Pussy Riot besieged the Russian pavilion at Biennale

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Pussy Riot ended up being the sole protagonists of the most spectacular performance at this 61st edition of the Venice Art Biennale:. On Wednesday morning, immediately after the exhibition gates opened at the Arsenale Gardens, some 30 activists staged a highly colorful march that made its way toward the Russian pavilion – with pink balaclavas covering their faces, smoke bombs of the same color, skimpy outfits that were exclusively black, bare breasts with anti-Putin slogans written in marker and punk music blaring at full volume.

Chanting the slogan “Enjoy the show, ignore the war,” the young activists headed toward the Russian pavilion just as the Moscow ambassador was inaugurating the hall in front of the invited guests. The march, which was joined by many Biennale visitors and activists from anti-Putin dissident groups, attempted to storm the pavilion, but the doors were promptly barred by the exhibition's curators. The police also intervened immediately, forming a cordon around the building.

Pussy Riot and the other protesters, a few hundred in total, nevertheless managed to besiege the pavilion for over an hour, keeping the ambassador and his guests trapped inside, shouting anti-war slogans as the smoke bombs shifted from pink to yellow and blue – the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

“The artists and curators of this pavilion were appointed by President Putin himself with the task of propagandizing an image of Russia as a democratic country and denying the regime’s crimes against Ukrainians, but also against its own citizens,” a young hooded woman explained. “This cannot be called art. Art is freedom.”

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Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/le-pussy-riot-assediano-il-padiglione-russo on 2026-05-07