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Best known among European audiences for her 2012 ‘Punk Prayer’ in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, artist and co-founder of activist collective Pussy Riot Nadya Tolokonnikova opened ‘Rage’ at the OK Linz Museum in Austria on Friday.
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For her debut solo museum show, Tolokonnikova – whose art has previously landed her in prison and the label of “foreign agent” by the Russian government – brings an engaging, and in equal measure shocking and sobering, mix of sculptures, installations, video and live performances to the contemporary art centre.
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Curated by Michaela Seiser and Julia Staudach, Rage unfolds over two floors. Works include Tolokonnikova’s ‘Icons’ and ‘Dark Matter’ series, her own take on hagiography, calligraphy and the Orthodox cross; a reconstruction of Tolokonnikova’s own prison cell; a number of video works, including the European debut of Putin’s Ashes, which depicts 12 women torching a huge portrait of Vladimir Putin; a wall of prison shivs; and a ‘chapel’ inhabited by sex dolls.
Together, they provide a provocative, yet meaningful and in some ways hopeful, reflection on rage as a weapon of resistance in the face of authoritarianism.
Just prior to opening day, Thursday night saw Tolokonnikova and a band of balaclava-clad artists and activists inaugurate the show fittingly – with a rage- and screaming-filled performance, all in the haunting shadow of a mammoth suspended engraved knife, entitled Damocles Sword.
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‘Rage’ runs at OK Linz Museum until 20 October 2024.