Political Actions

For many years, our work was rooted in activist art – or “actionism,” as it is known in Russia.

In 2011, we took part in an action with the Voina group. Later that year, the feminist collective Pussy Riot was formed, and we were involved from the very beginning. We filmed the group’s political actions and edited the videos through which these actions reached their audience.

Filming and editing political actions is a distinct form of audiovisual practice. It requires a combination of skills rarely found in conventional filmmaking, activism, or journalism. Every action unfolds under extreme and unpredictable conditions: it may end in physical violence, arrest, imprisonment, or nothing at all. Yet the filming cannot simply document whatever happens. It has to follow a plan, anticipate the logic of the edit, and remain consistent with the group’s political and artistic ideas.

In this practice, the camera is not merely an observer, and the video is not simply a record of an event that has already taken place. The physical action happens at a particular moment, in front of a limited number of people. Through filming and editing, it acquires its public form and reaches its audience. The resulting video becomes inseparable from the action itself – not just its documentation, but part of the work.

This practice demands much more than professional skill. It consumes a lot of time, physical and mental energy, and eventually becomes a way of life. In the works that emerge from it, politics and art become inseparable.