The Russian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, and the activist group Pussy Riot, are clashing on social media over the latter’s footage exclusion from a documentary.
The Russian pavilion is already in hot water due to the ongoing Ukrainian invasion. It has already faced anti-war protests and been excluded from the main event, and has been limited only during the preview period. One of the projects being displayed during this period was a documentary about Pussy Riot, the anti-Putin activist group and art collective.
However, the Instagram handle of the Russian Pavilion recently posted, accusing the group of self-censorship and asking the authorities to remove their footage from the documentary. The post said: “Pussy Riot asked us to remove the footage featuring them from the documentary film about the project. [Pussy Riot] wrote that they do not want their protests shown in the Pavilion … strange. We wanted to be honest and show what really happened, but it’s turning into pure self-censorship. Apparently, they are unhappy with their own performance.”
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Pussy Riot, however, was quick to respond to the post, commenting under it, “lol are you even allowed to use Instagram.” They pointed towards the fact that Meta has been labelled an extremist organization in Russia and has been banned since 2022. The group also rejected the premise of the documentary and highlighted the country’s record of suppressing human rights and freedom of expression. Lastly, they mocked the post itself, calling it a “self-own”, and opined that eventually the Russian government itself would try to remove any records of this incident.
