Artists at Risk (AR) presents
2 x Pussy Riot + ORLAN = Fem-Wise-Dom
a performance
In the context of a day of celebrations at 210 Rue Saint-Denis on 14-15 January
This Friday, three feminists icons will come together on a unique occasion for a singular event. In a first, Artists at Risk (AR) is bringing together the legendary French performance artist ORLAN with the Russian punk art-activists Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova and Veronika “Nika” Nikulshina of Pussy Riot.
Pictured (from left to right): Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova, ORLAN and Veronika “Nika” Nikulshina
This performance at “the 210” in Paris celebrates the remarkable activity at 210 Rue Saint-Denis over the past weeks. Ever since the anonymous Finnish street artist-activist Sampsa brought in Artists at Risk (AR), Utopia 56 and United Migrants and an international crew of over 40 street artists, the house has come to life with art, practice and advocacy for the cause and well-being of migrant communities. Every night 20-30 people have found a safe haven and house of art to welcome them – unsheltered migrants who would have otherwise been forced to sleep under bridges or on the streets.
January 14 at 210 Rue Saint-Denis is itself set to become a thing of legend. Nadya, Nika, ORLAN. Art. Music. Action. A dancer with a history at Paris operas, Florian Astraud, has threatened to bring his own impromptu troupe to mimic, mirror and amplify the performance from the street. Street artists are set to sell art by Afghan artists at risk, aside from silk-screen prints of their own works which cover the interior of the building, with proceeds going straight to migrant and human rights organisations + to #SaveAfghanArtists. And you may enter and exit the building – and possibly breath through a face-mask – of a vulva. What a riot!
Finnish street Artist, Sampsa examines one of the murals on the interior of “The 210” with world renowned artist ORLAN
Rumours of further surprises abound. Beyond our purview – and likely at the mercy of fate in corona-times – is a line-up of DJ sets, artistic performances and social actions spread out across the building’s seven floors and beyond.
What we do expect is a singular performance of the three iconic figures, projected through and onto the windows of 210 Rue Saint-Denis.
Veronika “Nika” Nikulshina and Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova (courtesy of Pussy Riot)
ORLAN, a world-renowned multidisciplinary artist, has for decades challenged societal expectations on women and feminism at large – often with her body as the focal point of her art. Nadya Tolokonnikova and AR-Resident Nika Nikulshina are members of the (in)famous Russian punk band Pussy Riot, known for challenging the authoritarian rule of Russian President Putin. Nadya recently responded to the two of them being mandated by Russian law to accompany a long disclaimer in ALL-CAPS describing themselves as FOREIGN AGENTS: “i will not label my posts, the government can label their asses if they’d like.”
ORLAN with Artists at Risk (AR) co-founding directors Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen
While 210 Rue Saint-Denis will soon close its doors for future transformations, this will be just the end of one chapter for Artists at Risk (AR) in Paris and the beginning of a new one.
For press enquiries or to request an interview with ORLAN, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Nika Nikulshina, or others involved, contact Artists at Risk (AR).
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +49 17670625751
ARTISTS at RISK (AR) is a non-profit network-institution at the intersection of human rights and the arts. AR is dedicated to mapping the field of persecuted art practitioners, facilitating their safe passage from their countries of origin, hosting them at AR-Residencies and curating related projects, including the AR Pavilion. An upcoming conference at the Centre for Art and Media ZKM on 11-12 February 2022 will focus on “Institutions and Resistance – Alliances for Art at Risk”.
ORLAN is an artist who expresses herself through media such as painting, sculpture, installations, performance, photography, digital images, artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, and biotechnologies. Born in 1947, since the 1960s and the 1970s, ORLAN has questioned the status of the body and the political, religious, social and traditional pressures that are inscribed in it. While denouncing the violence done to the body, and in particular to women’s bodies, and thus engages in a feminist struggle, she says that her art is not body art, but rather ‘carnal art’ which lacks the suffering aspect of body art. She makes her body the privileged instrument by which our relationship to our own otherness is played out.
Conceptual artist and activist Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnika is key founding member of Pussy Riot, a global feminist protest art movement. She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance in 2012. Nadya staged a hunger strike protesting savage prison conditions. Sent to a distant Siberian penal colony, she survived to maintain her artistic activity and toured Siberian labor camps with her prison punk-band. In 2014 she co-founded the independent news service and media outlet, Mediazona together with Masha Alekhina among others. Her book “Read and riot: Pussy Riot’s guide to activism” was published in 2018. Nadya recently put out “Rage”, a track calling for the release of Alexei Navalny and all political prisoners, including Pussy Riot’s own Masha Alekhina who is currently sentenced to a year’s term of “restricted freedom” by a Moscow court, and has been designated Artists at Risk (AR)’s first AR-Resident Prisoner.
Veronika “Nika” Nikulshina is a multidisciplinary artist and human rights defender from Russia. She is known for her work as a performance artist and as a prominent member of Pussy Riot. Her work with the punk feminist group has made her a target of political persecution in Russia. Nika was one of the four Pussy Riot members to storm the pitch at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final in Moscow, an event Vladimir Putin attended in person. In May of 2021, she started filming an art-documentary film, but police stormed the shooting, arresting and detaining her. Upon her release she was almost immediately and violently re-arrested, alongside her partner and fellow AR-Tbilisi Resident Roma Durov. Nika is currently an Artists at Risk (AR)-Resident at the Artists at Risk (AR)-Untitled Gallery Residency in Tbilisi, Georgia. The programme is funded by the Artists at Risk (AR)-Bridging Fund, and organised by Perpetuum Mobile (PM) as part of the AR-Network.
Press about the 210 (selected):
