Skip to content
Culture & Religion

Artists Behaving Badly

An art group that stages orgies, throws cats at cashiers and has Banksy as a fan has enraged the Russian authorities to the point of violent repression and censorship of their work.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

The artists’ collective Voina first came to prominence in February 2008, two days before the carefully choreographed elections that brought President Dmitry Medvedev to power. About 12 activists, one of whom was a pregnant woman, entered the Biology Museum and staged an orgy. The most notorious Voina action was last June, when several members of the group painted a penis on the Liteiny Bridge in St Petersburg. Evading and fighting off security, the 65-metre high image was completed just before the bridge opened, as it does each evening to let ships pass through.

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Related
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
13 min
with

Up Next