In the thankfully blurred out video above (NSFW version here — it’s graphic and will hurt your feelings) Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky took a very uncomfortable seat to take a stand against what he described as Russian society’s development into a “police state.”
Hundreds of tourists to Moscow’s Red Square got an eyeful of political dissent when the naked 29-year-old St. Petersburg-based artist nailed his scrotum to a cobblestone outside Lenin’s Mausoleum. In a statement released to grani.ru (via The Mirror) leading up to the performance, Pavlensky explained his testicular gesture:
“A naked artist, looking at his balls nailed to the Kremlin pavement, is a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of contemporary Russian society.”
Of course, the naked artist has a point. Back in June, the Russian government unanimously passed a federal anti-gay propaganda law — banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” in the presence of children — followed by a law (also passed unanimously) banning adoptions from foreign same-sex couples.
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After his latest stunt, Pavlensky was treated at a Moscow clinic and taken to a police station.
No stranger to suffering for his art, Pavlensky sewed his lips shut in 2011 to raise awareness of political rockers Pussy Riot, who were jailed for staging a protest performance in a Moscow cathedral; Pavlensky was later arrested for wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a government building in St. Petersburg.
h/t: The Daily Mirror
BJ McFrisky
Nope, no mental illness here.
AuntieChrist
I don’t recall Russia ever not being a police state with draconian laws and jackbooted thugs.
DarkZephyr
Dear Lord. *crossing legs*
BitterOldQueen
Well OK so watching the NSFW version certainly eliminated any possibility of that happening to me, since mine pulled right up into my body and hid somewhere behind my spleen. But seriously, this accomplished what?
tallskin2
Wot!! No Fagburn here to tell us it’s not real and is a false story????
Come on fagburn
2eo
@tallskin2: He’s fresh off having yet another Anti-Semitic rant against Israel, did he ever tell you how he lost his DJ job in Brighton by going off on an Israeli couple who came over for Brighton Pride in 2010.
He did this in the middle of a nightclub.
2eo
@tallskin2: Sorrt that was misleading. Fagburn is currently having a go at Peter Tatchell, apparantly Tatchell thinks it was Fagburn who threw a brick at his car in 2012.
He’s also sticking up for the Daily Mail and their constant attacks on gay marriage and civil rights.
biscuit_batter
I hope he has a “SAFE” word.
tripster
probably pierced beforehand because there would be a blood clot or something. anyways…. it took balls to do what he did
DarkZephyr
@tripster: true enough. Without them he wouldn’t have had anything to nail to the ground.
Ruhlmann
Art fart I know a fetish when I see one.
samwise343
I’ve heard of balls to the walls, but Jesus!
samwise343
@BJ McFrisky: Consider your previous posts, mental illness is right where you are, BJ.
BlogShag
Oh give us a break. With all these gore sites and porn on the “AIR”, why do we still have to deal with this silly censorship; especially based on the disgustingly offensive stuff they find ok to air on national TV?!
manjoguy
Under the Obama administration we’re seeing the U.S. becoming a “police state” – I hope American guys don’t go nailing their testicles here to anything. I love ball sacks undamaged.