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Art Culture
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Weekly updates


You don’t have to be a dude to have shivers sent down your spine by this news. Pyotr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist, decided to take political protest to a whole other level of crazy by literally nailing his balls to the pavement in broad daylight on Sunday, in the middle of a very busy Red Square. It coincided with a national holiday – Day of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – which he is obviously not too keen on.

In a statement regarding the bizarre stunt, Pavlensky said “A naked artist, looking at his balls nailed to the Kremlin pavement, is a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of contemporary Russian society.”

Alright, dude.

While this is probably too heavy for your Monday morning, it’s nothing new for Pavlensky, who has a history of extreme, self-harming protest activities. It has been reported that he previously sewed his lips together in support of the imprisoned punk group Pussy Riot and in a separate incident, he wrapped his naked body in barbed wire earlier this year. All in a day’s work.