We work on the thin line between activism and art, this means that we don’t visit geriatric homes and don’t help the poor and weak, like the real activists do. We don’t propagandize Marxism and don’t have long talks about the hard lot of the labour class. Because we are from labour class ourselves. We are unqualified hardworking people, annihilating obscurantism, outdated symbols and repressive-patriarchal ideologies by means of laughter and contemporary art.
All our actions have political underlying messages, but we use art language only. We speak in images, symbols, which are mostly visual. We don’t use the language of political journalism. Politics is just a main theme of our works. In the current socio-political situation in Russia, an honest artist can’t be mute and make glamorous “masterpieces” for oligarchs, who decorate their “brilliant” dachas.
Despite attracting the support of “free-thinking” Russians across the country, VOINA and its supporters remain in a marginalized cultural position. The general public is often confused by their work (as Oleg writes: they are “usually either astounded, stare mute and stroke dumb, or very disturbed”). Not surprisingly, Russia’s cultural institutions have reacted with outright hostility to Voina.
All our actions have political underlying messages, but we use art language only. We speak in images, symbols, which are mostly visual. We don’t use the language of political journalism. Politics is just a main theme of our works. In the current socio-political situation in Russia, an honest artist can’t be mute and make glamorous “masterpieces” for oligarchs, who decorate their “brilliant” dachas.
Despite attracting the support of “free-thinking” Russians across the country, VOINA and its supporters remain in a marginalized cultural position. The general public is often confused by their work (as Oleg writes: they are “usually either astounded, stare mute and stroke dumb, or very disturbed”). Not surprisingly, Russia’s cultural institutions have reacted with outright hostility to Voina.
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