France, Piotr Pavlenski did not choose it at random. When the artist fled his native Russia in 2017, he settled in a country he idolized for having given birth to Sade. After having obtained the status of political refugee and burnt down in the process a branch of the Bank of France place de la Bastille, here he is in cell "in the disciplinary district" to decipher the language of the divine marquis with the only accessible book ... an essay by Bernard-Henri Lévy. Pavlenski does not devote the same cult to the two philosophers. Sade? "The greatest French of humanity". BHL? "A sacred son of p ...". Don't count on Pavlenski to do the half measure. It is a cold or hot water tap, without mixing valve.
This Friday, February 21, in the afternoon, Piotr Pavlenski, 35, neither posed nor posed, agrees to meet Le Parisien -Today in France. The Russian artist who, one Valentine's day, boosted the course of the election for the mayor of Paris with the diffusion of an intimate video of Benjamin Griveaux, meticulously traces the course of a crazy week, around 'a cup of black tea. He launches out, in a soft voice which respects a body in perpetual tension. It takes time to explain how the disclosure of a session of onanism represents an artistic and political act.
"People needed it"
This "pornopolitical" project, he alone claims authorship. “I started thinking about it from October. This is something that did not exist: there are a lot of porn resources, but with men of power, no. People needed it. What need? That of rinsing the eye on the crotch of a faithful head of state? Not in the eyes of Piotr Pavlenski who intellectualizes each of his actions in the name of "political art". "My goal is to open people's eyes, to reveal the mechanics of power," he argues. I want to show that political hypocrisy has become the norm, to the point of creating a monstrous situation. "
And if the candidate (LREM) was his first victim, it is, he says, only because of the use of his relatives in his electoral campaign. “I don't use my children in my artistic actions! I respect privacy, he says. The only thing that interests me is the relationship with the voters. While Benjamin Griveaux is campaigning on the theme of the family, he writes at the same time [to his mistress for one evening] that his family is a prison… ”
However, this is neither the first nor the last trip by a man of power. But for the first time in France, the revelation of an extramarital affair provokes the impediment of an elected official.
He clears Juan Branco and Alexandra de Taddeo
Faced with legal proceedings, the indicted performer assumes all of the wrongdoing. So he takes care to clear the lawyer Juan Branco, which he is close to. “I consulted him in mid-January and I asked him two questions: how to open a pornographic site in France? And how can I be sure of the identity of a person whose face cannot be seen on a video ?, he explains. He also informed me about the risks. But he stayed away. "
Pavlenski also absolves the pamphleteer lawyer of any responsibility in the writing of the argued text published on his site: “I wrote it in Russian. Then I asked several people to translate it but after breaking the text into several passages so that the meaning eludes them. But not to Juan Branco. "
The artist also takes care to exempt his partner Alexandra de Taddeo, the student to whom the licentious sequences were sent, from any involvement in their disclosure. “I knew she had a relationship with Benjamin Griveaux, she told me so. But I didn't know she had kept videos, he claims. Since we share the same computer, I found them and, in November, I took them without asking. I stole this material. In custody, his partner delivered an identical version.
Alexandra "was not at all happy"
Same speech about putting online. “Alexandra knew that I was preparing Pornopolitics but she did not know all the details. When the video started to circulate, she was not at all happy. "
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Without Alexandra de Taddeo, the subject of the crime, nothing would have been possible. "My sweetheart," he said, smiling when his name was first pronounced. The story of their meeting is now known: “She wrote to me the first time, then when I got out of prison. So I offered her the interview she asked for. She was beautiful. She talks about Tocqueville, a liberal and conservative philosopher. Then abandoning politics for the intimate, he addressed poems by Robert Desnos. "So something has changed," he whispers. It was very strong ”.
A fusional couple, to hear it more Ying and Yang than Bonnie and Clyde: “She is my antithesis. She woman, me man. She right, I left. She has long hair and I have short hair. Me dressed like that [he points to her black t-shirt] and she with a hundred dresses. Between us everything is different. And now there is justice between us. ” He smiles at the mention of the birthday he was preparing for this weekend, postponed due to police custody.
"I have the equipment"
A week after the resignation of the member for Paris, what remains of this action, the scope of which even seems to have exceeded the artist? "I found it odd that he resigned," says Piotr Pavlenski. And I was surprised that he filed a complaint. "Unanimously condemned by the political class, the Russian performer remains impervious to criticism, draped in his conviction of having acted" for society and for the people who are happy. Bread, games and sex.
Since his indictment, Piotr Pavlenski ensures receiving gestures of approval. He mimes a thumbs up, evokes looks of sympathy ... "Ah, it's Russian, cool! "Laughs the driver VTC who takes him to the Paris police station where the artist must point once a week.
On March 3, alongside his lawyer Me Yassine Bouzrou, Pavlenski again met before the investigating judge to answer accusations of violence committed during the evening of December 31, accusations which he disputes. Despite these legal thunders, he promises, "Pornopolitics is not finished": "Of course, I want to continue this project which lasted only three days before the government blocked the site". "I have the equipment," he threatens, turning on the cold water tap.
