Voina
Encyclopedia
- For the Russian film «Война» or "Voina", see War (2002 film)
Voina (Russian: Война = War) is a Russian street-art group known for their provocative and politically charged works of performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. Conceptions are worked out by Oleg Vorotnikov (a.k.a. "Vor" - the chief ideologist), Natalia Sokol (a.k.a. "Kozlyenok" - the chief coordinator), Leonid Nikolayev (a.k.a. Crazy Lenya) and Alex Plutser-Sarno (the chief media artist, the author of the group’s media art and texts). The group is not supported by any Russian curators or gallerists. The group doesn't cooperate with any state or private institutions. More than a dozen criminal cases have been brought against the group. Voina was founded in 2006 by Oleg Vorotnikov and Natalia Sokol, In late February 2011 the activists Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolayev were released on bail after four months in Moscow police custody, in connection with an anti-corruption protest. They face up to seven years of prison. In response to the detention, graffiti artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
helped to raise money for the artists. They have also been denounced by right-wing groups like the People's Synod.
Activity
Voina came to widespread public attention with their 2008 work Fuck for the heir Medved`s little Bear!, staged the day before the election of Russian President Dmitry MedvedevDmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
. Five couples, including one pregnant woman four days from giving birth, had public sex in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
's Timirayzev State Museum of Biology.
The Voina action In Memory of the Decemberists
Decembrist revolt
The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
- A Present to Yuri Luzhkov, staged a hanging of two homosexual men and three Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n guest workers, references to political stances of Moscow Mayor Luzhkov which have been denounced as racist and homophobic.
A Cop in a Priest's Robe featured Oleg Vorotnikov wearing the robe of a Russian Orthodox priest and the hat of a police officer leaving a grocery store without paying for a full cart of groceries, a demonstration of the "invulnerability" of these groups.
Other Voina actions include a wake
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing...
for absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
poet Dmitry Prigov, featuring a table with food and vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
, in a Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...
car and celebrating International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries...
by throwing live cats through the counters in a McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant "to break up the drudgery of workers' routine day".
In the night of June 14, 2010, Voina painted a giant 65 m long phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
on the Liteyny drawbridge
Liteyny Bridge
The Liteyny Bridge is the second permanent bridge across the Neva river in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It connects Liteyny Prospekt with Vyborgsky district. The bridge's length is 396 meters, the width is 34 meters...
leading to the Bolshoy Dom
Bolshoy Dom
The Big House is an unofficial name of the building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, shared by the headquarters of the local Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast branch of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Main Department of Internal Affairs...
, headquarters of the Federal Security Service in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. On April 2011, the Russian Ministry of Culture awarded Voina's group in the section "Innovation 2011" of the ministry awards for modern visual arts.
Official reactions
On 15 November 2010, Leonid Nikolayev and Oleg Vorotnikov were arrested for overturning an empty police car as an art performance act. The official charges were violations of Article 213, Paragraph 1, Item B of the Criminal Code - hooliganism motivated by hatred or hostility towards a social group. No bail was allowed, and the trial was set for 28 Feb. 2011.Nikolayev, Vorotnikov, and a third Voina member, Natalya Sokol, allege to have been attacked by plainclothes members of the anti-extremism police in St. Petersberg. The beating followed a press conference where Voina discussed the conditions of their detention.
External links
1) PHOTOGRAPHS:- Russian art anarchists explain themselves Dont Panic
- A public sex blitz
- How to snatch a chicken Gallery
2) VIDEOS:
- A Present to V. Putin FSB Erection
- A Present to Y. Luzhkov In Memory of the Decemberists
- Overturning a police car
- How to snatch a chicken for "The War" Video
3) OTHER: