and Margaret Lock of three bodies - the individual, social, and political.

Keywords: Pyotr Pavlensky, Russian actionism, Andrey Monastyrsky, Collective Actions group, Alexandr Brenier, Oleg Kulik, body, three-bodies-theory, E.T.I. group, Voyna group, Pussy Riot

Published: December 15, 2018  Show citation