Pussy Riot’s performances can either be called dissident art or political action that engages art forms. Either way, our performances are a kind of civic activity amidst the repressions of a corporate political system that directs its power against basic human rights and civil and political liberties. – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
Does art have the power to generate social and political change? It’s a question that has been discussed endlessly over the centuries, but seems especially timely in the past few years. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe exists because of an act of protest in 1947. Join us as we explore the role of the artist in changing the world.
Working in collaboration with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the team at Civil Disobedience was delighted to present three high level public debates in August 2018, as part of the Fringe Central programme of events for those taking part in the largest festival on the planet.
Disobey: Art as Activism in a Time of Turmoil
We were thrilled that Pussy Riot agreed to deliver the provocation for this event, and can’t think of anyone more appropriate to do so.
If you’ve been living under a rock, Pussy Riot is a punk artists collective hailing from Russia. In 2012, they gained international notoriety when three members we’re arrested and imprisoned for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, after performing inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Their imprisonment caused a global outcry with Amnesty International designating the women prisoners of conscience.
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