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One More Pussy Riot Member Detained
Supporters of the all-female punk group Pussy Riot picketed the headquarters of the Moscow police on Thursday
via RIA Novosti
A Moscow court will hold a custody hearing this Friday for a third suspected member of feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot, who was detained on Thursday, [March 15, 2012] lawyer Violetta Volkova said.
The female detainee, Ekaterina Santsevich, was identified on Thursday by employees of Christ the Savior Cathedral, where Pussy Riot performed its “punk prayer,” when she arrived at Moscow’s police investigation department to provide testimony in the case of the two band members already in custody, the police said in a statement.
Her involvement in the performance, which blasted the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for president-elect Vladimir Putin, was verified by numerous videos posted on the Internet and recordings from surveillance cameras at the cathedral.
In February, five masked members of Pussy Riot stormed the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow to perform their politically charged “punk prayer” next to the main altar and then fled the building.
The two Pussy Riot members already in custody, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, face up to seven years in prison on hooliganism charges.
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Nicolai Polozov, one of the defense lawyers of the detained women, also reported on Thursday, March 15th 2012, that Maria Alyokhina is being brought to a nervous break-down by threats to deprive her of her parental rights – made by the investigators in the case, headed by the lieutenant -colonel A. Radchenkov. According to Polozov, the “Pussy Riot” case is ranked ‘of special importance’, and kept under strict control. The lawyer also declared that the investigating team of policemen continue to pressure the alleged band-members to testify, while the three detained women continue to exercise their right to silence under article 51 of the Russian constitution. Maria’s son, Filya, still remains with his grandmother.
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Help for Nadezhda, Maria and Ekaterina: Donations Being Collected
Dear Friends,
We, Nikolai Polozov, Violetta Volkova and Mark Feigin, the legal defense of Maria, Nadezhda and Ekaterina, announce the call for all their supporters to help the detained women collect the funds and successfully pass the trial set for 24 April 2012:
The following articles need to be covered:
1.Psycho-Linguistic and Theological Expertise (on the presence of blasphemy in the text of the song): 5000 to 7500 Euro
2. Minimal Wage of their Legal Defense (the group of three lawyers are working free of charge right now, and in case there are new detainees, more lawyers will be needed): 1500 Euro each lawyer
3. Bail Sum: 13000 Euro for each woman (the defense hope to bail the women out on 24 April)
4. Expenses related to their children (food, clothing, etc)
You may donate in cash or by bank-transfer. You may do so by contacting one of the lawyers or through our contact page. For those in Russia, you may use (online-‘wallet’): Яндекс-кошелек 41001236566551
Nikolai Polozov
https://twitter.com/#!/moscow_advokat
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001662173833
+79671914055, +79859971520 Moscow
American Dollar Account
ZAO Raiffeisenbank
SWIFT: RZBMRUMM
Beneficiary account number: 40817840101000100239
Beneficiary name: Feygin Mark Zakharovich
Details for payment: legal services in the case of PR
Euro Account
ZAO Raiffeisenbank
SWIFT: RZBMRUMM
Beneficiary account number: 40817978701000488760
Beneficiary name: Feygin Mark Zakharovich
Details for payment: legal services in the case of PR
____________________________________________
On March 25th 2012, The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (USPP) in Russia has issued a statement recognizing Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevich as political prisoners. According to the Union, the three women are charged with ‘hooliganism’ according to article 213/2 of Criminal Code, without any evidence for incriminating such charges, which makes both pre-trial arrest and the charges, illegal. The three women are being incarcerated in the pre-trial detention center N6 until the final trial set for 24 April 2012.
Source: http://www.rosbalt.ru/moscow/2012/03/25/961247.html
USPP Statement: http://www.politzeky.ru/politzeki/drugie-dela/43518.html
Free Pussy Riot! by Lylia Espinosa
Maria Alekhina, a prominent environmental activist, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have been put in prison for 2 months without trial, simply on suspicion of taking part in the anti-Putin actions of feminist punk band Pussy Riot. They have 4- and 5-year-old kids waiting for them at home. We ask you to spread the word and to organise actions of solidarity, the first one for the 8th of March, International Women’s Day! The women went on hunger-strike since the arrest.
