Naked artist nails himself to Red Square in protest

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24896784

Naked artist nails himself to Red Square in protest

A performance artist has been detained in Moscow after stripping naked and nailing his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square in a protest.

Pyotr Pavlensky, 29, reportedly sat for an hour and a half on the square on Sunday afternoon, with a nail driven through his genitals into the ground.

The St Petersburg performer had faced a custodial sentence of 15 days but was freed on Monday.

Pavlensky said his "Fixation" act was a metaphor for apathy in Russia.

Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin accuse him of presiding over a crackdown on dissent since his re-election in March last year.

Timing his act to coincide with Police Day, Pavlensky said in a statement: "When the authorities turn the country into one big prison, openly robbing the populace and channelling funds to increase and enrich the police and other security agencies, society accepts arbitrariness and, having forgotten its advantage in numbers, brings the triumph of the police state closer through its inaction."

(continued, protest singing ain't what it used to be....)

[JimC]

Guy had balls, certainly...

[Azathoth]

Ooh, 15 days. I'm sure a guy who is happy to nail his bollocks to the floor to make a point is is really worried about that

[pErvinalia]

Bollocks!

edit: oh, i see Aza has already used "bollocks". What about "What a sad sack!"?

[JimC]

In Soviet Russia, balls nail you!

[Audley Strange]

That'll teach the Russian Government. In your face Oligarchs!

[mistermack]

This is just fighting one crackdown with another.

My heart goes out to the poor sap who had to free him. A brave man, maybe with Cossack ancestry?