About the Pussy Riot Campaign
Conceptual performance artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova is the creator of Pussy Riot, a global feminist protest art movement. Today, hundreds of people identify as a part of the Pussy Riot community.
Tolokonnikova was sentenced in 2012 to two years' imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance. She went through a hunger strike protesting savage prison conditions. She ended up being sent to a Siberian penal colony, where she managed to maintain her artistic activity. With her prison punk band, she toured Siberian labor camps and subsequently published a book, "Read and Riot: Pussy Riot's Guide to Activism".
As the co-founder of independent news service and media outlet, Mediazona, she has spoken before the US Congress, British Parliament, and European Parliament, and appeared as herself on Season 3 of House of Cards.
Pussy Riot's Punk-prayer was named by The Guardian among the best art pieces of the 21st Century ("feminist, explicitly anti-Putin, protesting the banning of gay pride and the Orthodox church’s support of the president"). She collaborated with Bansky on his Dismaland exhibition, was endorsed by Marina Abramović and Ai Weiwei, created an immersive experience in Saatchi Gallery in London, and worked with Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles to stage a massive public protest against Putin, his supporters, and the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
She has used her art and voice to raise millions of dollars for Ukrainian resistance, to protect women’s rights in the United States, and to provide assistance to the LGBTIQ+ population of Chechnya.
In 2023 she was added to Russia’s most wanted list for her continued art against Putin and those that support him. There have been coordinated attacks to deplatform her art and calls for her death - her family and friends have been beaten, imprisoned, poisoned, murdered.
This fund with Human Rights Foundation will allow donors to make a tax-deductible donation to continue the public art efforts that Pussy Riot is known for - bringing her radical anti-Putinist art across the US - New York, New Mexico, Chicago - and closer to Putin’s doorstep - Oslo, Berlin, London.
Pussy Riot stands for a world without authoritarianism. If you have questions regarding this initiative or if you prefer to make an anonymous donation, please contact artinprotest@hrf.org and we will get back to you.