Re-post from original article on Index of Censorship by Tena Prelec:
Members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot have been arrested in Moscow on the eve of the country’s presidential elections on charges of hooliganism. The Moscow court in charge decided to keep them imprisoned until 24 April, when they will be tried facing a sentence of up to 7 years. Two band members, both mothers, have announced a hunger strike until they are reunited with their children.
Pussy Riot is one of the most unusual of all the opposition groups that have arisen in Moscow over the past few months. They perform political songs dressed in colourful mini-skirts and balaclavas. Their faces are covered so anyone can potentially join in. They were arrested after performing an anti-Putin punk prayer in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral.
The trial was supposed to take place on 5 March, the same day when mass demonstrations were scheduled to happen in Moscow. Journalists gathered at the Taganka court at 3pm, but were kept waiting for many hours in vain. “The strategy seems to be to wait for all of us to go to the protests, and hold the trial without a consistent presence of the press,” one said.
Waiting for the trial to start, the band members’ lawyer Nikolai Polozov told Index: “I do not understand why the trial is being postponed for such a long time. I got notice it was delayed by one, then two and then three hours, but now the inquirer does not even pick up my phone calls. If supporting documents are not brought in within 48 hours of the arrests, which is within a couple of hours, they will be forced to release them. But they could always determine the moment of the arrest to a later hour or find another legal caveat to keep them in”.
The supporting documents were eventually brought in. Two more band members were arrested in the evening hours of the same day.
Many Russians are showing support for the group through social media and real life actions. On 8 March, International Women’s Day, a number of flash mobs in support of the group are planned to take place all over Moscow. Recently re-elected president Vladimir Putin has stated he disapproves of the womens’ actions in the cathedral.
UPDATES
Friends, you can now send solidarity messages to the arrested members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova at this email address : pussriotsolidarity@gmail.com – even if you don’t know Russian, you can write to them in English or just write in your native language – their support group will print these messages and hand them over to Maria and Nadezhda – first round this Sunday 11th of March, 2012.
An online petition in English is now gathering signatures for the support of the jailed women. Please take a moment of your time to add your name in support.
The wrongful cessation of the Visual Culture Research Center of NaUKMA’s activities: from censorship to repression
On Thursday, February 23rd, the Academic Council of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy passed a resolution to bar the activities of Visual Culture Research Center of NaUKMA [in Kyiv, Ukraine] after the end of the exhibition «Ukrainian Body».
Therefore, in this connection on Monday, February 27th at 13.00 VCRC announces a protest action against the acts of censorship and repression of the VCRC, which will be held near the 1st building of NaUKMA (2, Skovorody str.). The Center’s members, students and artists will demand from the NaUKMA President to cancel the decision of the Academic Council, re-open the exhibition «Ukrainian Body» and let the VCRC continue its work.
While the attention of the society and the press to the closing of the exhibition «Ukrainian Body», held at the Visual Culture Research Center, has not yet cooled down, the administration of NaUKMA and its president Serhiy Kvit decided to end the activities of the VCRC itself. In this way they ignored the results of the expert meeting with the prominent representatives of the artistic and intellectual audience, which was aimed at discussing the exhibition’s re-opening.
After the act of censorship concerning the exhibition «Ukrainian Body», which drew a wide response in the Ukrainian and foreign media, the President of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Serhiy Kvit has initiated a number of bureaucratic restrictions against the VCRC as the organizers of the exhibition. On February 23rd the Academic Council’s decision stopped the activities of VCRC.
The governing body of NaUKMA were exasperated by the public attention and the condemnation of censorship at the ‘most democratic’ university. As a result of the administration’s sanctions, the work of Visual Culture Research Center is no longer possible. The unexpected decision of the administration imperils the events that are planned for March – art exhibitions and the conference on feminism with participants from Poland, Russia, USA, Finland, Serbia and France.
