Russian art activist Pyotr Pavlensky nominated for FSB award

Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky has been nominated for the FSB (Russian Security Service) Prize for Literature and the Arts, for his artistic action against the organisation.

Pavlensky was nominated for the prize, which recognises artistic work on the subject of the FSB, by Maria Baronova, one of the coordinators of the Open Russia human rights initiative.

“I believe that Pavlensky’s work has a lot of great artistic value,” Ms Baronova posted on her Facebook page. “It is worthy of the highest consideration by the FSB award organising committee, and I ask them to appreciate Pavlensky’s art.”

Pavlensky is currently awaiting a criminal trial for setting fire to the entrance of the FSB building on 9 November 2015 in an artistic action entitled Threat. He was recently sentenced to one year and four months in prison for setting fire to tires on St Petersburg’s Malo-Konyushenny bridge in 2014, but will not have to serve out this sentence.

Source: The Moscow Times