On Monday, he and his partner Oksana Shalygina set fire to the doors of the bank as part of a performance against the capitalist system. Petr Pavlensky was taken to a psychiatric unit.
Photo: Sergei Savostyanov
He was then placed in pretrial detention and charged with damaging property after setting fire to the doors of the Banque de France building. Petr Pavlensky was granted asylum in France earlier this year. Now he and his partner Oksana Shalygina have been charged, the New York Times reports.
Petr Pavlensky in front of the burning doors of the FSB headquarters, 2015. Photo: Nigina Beroeva
The performance went viral, and the artist’s photos standing in front of the blazing doors circulated on social media. Visually, the pictures are a reference to Pavlensky’s performance in November 2015: he set the doors of the FSB building on fire protesting against political repression in Russia.
Oksana Shalygina and Petr Pavlensky. Photo: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images
This is the first time the artist has appeared in headlines since he received asylum earlier this year. In 2016, Oksana Shalygina and Petr Pavlensky left Russia after being accused of sexual assault. The couple denies the accusations and claims they are politically motivated. If they had been found guilty, they could have been jailed for up to 10 years.
In recent years, Petr Pavlensky became known for his dangerous performances, including those involving self-harm: Petr sewed his mouth shut when Pussy Riot members were jailed in 2012 and nailed his scrotum to Red Square in protest against the Russian police in 2013.
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