Previously, on February 10th, 2012 President of NaUKMA Serhiy Kvit closed the exhibition «Ukrainian Body», dedicated to the study of corporality in Ukrainian society, three days after its opening. Serhiy Kvit explained his actions in the following way: «It is not an exhibition – it’s shit. » The artists’ actions against censorship, letters from international partners and the media attention did not convince the president of the university to re-open the exhibition.
More information at the Visual Culture Research Center of NaUKMA website.
For additional information, please contact the VCRC representatives by phone:
Inna Sovsun – +38 067 502 57 27
Ihor Samokhin – +38 097 985 58 73
Oleksiy Radynski – +38 067 442 23 89
or through email.
UPDATE
The VCRC has been reinstated, but they still need our letters of support and solidarity to make sure it remains open and to lift the ban on the exhibition “The Ukrainian Body.”
In this video, curators David Elliott, Ekaterina Degot and Simon Sheikh speak in support of the censored exhibition.
Banned on the Hill (and in Europe!)
Artist Franke James creates visual essays about social and environmental issues, especially climate change. Nektarina Non Profit, an organization trying to educate people on living sustainable lifestyles, was planning a 2011-2012 tour of Franke James’ artwork to 20 European cities. The goal was to inspire youth to become more eco-friendly. As reported by Voices-Voix, The Canadian Embassy provisionally approved $5,000 for the project, but withdrew the funding a month later, and refused to support Franke James in any other way. James alleges that the government also attempted to prevent private sponsors from assisting her tour, and covered up its motives for intervening – motives based on silencing advocacy for the environment.
Franke described her censorship case to us, including ample documentation:
I am a Canadian artist and author who has a well documented art censorship case which took place in 2011. PEN Canada and the Writers’ Union of Canada published a press release November 24/11 expressing their concern over the Government’s interference in my solo European art show.
“The government of Canada has no right to determine what is an acceptable opinion for an individual citizen, on climate change or any matter of public interest,” said Charlie Foran, President of PEN Canada, “To do so is clearly not in the spirit of the Charter and the long history of freedom of expression in Canada.”
Greg Hollingshead, Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada said, “The right to freedom of expression includes freedom from official disapproval, including the sort of bureaucratic interference encountered by Franke James.” [http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=8999 ]
I made Canadian Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper’s “blacklist” for disagreeing with government policy on climate change. (more background below) In my case, the Harper Government interfered behind-the-scenes, ultimately causing the cancellation of my 20-city solo European art show which was to inspire youth to take action on climate change. Here are three documented examples of their interference:
I. The producer of my art exhibition (Sandra Antonovic, Director of Nektarina Non Profit) was warned by the cultural officer of the Canadian Embassy in Croatia, not to show my art because the artist, Franke James, “speaks against the Canadian Government”. This news was published in the Toronto Star, and on Nektarina’s website. [http://www.nektarinanonprofit.com/2011/07/bully-in-playground.html]
II. Access-to-information documents (ATIP) obtained by me on October 31/11, show that Jeremy Wallace, the Deputy Director of Climate Change at DFAIT, stepped in to cancel all financial [http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=8533#disapproval ] and even no-cost moral support for my show. [http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=8533#moral_support ]
This cancellation was after the cultural officer at the Canadian Embassy was already notified that funds for the project were approved. [http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=8533#approval ]
Surprisingly, government spokespeople denied in the media that funding was ever approved or withdrawn. The ATIP documents prove that this is not true.
III. Access-to-information documents obtained by me on December 13/11, show that Scott Heatherington, the Canadian Ambassador of the Baltic States, interfered behind the scenes to dissuade people from supporting my show. Ambassador Heatherington shared with his Canadian Embassy colleagues that my visual essay on the tar sands was the reason that he could not support my art show.
I am part of a larger pattern of bullying and silencing critics in Canada. Many individuals and organizations have been attacked by the Canadian Government for disagreeing with them on a range of issues including the Census, the Canadian Wheat Board, Nuclear power, and Environmental issues. [See more at: http://voices-voix.ca/en] Just recently my MP, Joe Oliver (Minister of Natural Resources) published an open letter labeling environmentalists as “radicals”. An access-to-information request by Climate Action Network to the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed that the media, environmental and aboriginal groups are listed as “adversaries” by the Federal Government in a public relations plan called the “Pan-European Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy.” [http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/26/pol-oilsands-campaign.html]
If you would like to help, please sign this petition.
