freeDimensional

‘The campaign “free Pussy Riot” is over’

Posted on February 7, 2014 | No Comments

Statement by the Anonymous members of Pussy Riot: Garadja, Fara, Shaiba, Cat, Seraphima and Schumacher

We, the anonymous members of Pussy Riot, would like to say many thanks to all the people who have supported us, those who demanded the release of our members, those who sympathised with us and sympathised with our ideology. We are very grateful to all of you; we deeply appreciate and respect everyone who has contributed to the Pussy Riot campaign.

Our joint efforts were not in vain: Vladimir Putin had to bend under the pressure of the international community and let Nadia and Masha free. Thus, 23 December was a real celebration for us – the liberation day of prisoners of conscience and the liberation of the entire Pussy Riot.

But the amnesty is certainly not the end of our dreams. We demand real justice: that is, the complete abolition of the verdict and the recognition that the entire criminal case against Pussy Riot was illegitimate.

We hope that justice will be restored on 21 February, the anniversary of our teasing performance in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, with the song “Mother of God, put Putin away!”

We are very pleased with Masha and Nadia’s release. We are proud of their resistance against the harsh trials that befell them, and their determination by all means to continue the struggle they had started during their time in the colonies.

Unfortunately for us, they became so carried away with the problems in Russian prisons that they completely forgot about the aspirations and ideals of our group – feminism, separatist resistance, the fight against authoritarianism and personality cults, all of which caused their unjust punishment.

It is no secret that Masha and Nadia are no longer members of the group, and will no longer take part in radical actionism. Now they are engaged in a new project, as institutionalised advocates of prisoners’ rights.

But such advocacy is hardly compatible with radical political statements and provocative works of art – just as gender conformity is not compatible with radical feminism.

Institutionalised advocacy can hardly afford a critique of fundamental norms and rules that underlie modern patriarchal society. Being an institutional part of society, such advocacy cannot go beyond the rules set forth by this society.

Yes, we have lost two friends, two ideological teammates, but the world has acquired two brave human rights defenders – fighters for the rights of Russian prisoners.

Unfortunately we cannot congratulate them in person because they refuse to have any contact with us. But we appreciate their choice and sincerely wish them well in their new career.

At the moment we are witnessing an outrageous collision: even though Nadia and Masha are the focus of the media and the international community and crowds of journalists heed their every word, so far no one is listening to them.

In almost every interview they repeat that they have left the group, that they are no longer Pussy Riot, that they act in their own names, that they no longer engage in radical art activities. However, headlines are still full of the group’s name, all their public appearances are declared as performances of Pussy Riot, and their personal withdrawal from Pussy Riot is treated as the termination of the entire collective, thus ignoring the fact that, at the pulpit of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, there were not two but five women in balaclavas, and that the performance in Red Square had eight participants.

The apotheosis of this misunderstanding was the announcement by Amnesty International of Masha and Nadia’s appearance in Barclays Center in New York as the first legal performance of Pussy Riot.

Moreover, instead of the names Nadia and Masha, the poster of the event showed a man in a balaclava with an electric guitar, under the name Pussy Riot, while the organisers smartly called for people to buy expensive tickets.

All this is an extreme contradiction of the very principles of the Pussy Riot collective: we are an all-female separatist collective – no man can represent us either on a poster or in reality. We are anti-capitalist – we charge no fees for people to view our artwork, all our videos are distributed freely on the web, the spectators at our performances are spontaneous passersby, and we never sell tickets to our “shows”.

Our performances are always illegal, staged only in unpredictable locations and public places not designed for traditional entertainment. The distribution of our clips is always through free and unrestricted media channels.

We are anonymous because we act against any personality cult, against hierarchies implied by appearance, age and other visible social attributes. We cover our heads because we oppose the very idea of using female faces as a trademark for promoting any sort of goods or services.

The mixing of the rebel feminist punk image with the image of institutionalised defenders of prisoners’ rights is harmful to us as a collective, and harmful to the new role that Nadia and Masha have taken on.

Hear them finally!

Since Nadia and Masha have chosen not to be with us, please, respect their choice. Remember, we are no longer Nadia and Masha. They are no longer Pussy Riot.

The campaign “free Pussy Riot” is over. We, as an art collective, have an ethical right to preserve our art practice, our name and our visual identity, distinct from other organisations.

Image and text re-posted from Guardian.com