The Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art was ordered shut by Covidcrats in 2020 and allowed to reopen in February 2021. Just a couple of months later, the museum closed for a renovation that was supposed to be complete in 2024 but, according to the lady who sold me a ticket to the temporary exhibit space in a nearby underground mall, is now on track to be finished in 2028.
What’s in the temporary space? “Velvet Terrorism,” an exhibit on the decade-long protest by Pussy Riot against Vladimir Putin and Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
From the brochure:
The first couple of rooms:
What was one of the punishments that a Pussy Riot member suffered? She was unbanked, exactly as the Canadian truckers who protested forced Covid-19 vaccination were unbanked by Justin Trudeau using “emergency powers” (NYT). (Separately, I met a Canadian who had gingerly approached some of the truckers at the time. “They were the nicest and most peaceful people you ever met,” he said. “I was afraid to stay too long, though, because I didn’t want to become a target myself.”)
Pussy Riot’s war under the sacred Rainbow Flag was covered:
(It is unclear to me how Putin can be considered responsible for “killings and kidnappings of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer people in Chechnya“. Russia has had tremendous difficulty in its attempts to control what happens in Chechnya, resulting in at least two full-scale wars.)
The public were invited to write down and post their thoughts in response to the exhibition. Most seemed to have been written by Anglophones. Almost nobody seemed to be thinking about Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, the lives of 2SLGBTQQIA+ Russians, or any of the other issues raised by Pussy Riot. Here are some of the notes that were off the main topic:
What were a plurality of the signs about? Here’s a sampling:
Although the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”), which is the elected and overwhelmingly popular government of the Palestinians, is not famous for celebrating Rainbow Flagism, there was the inevitable…
If Al-Shifa Hospital gets fixed up, the Montreal museum visitors are imagining gender affirming surgeries happening there:
Those who identify as feminists also want to see a corner of the world ruled by the guys who raped, maimed, and murdered women on October 7 (nearly all women who were born long after the events of 1948 that is the root of Arab grievance, so it is unclear how they can be blamed for the Nakba):
Ironically, after viewing an art show about criticism of Vladimir Putin, patrons were motivated to trumpet their alignment with Vladimir Putin’s position regarding Hamas (it is unclear that Putin supports “river to the sea liberation” (i.e., the elimination of Israel) but he is more supportive of Hamas than the typical national leader in Europe or North America).
Claim was made that in 2017, 411 people ware arrested for social media posts in Russia, but in UK 3300 people were arrested for social media posts.
In this blog above claim is semi-debunked. It seems that it is 411 criminal charges against 3300 arrests (but 1696 charges, not necessarily criminal).
Considering that Russia is not a paragon of a freedom loving state, it does not look good for UK.
Pussy Riot’s members were arrested and charged for their performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012 (singing obscenity-laced song called Punk Prayer).
On the other hand in UK people are arrested for silently praying in front of abortion clinics.
Link for above
Pussy Riot is a forced meme. They went to long, silly lengths to antagonise Russia, and then cried foul to the international community when it finally noticed them. Don’t get tricked into thinking Pussy Riot is a ‘band’ in the same way The Beatles were: They’re no so much musicians as a rotating roster of malcontents. Who puts up all the money for them?
The feminist koolaid created a lot of confirmed bachelor blog commenters.
There were other battles in the Arab-Israeli war in the past, the most recent occurring probably less than 10 years ago. I don’t remember seeing such a large support for the Gazans in the past by native Westerners. How would you explain it, what has changed in the past 10 years? Can it be explained only by the augmented level of violence and destruction? I think not.
One could claim that the battle going on now is unbalanced, Israel having a modern army while Hamas allegedly are the underdog, so people sympathize with the underdog. (Though it is arguable if they are really so weak and helpless as claimed or deserving of sympathy. So I would discard the sympathy-for-the-underdog hypothesis.) But the Afghanistan war in its 2011 phase was also extremely unbalanced and nobody sympathised with the Taliban in the West then. There is still no positive press for the Taliban in the West.
Adso: Maybe it is the larger percentage of Muslims living in Western Europe and the US? An Islamically covered woman was a rare sight 10-20 years ago in what used to be “Western” cities. In Montreal, though, I saw one every few minutes when downtown. Cambridge, Massachusetts also changed in the last 10-20 years. A woman in a hijab or burka was once exotic, but now is a typical sight.
The support for Gazans among Muslims living in the West does not suprise me. My impression is that the support increased significantly among “native” Westerners, especially the young ones, the anti-fascist, anti-racism, anti-colonialism crowd. It is the growth in this and of this population segment that puzzles me. What drives them to side with Gazans/Muslims?
Adso: Sorry for not being clear. I was thinking that having a high percentage of visibly Muslim neighbors would motivate the righteous (young/atheist) to adapt their beliefs. In Europe and in some US states, Islam is the dominant traditional religion (as measured by people who actually practice religion and how much time/effort they put into it) (maybe Rainbow Flagism is #1 if we broaden to non-traditional religion as well). If it is easy enough, why not try to respect others’ religious beliefs, including the belief that it is necessary to wage jihad until Palestine is liberated?
I don’t know why you subject yourself to such experiences Philip! That’s the worst kind of “art”. You are a better man than me.
Re Putin and Chechnya, the current Chechnya regime is fully endorsed and is endorsing Putin. It’s thus easy to call out Putin, but as you say, he has such limited control there as he’s been taking any allies he can get for a while.
RU conspiracy theorists have even put Chechnya’s leader as a favourite to succeed Putin. He has a strong powerbase.
As a Russian I can’t express just how annoying pussy riot is. Even most anti-Putin Russians regard them as grifters who don’t do anything useful except from selling merchandise to #Resistance American liberals.