'Rage' - Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova opens debut solo museum show in Linz

Best known among European audiences for her 2012 ‘Punk Prayer’ in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, artist and co-founder of activist collective Pussy Riot Nadya Tolokonnikova opened ‘Rage’ at the OK Linz Museum in Austria on Friday.

For her debut solo museum show, Tolokonnikova – whose art has previously landed her in prison and the label of “foreign agent” by the Russian government – brings an engaging, and in equal measure shocking and sobering, mix of sculptures, installations, video and live performances to the contemporary art centre.

Curated by Michaela Seiser and Julia Staudach, Rage unfolds over two floors. Works include Tolokonnikova’s ‘Icons’ and ‘Dark Matter’ series, her own take on hagiography, calligraphy and the Orthodox cross; a reconstruction of Tolokonnikova’s own prison cell; a number of video works, including the European debut of Putin’s Ashes, which depicts 12 women torching a huge portrait of Vladimir Putin; a wall of prison shivs; and a ‘chapel’ inhabited by sex dolls.

Together, they provide a provocative, yet meaningful and in some ways hopeful, reflection on rage as a weapon of resistance in the face of authoritarianism.

Just prior to opening day, Thursday night saw Tolokonnikova and a band of balaclava-clad artists and activists inaugurate the show fittingly – with a rage- and screaming-filled performance, all in the haunting shadow of a mammoth suspended engraved knife, entitled Damocles Sword.

‘Rage’ runs at OK Linz Museum until 20 October 2024.