Political expression in Russia

MOSCOW — On a wintry day in mid-March Artyom Loskutov gathered with three fellow artists in the quiet halls of a Moscow movie theater to discuss an upcoming art event in his hometown of Novosibirsk.

The artists always make sure to meet in public places. They shut off their cell phones and refused to give a reporter their phone numbers for fear of being tracked.

“It’s easier to get lost in Moscow than in Novosibirsk. The authorities are closer, so they’re actually farther away,” Loskutov said.

Today, Loskutov, a soft-spoken 20-something with long black dreadlocks, is sitting in a Novosibirsk holding cell, awaiting a trial that his colleagues insist is politically motivated.

For the past few years, Loskutov has organized art events in Novosibirsk that he calls “Monstratsiya” — gatherings that draw hundreds of people every May 1. Some people come with posters of absurdist statements; some veer toward the political.

These “happenings” are emblematic of a new trend in Russian post-Soviet art: combining political statements with artistic sensibilities, and often blurring the line between the two.

To a government that suffers no dissent, in a country that gave birth to modern anarchism over a century ago, they are seen, quite widely, as a threat.

“Relevant art is political art,” said Oleg Vorotnikov, one of the founders of Voina, or War, a politically conscious art collective that is leading the trend. Loskutov had traveled to Moscow in March to meet with him, discussing tactics and strategy, as well as the meaning of art in modern Russia.

“The time of individualistic art is over, now it’s about group art,” Vorotnikov said. “Post-modernists comment on a discourse that already exists — we’re starting a new discussion.

“A gallery is just a business, while political art always sees the problems. It’s inherently uncomfortable,” he said.

Uncomfortable most, perhaps, for the authorities, whom Vorotnikov and others accuse of plotting Loskutov’s arrest.

On the morning of May 15, the anti-extremism department of the local police called Loskutov to appear for an interview. He declined, urging an official request. Hours later, he was detained by three plainclothes police officers on an unspecified charge, his friends said. At the station, police found 11 grams of marijuana among his belongings. Loskutov and his friends insist it was planted there by the police, a common practice in Russia. In addition to charges of drug possession, he could also face charges of extremism.

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