In November 2011 Franke James produced the video “Banned on the Hill (and in Europe!)” about how her European art show tour to educate youth about climate change was curtailed by behind-the-scenes interference by the Canadian Government.
Statement of the Visual Culture Research Center, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine)
On February 10, 2012, the president of NaUKMA (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) Serhiy Kvit banned “ The Ukrainian Body,” an exhibition that explores the problematics of corporality in Ukrainian society, only three days after its opening. The entrance to the gallery [of the Visual Culture Research Center] is now locked. Serhiy Kvit explained his action with the following reasoning: “It’s not an exhibition, it’s shit.”
The consequence of such an action, which we consider to be an unacceptable act of censorship against a public space for dialogue, neglects important social and political problems and suppresses critical reflection. The exhibition, which was slated to close on February 28, presents works by Ukrainian artists Anatoly Belov, Eugenia Belorusets, Oksana Bryukhovetsky, Alexander Volodarsky, Nikita Kadan, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Liubov Malikov, Lada Nakonechna, Mykola Ridnii , and many others.
We can only hope that such a thoughtless act on the part of the university’s administration was the result of a misunderstanding that can be resolved. We are now petitioning to collect signatures to protest against artistic censorship within the walls of NaUKMA. Please, spread this message.
More about the exhibition
The exhibition “The Ukrainian Body” is a view at Ukrainian society as a material, cultural, informative, ideological and aesthetic environment of body’s being, understanding of the corporal experience of existing in it.
Our bodies are being under certain social and material circumstances and are determined by them. Corporal practices are determined by factors considered to be acceptable or desirable. The idea of beauty and norm is implemented in attitudes towards other bodies, sending efforts concerning oneself’s body. Through experts and teachers, family and advertisement, morals and medicine, religion and market we receive instructions on how to utilize our body, we use criteria of its “efficiency” and work out possibilities and modes of an interaction with other bodies.
This complex web of factors of corporal experience and ways of its symbolic cartography has been brought into the focus of art analysis. We suggest to interpret the body, particularly the imaginable, ideal, metaphorical, constructed and caught by participants’ eyes, both as a symptom of its environment and an instrument for its cognition. The participants are transforming the gallery space into a laboratory of experiment carried out on each of the visitors, testing and displaying their cognitive mechanisms, zones of sensitivity and systems of judgement.
Curators: Oksana Briukhovetska, Serge Klymko, Lesya Kulchynska.
Photographs of the exhibition “The Ukrainian Body” via Art Ukraine.
UPDATES
The Visual Culture Research Center will organize a public debate around the banning of the exhibition on Monday, February 13 at 12:00 pm on its premises, Skovoroda St., No. 2, Old Academic Building, 1st floor, Kyiv:
We welcome the president of NaUKMA Serhiy Kvit, and everyone in the Visual Culture Research Center to a discussion about the exhibition “Ukrainian body” with the participants, organizers and leaders of artistic and intellectual fields during the press preview of the exhibition – after which the center will resume its work.
All those who are interested in supporting the exhibition please contact the Press Centre of NaUKMA by phone: 044 425 15 36 / cell: 38 067 784 24 44, email: pressa@ukma.kiev.ua , as well as the office of the President of NaUKMA by phone: 044 417 84 61.
“Ukrainian body” should be open!
Here you can find a growing archive of letters of support for the exhibition to be re-opened to the public: http://vcrc.ukma.kiev.ua/en/events/letters_ub
On Thursday, February 23rd, the Academic Council of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy passed a resolution to bar the activities of Visual Culture Research Center of NaUKMA [in Kyiv, Ukraine] after the end of the exhibition «Ukrainian Body». Read more here.
If you would like to express your support, please email the Visual Culture Research Center here. You can also keep informed about the progress of this case via their official website.
ArtLeaks will continue to report on this case as it develops.
ArtLeaks 