Pyotr (or Petr) Andreyevich Pavlensky (; born 8 March 1984) is a Russian contemporary artist. He is known for his controversial political art performances, which he calls "events of Subject-Object Art" (previously "events of political art"). His work often involves nudity and self-mutilation. In a manner likened to ancient Cynic protest, Pavlensky makes the "mechanics of power" visible, forcing authorities to take part in his events by staging them in areas with heavy police surveillance. By doing so, "the criminal case becomes one of the layers of the artwork" and the government is "[drawn] into the process of making art".
In 2017, he was granted political asylum in France, but in May 2026, OFPRA (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) initiated proceedings to revoke Pavlensky's political asylum due to his implementation of the events Lighting and Pornopolitics within the territory of France.
Early life and education Born in Leningrad in 1984, Pavlensky studied monumental art at the Saint Petersburg Art and Industry Academy.V. Martinovich. Petr Pavlensky: «Pussy Riot was much lighter and less harmful than Jesus Christ's actions» // www.belgazeta.by. – 2012. – Aug.13K.Petrov Petr Pavlensky: «Art Is Unthinkable without Experiment» // RosBalt. – 2012. – Sept. 15 During his fourth year in the Academy, he took additional training at St. Petersburg Pro Arte Foundation for Culture and Arts (:ru:Про Арте).
Pavlensky's "events" are inspired in part by Pussy Riot, as demonstrated in Seam, and follow in the tradition of artists such as Chris Burden, the Viennese Actionists, and Moscow Actionists Oleg Kulik and Alexander Brener, Fluxus and Joseph Beuys.
Career Pavlensky and Oksana Shalygina founded an independent online newspaper Political Propaganda in 2012, which was dedicated to contemporary art in political contexts, "overcoming cultural chauvinism, implemented by the government", feminism and gender equality.Own. inf. New Site about Art and Politics // ArtChronicles. – 2012. – December, 4
Seam (2012) Pavlensky first became known for sewing his mouth shut at a political art event staged against the incarceration of members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot.A. Mavliev, K. Akhmetjhanova Artist sutured his mouth in support of Pussy Riot // Komsomolskaya Pravda. – 2012. – July, 23.SobKor A Saint Petersburg artist sutured his mouth in support of Pussy Riot // RIA News. – 2012. – July, 23. On 23 July 2012 Pavlensky appeared at Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg with his lips sewn shut, holding a banner that stated: "Action of Pussy Riot was a replica of the famous action of Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:12–13)".SobKor Petersburg Peter Pavlensky sewed his mouth in support of punk parishioners // pralaya.ru. – 2012. – July, 24. Police called an ambulance and sent him for a psychiatric examination; the psychiatrist declared him sane and released him shortly after the incident.A. Matveeva Petr Pavlensky: «A simple intersection of a vertical line with horizontal is already considered as an insult to the faith» // artchronika.ru. – 2012. – July, 24. The artist stated that he was highlighting the lack of regard for artists in contemporary Russia, saying: "My intention was not to surprise anyone or come up with something unusual. Rather, I felt I had to make a gesture that would accurately reflect my situation".V. Komarova. With widely sutured mouth // Echo of Moscow. – 2012. – Aug, 6.
Seam is said to reference David Wojnarowicz's actions in Rosa von Praunheim's documentary Silence = Death (1990), in which Wojnarowicz had sewn his own lips shut in protest at the Reagan administration's lack of action against the AIDS epidemic.
On 14 November 2012 Reuters published its list of the 98 best photos of the year, which included Seam.Artist Pyotr Pavlensky, a supporter of jailed members of the female punk band "Pussy Riot", looks on with his mouth sewed up as he protests outside the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, July 23, 2012. // Best photos of the year 2012, Reuters. – 2012. – November 14, 2013.
Carcass (2013) On 3 May 2013 Pavlensky staged a political art event aimed at showing the existence of a person caught inside a repressive legal system. This event was called Carcass.R. Moshkhoyev In St. Petersburg, the trial of "naked artist" has started // Komsomolskaya Pravda. – 2013. – May, 4. His assistants brought him naked, wrapped in a multilayered cocoon of barbed wire, to the main entrance of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg.Petr Pavlensky // Escapist. – 2013. – July, 10.A Stolyarchuk St. Petersburg artist wrapped himself in the barbed wire // www.colta.ru. – 2013. – May, 3.Own korr. Activists explained of the naked man action near the Legislative Assembly building // www.mr7.ru. – 2013. – May, 3.Own korr. Naked artist wrapped himself in the barbed wire near St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Building // НТВ. – 2013. – May, 3. The artist remained silent, lying still in a half-bent position inside the cocoon, and did not react to the actions of others until he was released by the police with the help of garden clippers. This performance was awarded the Alternative Prize for Russian Activist Art in the "Actions Implemented in Urban Space" category in 2013.
