While sitting naked on the stone pavement in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum on the Red Square in Moscow, he had hammered a large nail through his scrotum, affixing it to the stone pavement, on November 10, 2013. Later on October 19, 2014, he cut off one of his earlobes with a chef’s knife while sitting naked on the roof of the infamous Serbsky Centre to protest against political abuse of Psychiatry in Russia. The 35-year-old Petr Andreevich Pavlensky is a publisher-turned-political activist who has created quite a lot of troubles for the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Although Pavlensky started his career as publisher of the journal ‘Political Propaganda‘, he is famous for his controversial political performance art that he calls Actions. Pavlensky’s work often involves nudity and self-mutilation, as he explicitly denounces the “Mechanics of Power“, forcing authorities to take part in his artistic actions by staging them in areas under heavy police surveillance. He explains that “the criminal case becomes one of the layers of the artwork” and the government is “(drawn) into the process of making art“!

Pyotr Pavlensky

Well, such a person has triggered a controversy in Paris ahead of the local Municipal Election. This time, his weapon is Political Porn Platform! Two years after his arrival in the French Capital, Pavlensky declared that he would target mayoral candidate Benjamin Griveaux, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! Party. The Russian activist has already leaked Griveaux’s alleged involvement in a sex scandal, thus, prompting the latter to pull out of the race.

Benjamin Griveaux

Pavlensky released a sex tape (recorded a couple of years back) online, showing a man masturbating, coupled with racy text messages sent to a woman (thought to be Pavlensky’s partner). Griveaux, a married father of three, is the first person in France to abruptly call off his mayoral campaign, as the French politicians attempted to brush off sex scandals as private matters in the past. Meanwhile, the Paris Police detained both Pavlensky and his French fiancée Alexandra de Taddeo (29) last week for interrogating them! The Police are also verifying the video that has triggered a sensation in the Western European country.

Alexandra de Taddeo

Before being arrested, the Russian activist said: “Griveaux is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But he is doing the opposite.” Griveaux’s lawyer, Richard Malka, hit back strongly, accusing the pseudo artist of giving morality lessons that were uncalled for. Under French law, the so-called revenge porn or the publishing of pornographic material without a person’s consent is punishable by up to two years in prison and a EUR 60,000 fine. Meanwhile, Agnes Buzyn, the Health Minister of France, has confirmed that she would run in Griveaux’s place, as the people of Paris would elect their mayor later in March. “I’m going for it with the aim of winning,” stressed Buzyn.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das