Before the concert at Bahnwachter Thiel, the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot staged a performance at the Pinakothek der Moderne. An activist urinated on a portrait of Putin.
On the evening of the day that two of Vladimir Putin's spies were arrested in Bavaria, the Russian president was also having a hard time in Munich. And in the literal sense. During her performance at the Pinakothek der Moderne (April 18, 2024), an activist from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot urinates on a black and white portrait of the Kremlin leader. Things should have turned out completely differently.
Pussy Riot came to Munich at the invitation of Flatz
As reported, the troupe visited the museum at Flatz's invitation, where a retrospective of the Austrian is currently being shown. The 71-year-old met Pussy Riot three years ago at a concert in his birthplace of Dornbirn. The Munich resident supports the political agitation of the women who have been persecuted in Russia since they illegally appeared in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on February 21, 2012. The protest action, which was directed against the connections between church and state in Russia, lasted less than a minute - in the piece described as a "punk prayer" they sang, among other things, "Mary, Mother of God, drive away Putin" and "The Patriarch believes to Putin, even though he should believe in God.”
Pussy Riot also have a clear message for the around 500 people who came to the rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne on Thursday evening. Before you slam them into the room, you first have to wait. The performance is delayed again and again. The trio around Maria Alyochina originally wanted to burn the Putin portrait on the stairs in the east wing of the house, on which Olaf Metzel's sculpture “Journey to Jerusalem” also stands. Since open fire is not an option in the museum for reasons, this part of the performance is prohibited. Pussy Riot dodge the pee attack.
To hard beats, the activists, who of course wear their obligatory knitted masks, chant the text of their leaflet (see below), accusing Putin of war crimes in drastic terms. “No Putin – No War!” Finally, a member of the troop lifts his skirt and relieves himself on the photo of the Russian president. Applause in the rotunda. Then Alyokhina grabs a fire extinguisher, first puts her violinist under water, storms down the stairs and symbolically extinguishes the world's sources of fire - in the audience. Yes, the artistic value of the performance is manageable - the anger of the activists is unmistakable.
After less than seven minutes of wildly acclaimed performance, Pussy Riot move on to the Bahnwacht Thiel cultural center, where they play their “Riot Days” show. Guests later said that there was urine in the water used to extinguish the fire. Can you believe it? But you don't have to.