Radical Art Group Wins Russian Ministry Prize
by Ellen Barry
The New York Times
April 8, 2011
Moscow “” The radical art collective Voina has won a contemporary art award sponsored by Russia”™s Ministry of Culture and the National Center for Contemporary Art for a project that consisted of a 210-foot penis painted on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg, said Andrei V. Yerofeyev, a member of the jury that awarded the prize.
Mr. Yerofeyev said most members of the seven-member jury were initially against awarding the prize to Voina, whose leaders are awaiting trial on hooliganism charges that could bring a sentence of up to seven years. But during deliberations, three advocates of the group persuaded the other four that Voina”™s work had artistic merit, he said.
Among the arguments they put forward was that the penis had already gained such a wide audience via the Internet that ignoring it would also be making a statement.
“No one wanted to look like a conformist,” said Mr. Yerofeyev, a prominent intellectual who has long championed Voina, which means war.
The support is mutual. When Mr. Yerofeyev was prosecuted for fomenting ethnic and religious hatred by staging an exhibit that scandalized the Russian Orthodox Church, members of Voina infiltrated the courtroom with electric guitars and an amplifier and suddenly climbed up on the benches to perform a punk-rock song called “All Cops Are Bastards.”
Mr. Yerofeyev said he was surprised that Voina ended up getting an Innovation prize for visual art, which comes with a purse of 400,000 rubles, or about $14,200.
“I have trouble imagining a similar situation in Germany or France or the United States, where they give a state prize to this kind of art,” he said. “In this sense, freedom in Russia has some kind of third dimension.”
Voina”™s other endeavors have included an orgy in the State Museum of Biology and laying out an elaborate banquet table on a moving subway car in memory of the dissident artist Dmitri A. Prigov. But they drew special attention for the penis, which pointed at the St. Petersburg headquarters of the state security service, the F.S.B. It stood for several hours before the authorities scrubbed it off.
The hooliganism charges were brought after a project titled “Palace Revolution,” in which members of the group overturned police cars on the streets of St. Petersburg “” a commentary, the group said, on corruption in law enforcement.
Yana Sarna, who acts as a spokesman for the group, said in a statement that the group would not keep the prize money, but would forward it to political prisoners in Russia.
“Those who voted for us are brave people,” said Oleg Vorotnikov, who was recently released from pretrial detention on the hooliganism charges. He and another member were released after Banksy, the British street artist, transferred $20,000 to St. Petersburg to cover their bail.