More than three years spent in France, including eleven months in prison. Since arriving in Paris in January 2017, Piotr Pavlenski, the man at the heart of the Griveaux affair, has not been idle. But none of his actions reached the repercussion of the intimate videos of the former candidate for mayor of Paris, which Pavlenski claims to have published on the Internet. "He is an artist with a particular sensitivity, I do not know if he had perceived the importance of private life in a country like ours", believes his former lawyer Dominique Beyreuther Minkov, who was not asked to defend him in this new case.
The Russian protest artist arrived in France in mid-January 2017, with his partner at the time, Oksana Chaliguina, and their two daughters. The activist is then accused in her country of sexual assault on a young actress. "Piotr was not threatened for political reasons, but for suspicions of violence and sexual abuse," said Galia Ackerman, a French translator of the "Pavlenski case", the work written by the Russian activist, said on Sunday. The latter immediately filed a request for political refugee status. Why did you choose France? Because this country “is the Alma mater of the Russian Revolution. […] All that is good in Russia has come from France ”, he justifies then.
"He called me because he didn't know where to go"
With his family, during these first months, they live from squats to squats, waiting for the asylum request to be examined. "He called me because he didn't know where to go," says Natalia Turine, co-founder of Louison Publishing, owners of the Maison du Globe and editor of the "Cas Pavlenski". The couple finally obtained political refugee status in May 2017.
VIDEO. Removal of Griveaux: who is Piotr Pavlenski, the man who broadcast the videos?
Three months later, on October 16, 2017, Pavlenski set fire to the facade of a branch of the Banque de France, place de la Bastille, in Paris. Already reputed to have sewn his mouth or nailed the skin of the testicles to the ground in Moscow, he again stages himself, posing for the photographers in front of the burning building. The activist justifies his gesture called "Lighting" by saying he wants to target "the bankers [who] have taken the place of the monarchs" on this emblematic place in the history of France.
Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski sets fire to the Banque de France in Paris. "The bankers have taken the place of the monarchs". @afpfr pic.twitter.com/i1I4IsN16t
- Sarah Constantin (@sarahconstantin) October 16, 2017Immediately arrested, Pavlenski is taken into custody. After 48 hours of hearing, he was placed in pre-trial detention with his wife, who was also prosecuted. She will spend three months behind bars. Him, eleven. “The two children came to our shop at Le Globe when Piotr and Oksana were arrested after the Banque de France. I had to take care of it so they wouldn't go to Dass, ”recalls Natalia Turine.
Pavlenski obtains support within the artistic world. In an open letter published on November 23, 2017, the founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Ariane Mnouchkine, denounces a “completely unusual procedure”. "Piotr Pavlenski is no more a dangerous offender than Salvador Dali, André Breton, Robert Desnos, Max Ernst, Luis Bunuel, and so many others were in their time," she protested.
"Antithesis" of his new companion
On September 13, 2018, after several hunger strikes, Pavlenski was placed under judicial supervision. He is prohibited from leaving French territory and other "classic measures for judicial control", said his former lawyer, Dominique Beyreuther Minkov. Sentenced in January 2019 to three years in prison, two of which were suspended, he will not return to bars due to the 11 months already spent in detention.
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He would then have returned to live in his Parisian accommodation, "an illegally occupied house whose couple had all the locks changed, to the chagrin of the owners," Le Monde described on Monday. According to the New York Times, 24 hours after their installation in the summer of 2017, the owner of this second home came to the scene with the police, before giving up initiating a legally slow and complicated eviction process.
The Pavlenski couple finally separated soon after this release from prison. It was also at the beginning of 2019 that the Russian activist would have met Alexandra de Taddeo, his current companion. Above all, this young woman, also arrested on Saturday, would be the recipient of the intimate videos attributed to Benjamin Griveaux. In July 2019, in the New York Times, Piotr Pavlenski said of her that she was his "antithesis", "an icon of the delicate bourgeoisie" with "a large apartment in the chic 16th arrondissement".
During 2019, Pavlenski is invited to certain conferences. As on December 18, at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, on the theme of "political art". "Piotr Pavlenski will speak for the first time publicly since his criminal conviction for his lighting action", praised the presentation sheet still online, but without indicating the identity of the organizer. Contacted, the president of the student association of the university ensures not to have been linked to the organization or present that evening. Unlike Juan Branco. Because according to Le Monde, Pavlenski asked his partner, herself a law student at Panthéon-Assas, to contact the lawyer to invite him to this evening. At the end of this one, Branco would have proposed to the couple to accompany him to an evening on December 31. A New Years Eve marked by a violent brawl, which will result in Pavlenski being sought by the police from January 2.
When applying for asylum in January 2017, Pavlenski said he wanted to "continue in the field of art" but without being able "yet to tell you how". With the dissemination of intimate sexual videos of a candidate for mayor of Paris, this time he is claiming a political gesture. The penalty he faces is two years' imprisonment and a fine of 60,000 euros. But he should not be expelled or deprived of his political refugee status, having not committed "war crimes", "crimes against humanity", or any other "serious crime of common law".