Pavlensky made the following comment about his artwork: "A series of laws aimed at suppressing civic activism, intimidation of the population, steadily growing number of political prisoners, the laws against NGOs, the 18+ laws, censorship laws, activity of Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, "promotion of homosexuality" laws – all these laws aren't aimed against criminals, but against the people. And at last the Blasphemy law. That is why I organized this action. The human body is naked like a carcass, there is nothing on it except the barbed wire, which by the way was invented for the protection of livestock. These laws like the wire, keep people in individual pens: all this persecution of political activists, "prisoners of May, 6", governmental repressions is the metaphor of the pen with the barbed wire around it. All this has been done in order to turn people into gutless and securely guarded cattle, which can only consume, work, and reproduce."D. Volchek Cultural Diary: On Good Friday // Radio Liberty. – 2013. – May, 8.
Fixation (2013) On 10 November 2013, while sitting naked on the stone pavement in front of Lenin's Mausoleum on the Red Square, Moscow, Pavlensky hammered a large nail through his scrotum, affixing it to the stone pavement. His political art event coincided with the annual Russian Police Day. When the police arrived, they covered him with a blanket and later arrested him.
"A naked artist, looking at his testicles nailed to the cobblestone is a metaphor of apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of Russian society."
Freedom (2014) On 23 February 2014 Pavlensky organized an event called Freedom inspired by Maidan and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. The artist and his friends built an imitation barricade on Tripartite Bridge in Saint Petersburg, burned tires, and beat drums. The event was interrupted by Saint Petersburg police who arrested Pavlensky and his colleagues.
On 25 February 2014 Dzerzhinsky Criminal Court stopped the administrative case against Pavlensky on the accusations of hooliganism, and released him from custody. An investigation into Pavlensky's alleged violation of the regulations on political meetings continued. He was charged with vandalism due to the tire burning. During the investigation, Pavlensky secretly recorded his interrogation sessions with Pavel Yasman, the main investigating officer, and involved him into a discussion on the nature and meanings of political art. Yasman then quit his job at Russia’s Investigative Committee and began preparing to become a lawyer in order to defend Pavlensky. The transcript of their conversations was published as the Dialogues on art in several countries.
Pavlensky invited prostitutes to testify against him at his trial, explaining:“They are prostitutes whom I paid so that they would come and testify. And it is equivalent to the testimony of other witnesses for the prosecution since they have just as much to do with the case. They have exactly the same motive.”
Segregation (2014)
On 19 October 2014 Pavlensky cut off his earlobe with a chef's knife while sitting naked on the roof of the infamous Serbsky Center to make visible the political abuse of psychiatry in Russia. This art event was an homage to Van Gogh.
Threat (2015) Pavlensky came to the first entrance of the Lubyanka Building, which is the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service, on 9 November 2015 at 1:15 a.m. Moscow time, doused the front door with gasoline, and set fire to it with a cigarette lighter. The doors of the building were partially burnt. Pavlensky stood and waited to be arrested, was detained after 30 seconds without resistance, and was charged with debauchery. A few hours after the event, a video appeared on the Internet with an explanation of the meaning of the burning.
The criminal case against Pavlensky was opened on 9 November 2015 under the "vandalism" section of Article 214 of the Russian criminal code. He was held in a psychiatric ward for a few weeks, and spent seven months in prison waiting for his trial.
According to gallerist Marat Gelman, the action shows Pavlensky's "obvious symbolism": "The Lubyanka door is the gate of hell, the entrance into the world of absolute evil. And against the backdrop of hellfire is a lonely artist, waiting to be captured ... Pavlensky's figure at the door of the FSB in flames - very important symbol for today's Russia, both political and artistic."
On 8 June 2016, the Moscow criminal court declared Pavlensky guilty of vandalism and sentenced him to a fine of 500,000 rubles, which Pavlensky refused to pay.
On 13 August 2016, Pavlensky gave a lecture in Odessa, Ukraine which ended with the inebriated Ukrainian journalist and screenwriter Vladimir Nestrenko instigating a fight that ended with his stabbing one of two security guards who tried to subdue him. The second of the two security guards suffered a fatal heart attack after the incident.
Lighting (2017) On 16 October 2017, in his first political art event outside Russia, Pavlensky was arrested in Paris after setting fire to the street-level windows of an office of the Bank of France, located on the Place de la Bastille in Paris. He was charged with property damage, together with his accomplice Oksana Shalygina. He was initially detained in a psychiatric hospital unit, until a judge ordered him to be placed in pretrial detention at Fleury-Mérogis Prison. Pavlensky went on two dry hunger strikes while imprisoned, in protest at “lack of transparency” over legal process. He served eleven months in pretrial detention.
On 10 January 2019, Pavlensky was sentenced to three years in prison; his pre-trial detention was counted as time served and the remaining two years were suspended. Shalygina was sentenced to two years in prison, of which 16 months were spent on probation. In addition, the convicts were obliged to pay the Bank of France €18,678 as compensation for material damage and €3,000 for moral damage. According to the newspaper Le Matin, Pavlensky in response shouted in Russian "Never!". The trial also included the appearance of a blind man as a witness, who defended the artistic merit of the action by speaking about light and darkness as poetic symbols. Pavlensky dedicated his trial to the Marquis de Sade.
Pornopolitics (2020)