Voina — The Art Is to Make Politics
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A conversation with Vor (Oleg Vorotnikov), leader of the Russian artist/activist group Voina (War) about art, revolution and life in illegality. Moscow, March 25th, 2012.
Vorotnikov claims Voina revived activism and actionism — ‘We took a forgotten genre — actionism, which, according to the West, doesn’t work anymore. We breathed new life into it and it turned out to be great.’ He is critical of protest movements that lack the capacity to shock: ‘All these protesters don’t know what they are doing, they are protesting like monkeys, it’s just a matter of fashion.’
For Vorotnikov, protest itself doesn’t make sense without outstanding action. The conversation reveals a radical position: that political art must go beyond conventional demonstration to create events so striking that they penetrate public consciousness. Voina’s practice — which has included painting a giant phallus on a drawbridge facing the FSB headquarters — deliberately courts legal consequences as proof of artistic-political commitment.