Haus der Kunst

Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia at Haus der Kunst is the largest presentation of the artistic collective’s work to date, and the first museum exhibition in Germany devoted to Pussy Riot. It poses the urgent question of what resistance is in art, and which stories need to become a fundamental part of exhibition making nowadays.

In illustrating an increasingly hostile relationship between the feminist art collective and the state authorities, the exhibition offers essential insights into the evolution of Putin’s Russia over the past decade, culminating in the military invasion of Ukraine. Over the years through their artistic practice, Pussy Riot have ingeniously converted the oppressive tools of an authoritarian state into a new collaborative force for creativity, fearlessly taking serious risks.

The exhibition is presented in the LSK Galerie, nestled within the air raid shelter of Haus der Kunst, the site where the building’s complex history, dating back to its opening in 1937, is particularly evident. "Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia" follows the solo exhibitions of African American artist Tony Cokes (2022), and the Australian Indigenous film collective Karrabing (2023), featuring overlooked histories through the lens of new and inventive visual languages. Just as both previous surveys in the former bunker confront major questions of the current political state of the world, "Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia" aims at pushing the boundaries of exhibition display towards a dense experience that is a fundamental chapter in recent world history, and a presentation of a groundbreaking practice that reinvents media languages.

The exhibition invites the public to take time, to experience, and read a personal journey entirely handwritten on walls over the period of three weeks at the bunker, by Maria Alyokhina, in an environment where an overload of videos and countless photographs blend in colours, humour, punk, and noise.

"Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia" at Haus der Kunst emerged from passionate exchanges with the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, who first encountered Maria Alyokhina in Moscow. "Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia" is organised and toured by Maria Alyokhina and Kling & Bang, Reykjavik.

Curated by Ragnar Kjartansson, Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir and Dorothee Maria Kirch (Kling & Bang, Reykjavik); Lydia Antoniou, Andrea Lissoni, Margarita (Haus der Kunst München).