Pussy Riot, the Russian protest group, has auctioned a series of four non-fungible-tokens (NFTs) and released a new music video to accompany its release and raise funds for their art projects and local activism.
It has been reported that the group first rose to prominence in 2012 after staging a guerilla performance of an iconoclastic feminist punk song in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in protest against the Orthodox Church’s complicity with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
However, shortly after, the group’s members were arrested for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and later sentenced to two years in a penal colony.
NFTs are so much more than collectibles. The Russian protest group, Pussy Riot, is making its way into the NFT world to support a shelter for victims of domestic violence. https://t.co/wxdATb8wJE — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 13, 2021
The report said that the music video for the group’s latest single, Panic Attack, features co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova as an avatar journeying through a dystopian virtual wasteland, culminating in her battle with an ominous doppelgänger.
Tolokonnikova said:
“After serving 2 years in a labor camp, I’m still struggling with mental health issues. Trauma, fear and insecurity never fully go away, causing depression episodes and deep anxiety. ‘Panic Attack’ was born as the result of me staring at the wall for 24 hours in the middle of the pandemic, feeling 100% helpless.”
Likewise, to create the video for Panic Attack, which was produced by Chris Greatti, the augmented reality artist Asad J. Malik created a photorealistic hologram avatar of Tolokonnikova using footage of her captured by 106 cameras. After the video’s release, the single is being auctioned as a series of four NFTs for collectors to purchase through the platform Foundation.
🔥 New bid for @pussyrrriot's first NFT 🔥 100 $ETH (~$187,000 USD) by @mondoir Funds raised will go towards creating more activist art and to victims of domestic violence in Russia. 💖 https://t.co/6hVtbPmS64 — Foundation (@withFND) March 14, 2021
Held on March 13 (Saturday), proceeds from the auction will go towards financing Pussy Riot’s future projects, as well as raising funds for a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Russia. Tolkonnikova’s extended commentary on the single offer further clues as to why the simulated reality, which begins as a saccharine dream world and degenerates into something altogether apocalyptic, was felt to be particularly apt.
She said:
“The video reflects on the objectification of human beings, loneliness, disconnection from the environment that causes us to feel small and powerless. And it’s us who caused it with our own hands — that’s why at the end of the video I’m fighting with my own clone.”
Thus, Masha Alekhina and Lucy Shtein, Tolkonnikova’s fellow Pussy Riot members, now face two years in jail for showing public support for opposition figure Alexei Navalny during the recent wave of protests that followed his attempted assassination for anti-corruption activism.
Pussy Riot's Masha Alekhina is still detained, she faces criminal charges and 2 years in jail for encouraging people to go to protests on social networks. THIS IS A FACE OF PUTIN'S RUSSIA. they clearly have nothing else to do, but to put Pussy Riot in jail over and over again. pic.twitter.com/yJAWT7REbb — 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙 (@pussyrrriot) January 29, 2021
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Brooklyn Vegan