IZO

The latest action of Voina is to weld shut the doors of the Oprichnik club/restaurant belonging to establishment journalist Misha Leontev (plucer, with photos, in Russian).

Sensational Alexander Brener/Barbara Schurz info received from Zinovy Zinik:

Yesterday i visited a [private view for the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov exhibition at Sprovieri Gallery, London] and bumped there into my friends Alexander Brener and his partner Barbara Schurz, who after a few drinks improvised a striptease. She has a beauitiful tight arse and well-trimmed pubics (which were much more impressive than the exhibits). Brener joined her in exhibiting his private parts and then both tried to climb onto Kabakov's bed (a part of the installation), the bed collapsed and the pair preferred to depart in haste.

The Kabakovs' bed may be viewed currently at the gallery (Sprovieri). Photos © Zinovy Zinik 2008.

UPDATE: Brener (in hoody thing) - Schurz - Kabakovs' bed:

On the evening of 29 November the artist Dmitri Pimenov, armed with a toy pistol, threw a fire-cracker at the feet of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Central House of the Artist. Pimenov was taken to a psychiatric clinic (plucer, in Russian):

His last words, which he shouted from the ambulance window, were: "I have become the subject of an artistic performance by Gorbachev's bodyguards."

Alexei Plutser-Sarno, the lexicographer-journalist-artist-blogger who took part in the notorious performance Fuck for the Teddy-Bear Heir in the Biological Museum (IZO, earlier) is facing prosecution for publishing photographs of the event on his blog, his alleged crime being the illegal distribution of pornography. The actual participants of the performance are not currently facing charges (Open Space, in Russian).

Oleg Kulik repents of his life as a dog (MK-Piter, in Russian):

"Only now that I am older can I understand the reaction of my mother who, having seen her son on television crawling around naked in the street and barking, fainted."

"I haven't made a performance for nearly three years," complained the artist, "but all I have to do is go into a shop and everyone starts whispering, 'Look, the dog-guy has come to buy some yoghourt!' And they all step back in fear. I have to send my wife to do the shopping."

The Piano Crasher (Youtube). Also here (Saatchi).

Marat Guelman remembers Oleg Kulik's first performance (galerist, in Russian):

...as I understand it, this concerns his first performance. In which Brener also took part. Oleg couldn't say, in the presence of his then greatest rival, Brener, "Let's not do it." It was their joint performance. Brener led Kulik on a lead and shouted out poems. After that evening Kulik's fantastic fame began, and with it Brener's jealousy of him.

Performance by Voina group in Auchan supermarket.

A look at the Voina collective, best known for their Fuck for the Teddy-Bear Heir performance (Reuters).

A compendium of public opinion about the Voina performance Fuck for the Teddy Bear-Heir (plucer, in Russian; via galerist).

I am told there are plans for the 2010 Manifesta to be staged in Kiev with the assistance of a foundation set up by Ukrainian gallerist Lyudmila Bereznitskaya, who is currently active in Berlin. Off-top: while in Berlin today I visited Julius Werner (son of the mighty Michael) in his gallery on the swish Kochstrasse. Werner junior has a couple of hundred square metres, in which he was showing works from the eighties by A R Penck priced at up to €3.5 million. We had a useful conversation; talking about his business, he said to me: "I'm just starting out." Doing well in Berlin: Russian artist Anna Parkina, who now shows at Coma Gallery, one of the best new-media spaces; and here is her performance courtesy of Youtube. I don't know what it's about: some kind of Kafkaean metamorphosis?

Fuck for the Teddy-Bear Heir: OK, here's the video.

For some reason this was very popular, so here are some more Fuck for the Teddy-Bear Heir! photos.

Pagan traditions are buried not-so-very-deep in Russia. To mark the presidential elections, on 29 February the performance group Voina (Воина) staged a "mass fuck" (массовая ебля) entitled Fuck for the Teddy-Bear Heir (Ебись за наследника Медвежонка!) in (appropriately enough, I suppose) the Biological Museum in Moscow. The teddy-bear heir is a reference to presidential candidate Dmitri Medevedev, whose surname means "bear". LJ user plucer has a load more photos and info (in Russian). On reading plucer, I discover that the blonde girl on the left is shouting, "Yes, bear forever!" Plucer suggests she is English, which raises a patriotic throb in me, but my sources say in fact she is not :( She would like to remain anonymous; but a page has been devoted to her by LJ user favorov. The group Voina rejects leadership roles; it is composed of regular members and participating activists. NOTE: this post has been altered several times based on information received by correspondent VKh and Voina-member PV.

UPDATE: here's the video.