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Pussy Riot
Alexandra Nguyen
© Alexandra Nguyen
The collective is made up of about 10 performers, and about 15 people who handle the technical work of shooting and editing their videos. Members say all their decisions are collective and anonymous. Pussy Riot are sworn to anonymity, hence the colourful balaclavas members use to hide their faces, even when giving interviews.
The band began writing songs with lyrics such as: “Egyptian air is good for the lungs / Do Tahrir on Red Square!” and performing on trams and in the metro. Videos of the flash gigs began spreading across the internet. When the protest leader Alexey Navalny was jailed for 15 days after his arrest during Russia’s first post-election protest on 5 December, three members of Pussy Riot took to the roof of the jail where he was being held, setting off red flares as they sang “Death to prison / Freedom to protest!”
On March 3, 2012 two members (Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) were arrested for being part of a group performance of an obscene song on February 21 in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. The song included an appeal to the “Holy Mother, Blessed Virgin” to “chase Putin out.” On March 16, a third member, Irina Loktina, who had earlier acted as a witness in this case, was similarly arrested and charged.
Celebrities from around the world including Paul McCartney, Madonna, Bjork etc, have called for the band members to be freed, and other protests timed to just before the verdict or soon afterward were being. In the Russian capital activists put the band’s trademark ski masks, or balaclavas, on several statues across town. Small, but raucous protests were held in a few dozen cities. A few dozen people came out in Barcelona, Spain, a couple hundred in Paris, and a handful in Washington.
Today, August 17, 2012 judge sentenced girls to two years jail. Alexandra Nguyen photographed girls just few weeks before the performance.
