lowl idd
A Russian wacko artist named Oleg Mavromati has started an online “art performance” in which he streams live video of himself strapped to an electric chair and lets online voters decide whether he gets electrocuted or not. His show will be live each day between Nov 7th and Nov 14th 2010, from 7pm to 11pm, Sofia time.
Why is he doing it?
Mavromati is currently prosecuted under law 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for “inciting religious and national animosity” for a scene from a film, which he was shooting 10 years ago. The action took place at the yard of the Institute of Cultural Studies, Moscow. This scene featured a performance art piece called “Do not Believe Your Eyes,” created by the character in the film, which involved his crucifixion. This crucifixion was wrongly interpreted by certain fundamentalist Orthodox Christian circles as blasphemous and offensive to Christians. Since the late nineties, these particular religious circles prosecute artists and cultural producers under the law 282, in which defendants can receive a sentence from 3 to 5 years in prison. These prosecutions are result of particular moods against contemporary art in Russia, and created increasing censorship, violation of the freedom of speech and expression of Russian artists.
The on-line performance Ally / Foe gives an opportunity for the participants to vote for or against the justification of artist Oleg Mavromati.
tl;dr: he performed a (real) public crucifixion that was considered offensive by Christian groups and this electrocution thing is like a poll in which he lets people decide if the crucifixion was a justified work of art or not.
I fail to see how this guy is an artist or a producer of any kind of culture, but maybe that’s just me. A public crucifixion is an act of madness, not art. And letting random internet people electrocute him is also an act of madness, unless he’s clueless about the internet, in which case he’s just incredibly stupid.
Anyway, if you want to electrocute this guy (or vote against it), head on to his site, svoichuzoi.org.
